Life is fragile...

I am in the middle of treatments for three accidents that I was in last year. It was a long year and my recovery, from accident related injuries, has been slow. The hours I have spent working with insurance, getting my car repaired, going in for back and neck treatments, x-rays, an MRI...it has been a bit ridiculous. My first two accidents were pretty bad, in the split of an eye, I was stopped. My busy day had been redirected towards a new goal...getting myself back in a car that functioned and making sure I got my body back to "normal". In that one flash, all of my previous plans were side lined.

Last week, an individual, who attends Silver Creek Family, was in a serious accident immediately after church. Both cars were totaled and both parties had aid units who took them to Steven's Emergency. A Sunday afternoon, with the intent to do yard work, ended up in the ER. My friend is doing ok, she is recovering and hopes to be back up and running soon but in that moment, our frailty and vulnerability is very real. Life is short and we are so very fragile.

Last week, Michael and I took the boys to the San Juan Islands. We had days of sitting on the boat, cruising the beautiful waters and inlets, watching for wildlife, reading books, enjoying the beautiful weather...it was wonderful, restful and necessary. Our busy life, yet again, was put aside for just a week and we had the chance to connect as a family. Our trip into the San Juans is one of the highlights of our year! We love it up there and we look forward to the break that we get to enjoy.

All of our lives are crazy! We have so much to do, so much to accomplish, so many dreams and aspirations. All of these things are important and worthy of our effort but through car accidents and vacations and the ups and downs of life I am constantly reminded that we are fragile, we need to take deep breaths every day, we need to take time to tell our kids that we love them, we need to force ourselves to stop and admire God's beautiful creations and realize that our time here is short and He wants us to enjoy all that life brings.

I hope you are taking time for your family and friends and that you are finding time to slow down the pace and take advantage of our short but amazing summer. Plan to make time for your church family as well. Summers create a lot of inconsistency in attendance and we still have a full crew of volunteers to spend time with you and your kids.

Live every day to the fullest and don't ever forget that our lives are a gift from God and shouldn't be wasted!

God Bless You! I hope to see you at Family Camp!
Elizabeth Volz

Fatal Traditions

Someone said that churches that celebrate their past more than dream about their future are doomed to fail. I believe that. It's not that we shouldn't be proud of our past achievements and successes. It just that the successes of the past must be built on and not just celebrated. Organizations that live in the past don't spend sufficient time dreaming and planning for a productive future. If we look across the American church scene I think we see the majority of churches bogged down with trying to maintain traditions that at one time were very productive but have become out of date and disconnected with the culture the church is meant to transform. There are ministries that really hit the mark in by gone days that just don't get the job done today.

Without listing all of the ministries and strategies that I think have failed here let me just say what I believe about a thriving growing, effective organization. Every organization or group, whether a church, a business, or a family is made up of a series of systems. A family produces in it's members what the family systems are designed to produce. A family consisting of dysfunctional relationships will produce people who are dysfunctional. The way to change what the family produces is to change the systems and expectation. In the same way, a church produces what the organizational systems are designed to produce. If the ministries are designed to only take care of the attenders then that church will not be a welcoming place for new people let alone effectively reaching out to people who are not there yet.

One of the things I love about Silver Creek Family Church is the dedication of the leadership team to always evaluate the effectiveness and productivity of our ministries. We ask the question, are we reaching our goal? We critique and then adjust almost everything we do. We ask the question, where can we improve even if only by 1%.

This year in our soccer camp we took a giant leap forward. The last three years we continued to lay a good foundation to build upon. This year we reaped some of the rewards of all that hard work.

This fall you are going to see some major changes in the way we present the FUSiON production. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag but this next year is going to be our best so far. Elizabeth and her team of volunteers have some great ideas for set design as well reworking the feel of the room. You are going to love it! Why do we do that? Because we ask the question, can we do it better? We are applying that attitude in every area of our church. It may be a little uncomfortable at times because change is almost never comfortable. The reality is God has called us to make a difference in the neighborhood where He has placed us and to do that we have to keep learning and responding to the needs we encounter.

