Journey Together

We are continuing to talk about our church mission, our core values and some characteristics that we desire to be true at Silver Creek Family Church. We had a leadership retreat last year and over those days we talked about who we are as a church, what impact we see that we have on our surrounding community and what we feel God is calling us specifically to do as a church in the short term and long term.

We talked about the fact that it is critical that we are light in our community and that we are intentional about living out ministry in an engaging and authentic way. We discussed how our surrounding neighbors would respond if Silver Creek Family Church ceased to exist. What is the impact that we have and how are we being good stewards of all of the resources that God has provided.

Last week we talked about your stories and we have received a few and we still want to hear more. We want to know how the people, that are a part of this church family, have impacted your lives. We want to hear about ways that you have been challenged in living out our core values and how your perspectives of church or community may have been changed. We want to hear why you call Silver Creek your home. Click here and take a moment to tell us your story.

We discussed how our Core Values are a critical in helping us to understand the mission of the church. We described a natural process that individuals and the church encounter as they take these core principals and apply them to their lives. INVITE was the first step, people need to know they are welcome and wanted. They need to see that we have something they are looking for and many times that is realized when they come in contact with each of you. They see that you have something they might be looking for, they see that you are different from much of the world and they want to understand the hope that you have and where it comes from.

The second step is WORSHIP. Many might see worship as something you do during the music portion of our Sunday mornings but what we are talking about is living a life of worship. This entails allowing God into every area of our lives. It is acknowledging our need for God and his desire to be in relationship with us. It is choosing to honor God in all that we say and do. We do consider our Sunday morning experience an act of corporate worship. It is an opportunity to come together as a family, honor God, thank him for his unconditional love and experience time together with people that are walking along side of us on this journey.

Worship is also lived out in our daily lives. It is evident in the way we interact with a co-worker that is ungracious; it is seen in the ways we choose to interact with our kids on a daily basis, it is seen in the ways that we treat those that are in need. When we reach out to one of God’s children and love them in a real and tangible way, we are worshipping God, we are honoring Him and his desires for our life and we are loving his people. Worship doesn’t just happen on a Sunday morning, it happens in every moment and every decision of every day.

The third core value in the process is CONNECT. We feel that once a person is invited to Silver Creek Family and then is challenged to incorporate WORSHIP into their lives then they will be looking for connections to people. This step is critical to the ongoing development, accountability and growth of every believer. We are meant to be in community with one another and we are meant to have deep relationship with each other. Connect is accomplished through many avenues. We connect people through playing together. When healthy relationships develop, people feel less alone, are more likely to make wise decisions for their lives and new perspectives are realized. We start to see God’s characteristics lived out in those around us and we desire those to be true in our own lives.

We also offer a number of different CONNECT groups. There are all male, all female and couples groups that meet weekly. We feel that these are critically important to developing firm relationships within the greater community. It is a time to check in on each other mid week and encourage each other towards pursuing God’s best for our lives. Some groups are more in depth Bible Studies and some are more casual accountability groups. All are needed and critical to the growth of the church.

We are currently looking for more people willing to start up a group. This consists of providing a steady location and being open to adding new individuals as the need arises. If you think you would be interested in serving in this way, please send Brent or Elizabeth an email and we would be happy to talk to you about getting a connect group started.

If you can’t tell, you should know that we are excited about these Core Values. We don’t just put them on our website, talk about them in sermons and then let them drop. They are at the very core of who we are and what we are called to be. We have two more core values to cover in the weeks ahead but we challenge you to be thinking about WORSHIP and CONNECT this week. God has much he want to accomplish through you and we are praying that you are open to what those opportunities are going to be!

Where we are heading

We’ve been taking a little time out during our services to look at who we are as a church and where we are going. We looked at our history, we looked at the mission Jesus called not only this church to but the world wide church, which we are certainly a part of. We really want you to hear the story of Silver Creek, which each of you are clearly a part of. Your stories are what make our collective story possible. Our request was that you send us your stories. We still want to hear what God has been doing in your life and where Silver Creek might be a part of that. Even if you think we know it, please take a moment and send us a quick email. Your stories are essential, we will beg but we’re hoping you don’t make us.

This morning we want to begin to narrow our focus a bit around the mission that we talked about last week. The mission being to help people transform their lives to become more and more like Jesus. The Bible describes this as becoming a disciple. Becoming a learner of all that Jesus is and does and then allowing choices and actions to be transformed into the image of Jesus.

The Bible is packed full of descriptions, examples and directions for what a disciple looks like. We believe that Jesus narrowed it down into five key ideas, or major areas that guide us both as individuals and as a church. These five areas give us the clearest understanding for how we are to measure, gauge and guide all that we do as a church. We’ve labeled or identified these five ideas as our core values. Our look at the core values will be brief in these short talks. You can get a more in depth description by listening to our recent sermon series WHY, which you can find on our web site.

