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.
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