I just got the year end report for our food bank. Wow! Over 71,000 people served this year! Over 23,000 infants! Over 7,000 seniors. Each of the past few years the food bank has grown in terms of numbers of people served. Lynnwood is a better place because of the 60 plus volunteers that work the food bank each week.

I hope you can sense my enthusiasm for our future. I would encourage you to find a place to serve if you are not already. If your serving, ask yourself, can I do better?

Last of all I want to thank everyone who is working so hard to make SCFC such a special place.

See you in Church!

Great Days Ahead!

Math Explains It All

We are all aware that life moves by very fast, so fast that at times we lose track of what month it is or which things we need to get done. This was brought home to me this morning by the police officer that pulled me over to remind me my tabs expired last month.

I will never be accused of being a math guru or resolve any world crisis' with my ability to figure out complicated equations. However, I think I've figured out mathematically why our lives seem to go by faster the older we get.

Consider this: A family in our church just had a baby last week. Over the next year, that year will equal 100% of the babies entire life to that point. That's a very high percentage of that babies life, essentially it will take his entire life to complete that one year. That one year is all he knows. My youngest son, Colby is 7 years old. This next year will equal 1/7 of his life. 1/7th of your life is still a pretty high percentage of life. For me I'll turn 37 in September, so this next year will equal 1/37th of my life. That one year is getting pretty small in comparison to the rest of my life, no wonder it's going to move quickly. This morning on the Today Show, a lady was honored by Smuckers for turning 114. This next year will be 1/114th of her life, she'll barely blink and find herself again on the Smuckers label, but this time for being 115 years old.

I know what most of you are thinking. Why hasn't Brent pursued a doctorate in mind blowing mathematical concepts? Just wait until I explain how to discover your own "funny ratio." Maybe next time.

This summer, as with each summer around Silver Creek, we want to focus on our Core Value of Connect. When you think about how much faster your life is going each year, as I clearly explained, your time is becoming very precious. If you and I don't become very intentional with how we spend our time, we will miss out on connecting with people.

As I write this, I'm challenged to consider practical ways that I can free up time to connect more with my family, friends and neighbors. One thought is to do the dishes less but I'm not sure Julie is going to buy that. But I'll bet if Julie and I did the dishes together, it would be a great time to connect, the dishes would get done quicker, and I'd get husband points for helping around the house.

For each of us, consider what are some things that aren't really all that important that we can set aside for the summer and invest in spending time with others?

Silver Creek is providing ways for you to Connect, and I hope you're planning to take advantage of them. We've got two more Family Camps coming up, a movie night, a swimming party, several motorcycle rides and two Park It's in August. You can visit our website's event page to get more details on any of those events.

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Brent

Win some - lose some

In professional baseball there are 162 games in the regular season. Every professional club will win at least 50 games and lose 50 games. Champions are made by what they do with the other 62. My observations in watching people over the course of my career is that everyone loses in some area of their life and everyone wins in other areas. The tale of a successful life well lived is in how they treat people. There are some people who are well loved, who have had terrible misfortunes on their journey here on earth. Misfortunes that could make then negative and bitter. The redeeming aspect of their life is that they have stayed sweet in their relationships with people.

I was at the wedding of a friend in Salem a few years ago. The young girl getting married had a mother with a serious case of MS. When she was first diagnosed about 20 years previous to the wedding, her husband of 7 years left her stating that he "hadn't signed up to be a care taker for the rest of his life." This lady, I'll call her "Helen", could have turned very bitter. She would tell you there were moments when she was bitter and angry. Helen told me she made a decision that this was the life she had been given and she was going to live it to the fullest and not let her attitude turn sour. Sitting with Helen and listening to this remarkable lady, I couldn't help but remember the time that Ruthie and I came to the same cross road. Were we going to let Ruthie's illness turn us into people we never wanted to be? Or were we going to attack life and live it the best we could. God has watched over us and blessed us in ways that are beyond what I would have ever expected. Perhaps the greatest blessing is that God gave us two wonderful daughters and two great son-in-laws that love God and each other. When the preacher said, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" and I said, "Her mother and I do". I meant it and stated it with pride that Ruthie and I had done a good job raising a couple of girls and preparing them for life. It is a blessing and a gift to finally have some boys in the house!