Here’s what is beautiful about our core values. We didn’t create them. We didn’t dream them up. They are laid out for us in scripture. What’s very convenient is that the core values give direction to transformed disciples of Jesus, and at the same time they give us direction, focus and guidance as a church. That means that what we are trying to accomplish as a church, is what also needs to be accomplished in our individual lives. There’s no awkward tension or battle to fight, there is no conflict surrounding something that is great for an individuals because it is also great for the church as a whole. We want the five core values to be lived out and evident in the lives of people at Silver Creek and in Silver Creek.

Our five core values are Invite, Worship, Connect, Serve and Train.

From our perspective and planning there is a natural progression or process that might occur in individuals as the core values impact their lives. We are going to walk you through that process as we explain these Core Values over the next couple of weeks. It all begins with Invite. An individual receives an invitation to begin a relationship with Jesus that will transform every part of their life. The invitation that an individual receives is most often from someone else that has already started to walk through life with Jesus. It’s not the job or responsibility of those that do the inviting to make a person receive or accept the invitation but rather to simply invite people to what we discovered to be true in our lives.

As a church we want to provide multiple avenues and opportunities for you to invite people you know to events and programs that will directly Invite people to know Jesus or help break down barriers that might prevent someone from receiving the invitation. When we bring in Taproot Theater, our students go to Wild Waves or we put on a Trunk or Treat combined with a Chili cook-off. Our goal is to create a non-threatening environment for you to invite people where they can discover that church isn’t a dangerous place, it’s not a boring place, it’s not a place that requires them to change, just in order to be here. We want to be about transforming the way people view church and this is a good place for them to be. We want to create a culture that will allow people to be open to what the church might have to say about life.

That in times of need or when people are spiritually questioning, they will consider Silver Creek a safe place to find answers. We also provide invite events that are exciting, fun and engaging where Jesus will be clearly presented. The best two examples of that are KidFest and our Easter Egg Hunt both are combined with FUSiON creating incredible mornings with lots of ways and reasons to invite people to attend. At FUSiON a life virtue, that was lived out and demonstrated by Jesus, is presented in multiple ways. There aren’t events or activities that we create or provide where someone new isn’t welcome. People can step into Silver Creek in really any thing we do.

We do however want to be strategic and intentional with events, activities and programs that we provide. We want to create the best chance for positive responses when you bring a friend to an Invite Event. If every time we announce an event, we say, “Don’t forget to invite a friend”, it becomes background noise and you’ll miss it and tune us out. However, because we will only encourage you to invite friends, neighbors and family when we’ve intentionally designed an Invite Event, you can know that when we offer an Invite opportunity that “it’s go time”. This is it. This is where we step up, find some courage and invite that person that we’ve been praying for.

As individuals we each should be looking for opportunities and ways to invite people to discover what we’ve found to be true in Jesus. As a church we want to be providing ways to help that process and creating natural entry and starting points for the people you invite.

Shoot For The Moon

Last week we shared with you that over the next weeks we will share with you who Silver Creek Family Church is. It will be a time that we talk about where we are going as a church, what God is calling us specifically to be in our community and characteristics that we desire to be true about Silver Creek. Last week, we gave a real quick look at the history of this church, which included the merger of two churches about two years ago to establish what we are today.

Back in 1961, on May the 25th, President John F Kennedy stood before congress with an urgent request for more money to fund a project he felt was of great importance. In that speech he made the following incredible statement and challenge to NASA and America. "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth."

Over the next eight years NASA took that as their primary mission. Understanding Kennedy’s instructions to mean, with every resource available, in every test that is made, with each experiment, rocket, man hour & conversation, direct them ultimately toward accomplishing that task. That mission of landing a man on the moon and bringing them safely back to earth.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11, lunar module Eagle touched down in the Sea of Tranquility, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard. The men would exit the lunar module and walk on the surface of the moon. Four days later they would return safely to earth, completing the mission that had been so boldly laid out by President Kennedy.

The church, being every believer of Jesus Christ not just this local church, has also received a very direct mission statement from our leader Jesus Christ. In Matthew 28:19-20 this is the urgent request Jesus felt was of great importance.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

The mission of the church is to make disciples of people regardless of boundaries, encourage them to state publically what Jesus has done in their lives through the act of baptism and then teach them what it looks like to live as a disciple of Jesus. The most confusing word in those verses is disciple and it’s what clarifies for us, what our task is to be about. A disciple is by definition a learner or pupil of a specific teacher, with the aim of becoming like that teacher in every way. In this case the teacher being Jesus himself.

Essentially we are charged with task of helping people decide to and then begin to live life in such a way as to learn how Jesus would live life. That people would then as a pupil of Jesus, not only learn how He lived but strive and become more and more able to live as He would.

The way we look at that, is that Jesus has called us to be in the business of life transformation. Because when living life our own way, each of us will ultimately choose to live outside or differently than the way that Jesus lived, demonstrated and called us to live. For any person to go from living for themselves to recognizing the need to become a disciple, learner and pupil of Jesus means that their life has been transformed. They’ve been made new. What they once were is no longer. Life now has different meaning, different values, different goals, different priorities because a life is transformed when it commits to being a disciple of Jesus and striving to become like Him in every way.

