I’m Back

Last year I made an effort to blog once a week, which for me was a lofty goal. This year I haven’t blogged once. Why? Church.

Last Fall we realized that meeting in the Old Church at McMenamins was not going to work long term. Our time there was great! It was fun to bring church back to a church. It was cool worshiping in a place once used for worship, but now used for football games, whiskey tasting, and concerts. It was great having people visit on Sundays that simply wanted to see what church was like in the Old Church. And, during our time at the Old Church, families were added to our congregation. Plus, families grew.

Not long after we started meeting at the Old Church, the young couples in our church started having babies. This was great, but left us with a dilemma. The Old Church is a single sanctuary and McMenamins had no other rooms available on Sunday mornings. We tried desperately to come up with a solution for a nursery, but nothing was going to work long-term. So, we started to look for a place to move.

In February we started gathering at Lowrie Primary School. Moving a church is not easy. Let me restate, moving a church in a way that continues the forward movement of that church is not easy (Have you ever tried to change the address of something on the internet? There are like a million different websites!). The move took the majority of our time and effort for about three months. We have now been at Lowrie for a little over four months and it is turning out to be a good situation. We love being apart of the Villebois community. The school is beautiful. We have plenty of space for babies. We have lots of room for growth, meaning this can be our final location before we build on our property.

It took us about a month to settle in to our new home at Lowrie Primary School. Then, we realized, Easter was almost upon us. As you are aware, Easter is a big deal for a church. We put a lot of effort into making the holiday that defines our faith a special experience for our church and those who visit it. Because of the move, Easter snuck up on us like a lighting storm in Idaho. The months of March and April were devoted to preparing for the celebration of Holy Week.

While we didn’t have as much time to prepare was normal, the week turned out to be pretty great. We had our very first Good Friday service since I have been at the church. That might sound crazy, but we just haven’t had space to do it in the past (another benefit of being at Lowrie is the ability to get affordable space more frequently). The Good Friday service was awesome, helping those who attended focus on Jesus during Easter weekend instead of all the other stuff (family dinners, egg hunts, outfits, etc.) On the Saturday of Easter weekend we ran our second annual Easter egg hunt. The weather was stunningly terrible, but the event was a major success. There were lots of families and kids had a ton of fun. Thankfully, this year, we added a variety of carnival games and food to the event. They were under cover, which meant that the weather couldn’t dampen the fun. The following day, Easter, was awesome. We had a great service where Jesus was celebrated and people raised their hands when asked if they wanted to become Christians! The service was followed by a brunch catered by Wilsonvillle’s own, Lamb’s Thriftway. All in all the weekend was fantastic!

Coinciding with our move and preparations for Easter has been a planning process for our future. The goal of this was not to radically altar our current activity or vision, but rather to examine what we are currently doing and make improvements.We think that the process has lead to some good discoveries that will help us in our continuing effort to be a church that is obedient to the teachings of Scripture and fulfills the mission of Jesus. I am genuinely excited to share what has come out of this planning process with our entire congregation – this will happen at our annual meeting next month.

As you might be able to tell, the point of this post is to make a big excuse for not blogging and to update  you about what has been going on at Creekside Bible Church. Moving, Easter, and planning have taken a majority of my time and energy. Blogging has taken a backseat. As of today, I’m back! I have been reading on church and have many thoughts to share over the next several weeks.

Oh by the way, if you have been missing my thoughts on church, I have good news for you. I just finished a sermon series called 7 Churches that I think you will find informative and beneficial. It has been one of my favorite series of sermons to preach…ever. If you are part of a church, give it a listen.

Now you have my excuse and an update. Thanks for reading!