Jan 05

New Series: Desperate Days

Bible, Christian Life, Desperate Days (Job) 2012, Northshore Baptist Church, Theological Musings 3 Comments »

What happens when tragedy strikes? What happens when the dark clouds won’t go away? What happens when life doesn’t seem to go as we had planned or hoped? What happens when God seems silent? These are the desperate days… the dark night of the soul. When the desperate days are upon us, one of the best places to go in the Bible is the story of Job. Desperate days and human suffering are a reality. The question for us is, “How will we journey to faith in the midst of the desperate days?” Even if and when God seems silent, He is up to something greater… something transformational… and yes, even in the desperate days.

Join us January 8 – February 19 as we explore some important themes on suffering and faith in the book of Job. This is a great series to invite your friends and family who don’t know Jesus and who might be going through some desperate days of their own. Here are the themes we’ll talk about:

January 8 – When Tragedy Strikes (Job 1-2)

January 15 – Desperation and Depression (Job 3)

January 22 – Good and Bad Counsel (Job 4-28)

January 29 – Glimmers of Truth (Job 32-37)

February 5 – The Silence of God (Selected Passages)

February 12 – The Storm of Sovereignty (Job 38-41)

February 19 – The Journey to Faith (Job 42)

If you’d like to explore the book of Job and the themes of suffering, faith, and the gospel more in-depth, here are some recommended resources:

Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance (Charles Swindoll)

Be Patient: Waiting on God in Difficult Times (Warren Wiersbe)

Disappointment with God (Philip Yancey)

The Gospel According to Job (Mike Mason)

“How Can a Good God Allow Suffering?” (Message from the YouAskedForIt series)

“Suffering: If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?” (Message by Pastor Tim Keller)

Additional Resources for Grief

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Nov 30

Christmas At The Movies

Christmas at the Movies, Northshore Baptist Church No Comments »

The Christmas season is a special season. Watch the movies of Christmas. Even our culture gets that there’s the possibility and even the promise of something more. So how do the movies of Christmas point to something more, something greater, something transcendent? This Christmas, we’re going to the movies. As we watch some clips from our favorite Christmas movies, we’ll discover that they make great bridges to the greatest story and greatest gift of all time—the coming of Jesus Christ. Here are some of the themes we’ll talk about this Christmas Season. Because of copyright laws, we can’t publicize the names of the movies…we’ll just give you some “clues” :)

December 4 – “Experiencing Joy this Christmas” (Movie clip: an over-sized, smiley guy in green tights who thinks he’s from the North Pole)

December 11 – “Surviving Your Family this Christmas” (Movie clip: a big family Christmas predictably turns into a big disaster when Cousin Eddie shows up)

December 18 – “Finding a Place to Belong this Christmas” (Movie clip: A reindeer with a luminescent proboscis and his elf friend who dreams of dental school)

December 24 (Christmas Eve Services at 2, 4, 6 & 11 pm) – “Finding the Perfect Gift this Christmas” (Movie clip: think Red Ryder BB Gun)

December 25 (Christmas Day Service at 10 am) – “Extending the Heart of Christmas” (Movie clip: curmudgeonly old man who changes his tune after he’s visited by some slightly transparent midnight guests)

So invite your friends, family, neighbors or co-workers… grab some popcorn, candy, and coffee… sit back and enjoy the show as it points us to reality of Jesus Christ, God with us.

Invite Your Family and Friends to Our December Events

Click on the links below to fill out the invite form.

Invite to Christmas at the Movies

Invite to Christmas Eve

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Oct 06

Be Ready for God to Use You

Missional Living, Northshore Baptist Church, Stories No Comments »

This is a guest blog post by Tim Burke, Northshore’s Pastor of Outreach & Local Mission

A few months ago I started praying differently. I felt like God was challenging me to open my eyes and heart to the unbelievers who I brush shoulders with every day. On my way home from work one night, I stopped by Subway and the TCBY to pick up a frozen yogurt.  As I was standing in line to pay for my dessert, I noticed a man next to me who was in a parallel line waiting to pay for his sandwich. As I watched him reach into his pocket for his wallet it was apparent he had not brought it with him. Just at that moment I looked at the cashier and said, “Put his sandwich on my card”. The man was speechless. The first words that came out of his mouth were, “Who are you?” That was a perfect open door for me to introduce myself and tell him about my new job as a Pastor at Northshore. The man thanked me and disappeared quickly. A moment later, he returned from his car with a business card. Written on the card was “one free home improvement” from his business. In turn, I gave him my card and invited him to join me sometime for church. He smiled and said he’d like that.