The rest of Helen's story... A man walked up who I recognized as the man who walked out on Helen 20 years earlier. He was a broken, bitter man living with his demons. He started crying as his daughter addressed him. She chose to have someone else walk her down the isle and give her away. Helen's grace in dealing with her ex that day displayed a life well lived in the midst of difficult circumstances. I don't know that I have ever seen a better portrait of God than I saw in Helen.

You win some and you lose some, but you chose how you are going to respond. Someone has said, "You can't change your past but you can change your ending." How are you going to finish?

See you in church.

Great Days Ahead!
Steve

ISA - an incredible week

119 campers, 30 coaches, 6 support staff, more soccer balls than anyone can count, lots of laughs, friendships growing, just a bit of rain and several days of sunshine; it’s been a great week here at ISA – International Soccer Academy. God has been so good to us this week, as our coaches have had many opportunities, generated by soccer, to tell kids about God’s love for them. There have been a few minor bumps, bruises, and sprained ankles but to this point no major injuries.

Steve, Elizabeth and I have greatly appreciated your support leading up to these weeks. We know that many of you desire to be at camp and see for yourself what happens at camp but are unable to drop by. In the next couple of days a highlight video and photo slide show will be uploaded to our web site, to give you a glimpse of what we’ve been up to this week.

Tonight (Thursday) is a critical part of the ISA week, as we’ve invited campers and their families to join us at Silver Creek for a celebration dinner. There are over 250 people that RSVP’d for the dinner. In planning ISA this dinner is a key to why we spend so much time and resources for this program. Getting families on our campus, to hear about Christ, to see up close who we are at Silver Creek and what we offer is one of the reasons we believe so much in ISA.

Please be praying for this evening. If you don’t have plans tonight and want to drop by a see all the excitement or would like to help serve meals, greet families or clean up, send me an email and we’ll find you a place.

Look forward to seeing you this weekend at church,

Brent

Meet the Interns...

A year or so ago Brent, Steve and I were discussing the fact that God had brought, to our church, an amazing group of talented, dynamic, creative individuals that were each beginning a journey of finding a place to serve at Silver Creek Family. These 20 somethings were seeking more and more opportunities to plug in, dabble in various (and multiple) areas in ministry, were desiring to impact the direction of Silver Creek and were ultimately wrestling with the question as to whether God might be calling them into full time ministry.

During this same time we have been working towards building our ministry teams, raising up leaders of leaders and developing ministry in all areas. We feel that we have the potential to greatly impact our community and so we wanted to create an environment where people could be trained, coached, mentored and given an opportunity to be involved on a deeper level. We met with Brian Muchmore, the director of Youth For Christ, Metro Area, and he had some great advice in developing an internship program. His experience both inspired and scared us. Ultimately we felt this was an area that God had called us to develop and so we moved forward and diligently starting putting wheels on the program.

I am happy to report that, as of today, we have FIVE amazing interns that have agreed to journey with us on this first step. In exchange for their weekly time, we have offered a room in our intern home (former parsonage). We believe that by living together, working together and being involved in ministry together that we can help to create a spiritually rich and fulfilling opportunity from which our interns can launch into ministry.

We desire to invest in them and coach them towards their calling while still accomplishing our mission at Silver Creek. It is one of our Core Values to SERVE and so we provide opportunities for kids from 4th grade on up to adults to plug in and offer their gifts in all areas of the church. This is just another step towards making that a priority, not only in our church, but in the hearts of individuals that attend Silver Creek. It is an investment that is not just for today but for our future.