We do tons of events, activities, planning meeting, programs, ministries, connect groups, service opportunities and times together just like this morning. At the root, if you pulled back everything around each of everything we do, you’d find we this mission that Jesus Christ called us to. We are sold out, 100% committed to life transformation, that comes when someone is a disciple of Jesus Christ. That and that alone is sole purpose and reason that this church and any church that we consider brothers and sisters in Christ exists. Everything else, from passing out food at the food bank, to having inflatables for kids to bounce on, to bible studies, to having board game night last Friday is all in an effort to accomplish this one task.

That was the mission our leader gave us. That’s what he called us to do. That is what every resource we have available to us will be used to accomplish. Make disciples, see lives transformed, that is what Silver Creek exists to bring about in the lives those it touches.

We hope you believe in this mission and join with us in making it happen at Silver Creek,

Brent Hudson & Elizabeth Volz

A slice of history...

As a part of our Sunday morning worship services Brent and I want to take a few minutes to make sure that you are aware of what Silver Creek is all about, why we do what we do and where we believe God is going to be taking us in the next months and years.

We will be sharing with you what we believe to be the mission of the church, revisit our core values, unveil God's vision for the church, tell you about how God is working in peoples lives and walk you through 10 characteristics we desire to be true about Silver Creek. All of this is going to broken down into a whole bunch of short 5 minute conversations, videos and interviews. We are truly excited about what these short conversations could mean in the life of our church.

We have an incredible history and story as a church. Approximately 40 years ago, two very small churches merged together and began to meet at this property. Over the next years the church saw some amazing days of growth and impact on our community. We started out with the sanctuary and then slowly added the office and lobby areas. Then in the 80’s we added the gym building. There was a tremendous heart for the community as the Food Bank was started out of one of our classrooms and coat closets, eventually becoming an organization that is serving over 60,000 individuals and 15,000 households every year.

There were certainly some rough times in those years, times where vision was lost, direction was uncertain and the passion, that initially existed, was gone. About three years ago the church was in one of those times. But through some brave choices by leadership, changes began to happen and a new attitude and desire took shape. Many of you were here during those days of change.

At the same time there was another story happening in town. A group of a committed individuals that felt they had been called to do ministry in a new way, made the daring decision to start a new church, named Seattle Family Church. With a deep passion to develop a place where people could feel welcomed and at home, in spite of bouncing around to a couple locations, they established a strongly connected community. This was a group with an incredible amount of talent and skills for a church plant. In that they developed a ministry program aimed at bringing the entire family together for one combined worship experience.

One of the things that was most wearing on the group, also established a strong sense of unity. Never really having a building or location to call their own, they would set up and tear down every week in order to have service together. Some Sundays the majority of those in the crowd consisted of the same people that set up for the service, played or sang in the band and helped to tear down. There was a strong bond with this church, that was contagious and others found inviting. This was a dedicated church, ready to do and go wherever God called them.

A little over two years ago the leadership of these two churches, Seattle Family Church and Silver Creek Community Church were introduced to each other. For a couple months we dated, then we had a short engagement, then two years ago, from last month, we made it official and merged. There was the honey moon phase, with lots of excitement and energy as we learned about each other. We’ve experienced some bumps along the way as we’ve uncovered how each other did ministry, handled conflict and developed relationships. There have been those that have determined that Silver Creek Family isn’t right for them but when you look at where we are at today, many signs point to us being as healthy as we’ve ever been.

• Our Sunday morning attendance has become steady and over the past months, has started to climb.
• We’ve developed an intern program which involves four interns who were all a part of Silver Creek, prior to this program. Our investment in their lives has led them to jump into ministry and pour their hearts in the lives of others.
• The level of volunteerism at Silver Creek is unbelievable. Over 30 people help in Children's Ministries, another 12 to Student Ministry, 30 people are a part of our band and singers, another 10 help with tech, we’ve got a crew that sets out the coffee each week, checks in kids/families and still more that greet people at the front door. When we host our huge community invite evens, it takes about 150 people to pull the whole thing off. There’s connect group leaders, board members, building maintenance team and many others we don’t have time to mention.
• We rallied to the cause of needy children around the globe by sponsoring 38 children through Compassion International. Coming very close to hitting our goal of sponsoring as many children as we see on a Sunday morning.
• A ladies connect group launched this past fall, had 30 ladies consistently attending, growing in understanding and relationships.
• Your church board is strong, united and committed to the future of Silver Creek and they believe that God is doing something special here.
• More than all of these, God is using Silver Creek to bring about life change and transformation in individuals. That is what truly matters. Numbers are great way to measure health, huge events are invigorating but ultimately we are about the individual stories of people in their relationship with God.

We are going to be sharing some of those stories with you in the weeks to come, which reveal our true health and demonstrate that our vision and mission are on target. We’ve heard some of your stories but we want to know each of them. If God has been doing something in your life, please let us know. Let us buy you a cup of coffee and you can share it there, send us an email or let’s visit on the phone. We wanted to share with you the story of Silver Creek and what’s critical to us is hearing your story. Don’t hesitate to share it with us.