I share this story to encourage you. I also want to help you remember that when we open our hearts to reaching those who don’t know God in our community, He creates wonderful opportunities for us to love them. I don’t think there’s any big secret to loving those closest to us or inviting them to church. However, I have been praying in my devotional time this specific prayer from Colossians 4:3-4, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”

I want to encourage you to pray this way with me. Here’s how you can structure your prayers from Colossians 4:3-4.

God please:

Open a door: provide a natural opportunity for me to share the gospel today.

Open their heart: prepare the hearts of those who don’t know you to be receptive to Jesus.

Open my mouth: give me the words to say and confidence to speak to the lost.

I’d love to hear some of your stories about how God is using you to love those in our community who are far from Him. Send me an email at timb@nsb.org

 

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Sep 07

VERTICAL: New 4-Week Series on Prayer

Northshore Baptist Church, Sermons, Vertical (Prayer) 7 Comments »

“Prayer is God’s invitation to enter His throne room so He can lay His agenda over our hearts.” ~ Henry Blackaby

When I read Blackaby’s quote, here are some questions I ask. Why don’t we accept God’s invitation to enter His “throne room” more? If we do accept His invitation, what do we do when we get there? And what is His agenda that He lays over our hearts? These are some of the questions we’ll attempt answer in our new 4-week series of prayer called “Vertical: Aligning our Hearts with God’s.”

In prayer, our hearts are the most connected to God, the most transformed by God, and the most motivated for the mission of God. As we talk about prayer, our prayer practices must be grounded, shaped, and informed by a biblical perspective on prayer. And the best pattern and model for what our prayer should look like is the prayer Jesus gave us – “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-13). Jesus’ prayer reveals the ultimate purpose and “how to” of prayer. We pray for relationship, for petition (our needs), and for impact. And in the experience, conversation, and process of prayer, our hearts are aligned with God’s. This is what prayer is all about.

Join us Sundays, September 11 – October 2 as we learn how to align our heart with God’s through prayer. Here are the four messages in the series:

September 11 – The Purpose of Prayer

September 18 – The Prayer of Relationship

September 25 – The Prayer of Petition

October 2 – The Prayer of Impact

I look forward to seeing you at Northshore during this important series. And I am expectant about what God will do in and through our lives as our hearts are aligned with His!

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Aug 17

Highlights from Summer Sunday 2011

Northshore Baptist Church 1 Comment »

Over 1,200 people on a beautiful Sunday afternoon

410 lbs of pulled pork

500 hot dogs

240 lbs of potato salad

75 lbs of carrot sticks

Who knows how many cookies (mostly half-baked chocolate chip… thank you!)

+ 17 baptisms for Jesus

___________________________

= ONE amazing celebration of ONE Lord who has formed us into ONE Church and called us to ONE Mission

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Jun 20

GENEROSITY of Treasure

Christian Life, Generosity 2011, Northshore Baptist Church No Comments »

Casey & Anna Huebner’s story of Generosity of Treasure. We showed their story during Northshore’s Generosity series in March. It’s a great transformational story of financial freedom and stewardship.

For more stories of Generosity, click HERE

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Jun 15

Summer Series: PROVERBIA

Northshore Baptist Church, Proverbia, Sermons, Theological Musings 1 Comment »

We live in a confusing and complex world. A world filled with vastly different visions for living life well. A world filled with many false gods. A world filled with many deceptive gospels. And in this confusing and complex world, we are daily presented with choice after choice on how to make the most out of life and satiate the hunger in our hearts.