Now that you know some of the background, allow me to introduce each of them to you!

Ashley Gingrich
Mid-High Student Ministries Intern

Ashley is a fun, committed, loving and energetic leader. She has had a passion for student ministries and has worked in ministry for many years. She stepped into the role of directing our 5th-8th grade student ministries in 2009 and has been involved with Leadership, Creative Team, FUSiON, Base Camp and Worship. You name it, she has done it! It wasn't until recently that she stepped up her role in Student Ministries and she was brought on as an official intern in May. Ashley coordinates a team of amazing individuals to pour into the lives of students on Wednesday nights and she prepares curriculum for Summit 56 as well a Gen 78 on Sundays. She is also on the lookout for new faces in our 5-8th grades and will be doing contact work in developing relationship with those kids.

Mandy Ingraham
Student Development Intern

Mandy is a wonderful, sensitive, highly driven firecracker. She has worked as a coach for our ISA camp for 5 years and has been involved in some capacity for 10. She has now joined our ISA Leadership Team. She is creative, organized and incredibly capable. Mandy is able to connect with students in an amazing way. She reaches out to those hurting and she knows exactly how to connect with their hearts. Mandy will be working closely with our students, 4-12th grades, that volunteer on a regular basis at Silver Creek. She is overseeing our Asst. Coach team for ISA this year and she will be spending time connecting with kids throughout the year that serve in various roles in the church. She works with kids on Wednesday nights in addition to both Summit 56 and Gen 78 on Sunday mornings. She desires to be a liaison between students and leadership and will help in connecting and plugging new individuals in to ministry.

Paul Charles
ISA Head Coach
Summer Intern

Paul is back in the area for his 10th year with ISA (International Soccer Academy). Paul has just finished his third year at Eastern University and spent his Spring Semester studying at Jerusalem University College. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Silver Creek Family Church during his summer breaks. We have enjoyed throwing Paul into working with the Students and Kids and he also has been able to preach from time to time. Paul will be returning to Eastern University in mid-August but we encourage you to get to know him during his short stint here. He loves to debate and discuss all sorts of biblical issues and he has a real passion for the next generation and connecting them to the heart of God.

Travis Gingrich
General Ministries Intern
Webmaster

Travis is a bright, witty, renaissance man who has a special gift with technology. Travis is a man of many talents. He is intrigued by the challenge of solving problems and he is absolutely committed and driven by opportunities to show excellence. He is generous with his time and resources and is wanting to dabble in many areas of ministry, this is why his title is less than specific. Travis recently launched our new Silver Creek Website and he is constantly looking to improve the way we market and show ourselves to the community. Travis also loves to read and is constantly driving us to look at who we are and what we want to accomplish through the eyes of those outside our church. Travis has started a connect group with some young 20s and has found it to be fulfilling and challenging.

Breanna Hemingway
High School Ministries Student Intern

Our most recent addition to the intern program is Breanna Hemingway. Breanna is passionate, creative, incredibly extroverted and loves life. She has been involved with ministry since she was in high school both as a student and worship leader. She desires to know people at their core and she pursues relationships with everyone. Breanna is rejoining us after being away for a year. She returned to the Lynnwood area in December '09 and has been involved at South Everett Foursquare in both serving the students, Wednesday night homework groups and also recently having the opportunity to preach to their congregation. Breanna has also spent time on the mission field in Ghana working with Child Evangelism Fellowship and is passionate about reaching those that have yet to meet Jesus. We are excited to have Breanna joining us in the beginning of July in working with our High School Ministry. She will be moving into the role of leading the HS team, she will be preparing talks for our students and she will be doing a lot of contact work to build relationships.

I hope that you have spent a little bit of time reading these short paragraphs about these young leaders. They each, individually, are gifted and will be incredible assets to their areas of ministry in which they serve. If you see them in the halls, I encourage you to take the time to get to know them a little bit better. They are around Silver Creek all of the time and we are blessed to have them as a part of our growing community.

Thank you for your support in helping to make this ministry opportunity a success!
See you in church on Sunday!
Elizabeth Volz
Executive Pastor Silver Creek Family Church

Upgrading from Spaghetti

I just left a meeting that involved eight of the eleven home owners on our street and a representative from the City of Lynnwood's Water Department. As home owners on our street, the water meters for all of our houses sit at the top of the street. The water line we are each responsible for runs along the street under our neighbor's yards, until it reaches our house. My water line is close to 300 ft and some neighbors have lines over 600 ft. This is called a spaghetti line water set up. It is a set up, because when there's a leak anywhere along the line, the home owner it belongs to gets to dig up the other neighbor's yard to repair the leak. Our meeting with the city is an attempt to get a water main, operated by the city run down our street, with meters being placed directly in front of our houses.

This is ultimately what all of the home owners desire but according to the city, we are each looking at a bill of $2,000 to $5,000. We've currently got water, it's a pain sometimes when you're the house with the leak, but we've got water. To change it and make things better it's going to take a serious investment, we'll still have water. We just won't have as much water line to potentially have to repair. What's interesting is that not every house on the street has to buy into the new water main system. Once the new system is in, those that have opted in and those who haven't will basically still be getting the same water. The quality will be the same, the cost we pay is the same, the pressure will be basically the same but I tend to think that those who make the investment will have better water.

Here's why I think that. If we consider what Silver Creek offers as "water" being provided to those that consider Silver Creek their church, the "water" available is all the same. Whatever type of "water system" you've used to connect, the "water" is there. What I have discovered is that those that buy in and are invested are still getting the same "water", but it's better "water". When you or I invest in anything, the result or benefit that we experience always seems to improve. The "water" doesn't change, the message that is preached is the same, the worship team plays/sings the same song, the family camp, block party, KidFest or bunko night events are the same, the facility location is the same. But for those that have invested, that have made things happen, that have a deeper passion for the "water", to them their is an upgrade from a spaghetti water system to a water main system.

Summer at Silver Creek has a distinct emphasis on our Core Value of CONNECT. Staff and leadership plan events strategically aimed at helping individuals CONNECT at a greater level than where ever they are currently. Those that know just about everyone at Silver Creek will hopefully know everyone a little better. Those that are relatively new and don't have many connections, will have the opportunity to get to know a few more people. In order for connections to happen, it will take an investment by individuals . The investment may be a few dollars, will certainly include time and a willingness to develop relationships at different levels with other people.

We recognize that summers are busy, so we add lots to our calendar. Not to make summers busier but so that when your schedule doesn't allow you to attend one event, you'll hopefully be able to catch the next opportunity to connect and you won't go all summer without seeing other people from Silver Creek. Let me highlight some of the ways you can CONNECT and invest this summer.

• Join a CONNECT group or plan to join one in September.
• Make sure you get to at least one of our summer Family Camps (July 30-Aug 1 or Sept 3 - 6).
• Be at our Block Party on July 4th, from 5-9pm and listen for ways that you can be a part of making that event a success.
  
• Whenever you're in town, come to the Park It's immediately following Sunday morning services on July 11, Aug 8 and 11. Everyone brings their own lunch and we spend time together at North Lynnwood Neighborhood Park on 44th Ave.
• Bring your family to our movie nights out on the new grass field behind the church, July 2nd and Aug 27th.
• There are also events all summer for 5th - 12th grade students, do what you can to get you kids in those grades to these events. Sign up now and save $5.
  
• Those that enjoy riding motorcycles have several options for group rides as well.

All of these events are listed on our new web site and can be registered for there as we get closer to each particular event. Take a look at Events & Calendar.

I believe that Silver Creek offers tremendous ways to connect relationally and grow spiritually and both will happen at the rate that individuals chose to invest of themselves.

Looks like the sun is coming out this weekend, hope you get a chance to enjoy it,

Brent