There have always been choices and decisions to make, relationships to build, work to do, money to earn and spend. So the key question is: “How do we live life well?” This is what wisdom is all about… living life skillfully. PROVERBIA is about discovering where life and wisdom intersect. This summer, we’ll explore some of the most important themes in life from the ancient book of Proverbs. In all of these themes, we want to learn how to live out the gospel with skill… knowing that as we live the way Jesus calls and invites us to, we will live life to the full. Here’s the line-up:

June 19 – The Heart of Wisdom

June 26 – Folly & Pride

July 3 – The Power of Your Words

July 10 – The Wise Worker

July 17 – Choose Friends Wisely

July 24 – The Younger Generation

July 31 – The Home Front

August 7 – Money Matters

August 14 – Summer Sunday at the Farm (One service)

August 21 – Sexual Integrity (Warning: PG-13)

August 28 – Wisdom & Wine

September 4 – Coveting & Contentment

Join us this summer for Proverbia: Where Life & Wisdom Intersect. This will be a great series to invite family & friends.

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Jun 07

Generosity of TOUCH

Generosity 2011, Northshore Baptist Church, Stories No Comments »

The Junior and Senior High Ministry just wrapped up a great year of small groups by having an appreciation dinner.  About 50 of our leaders came out for some Ooba’s Mexican food, a little piñata action, and some sharing of stories from the last year.  Our church has been blessed with some amazing volunteers.  Here were some of the stories and reflections:

  • A funny moment of reflection: When talking about relationships, a lesson discussed how “Below the Chin Touching” was a big No-No.  Well, one 6th grade girl proceeded to ask why touching below the chin is such a bad thing.  She scratched below her chin and couldn’t figure out what was so bad about chins.  Her leader chuckled at where this particular week’s discussion was going.
  • One leader pointed out how over a dozen of our current small group leaders actually grew up in Northshore’s Student Ministry…and now they are leading as adults.  One particular leader has grown up from eating all the coffee sugars and creamers to now discipling other boys.
  • A couple leaders shared how their young boys could not pray at all when the year started. But by the end of the year, they had moved on from just saying “Thanks God for this day,” to more personalized prayers.
  • One leader reflected on the relationship change with his guys, where now the guys call him for advice and help on some pretty deep issues.  It is no longer just a Tuesday night relationship.
  • One mom who is now a high school leader realized the importance of the other voices in the lives of a teenager besides just the parent.  The more positive voices, the better!
  • Another mom shared how this role as a youth leader is so outside of her personality…but her girls are pleading with her to come back next year and be their leader.

To all of our Student Ministry leaders – THANK YOU!

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May 31

Ministry Action Planning, Part 3

Leadership Development, Northshore Baptist Church No Comments »

This is the 3rd and final part of the “Ministry Action Planning” (MAP) series.

Part 1 focused on our “macro” process from vision to strategy to execution with our planning flow throughout the year

Part 2 presented the actual Ministry Action Plan template we use

This final installment will focus on the process of how each team member presents their MAP and the year long follow up process and evaluation.

MAP Presentations. Each member of our Pastor/Director team presents their Ministry Action Plan to the Ministry Management Team (MMT), our senior staff team. They use the Ministry Action Plan Template, having built their plan with input from their leadership teams. We talk through the plan and each member of the MMT, regardless of what team they lead, has opportunity for input. As a team, it gives us the big picture as well as a detailed look at what the upcoming ministry year holds. At the end of the 45-50 minute presentation, we pray for the pastor/director. We pray for Jesus to use them and their ministry powerfully in the coming year.

Follow-up. After the individual presentations, the pastor/director and their MMT lead go through the MAP and make any changes and updates. Once the MAP is finalized, it becomes a working contract for the year. It’s a dynamic document with agreed upon changes made throughout the year. The MAP is reviewed by the MMT lead and pastor/director every 4-8 weeks. In January, we have a mid-year status update. Sometimes it’s done with the entire MMT, and sometimes it’s decentralized with the MMT lead and each individual pastor/director.

Yearly Evaluation. At the end of the ministry year, the MAP becomes part of the Yearly Evaluation. Were the outcomes and goals achieved? Why or why not? Are there things that should be changed or adjusted for the next ministry year? A key personal philosophy during yearly evaluations is “no surprises.” If there is anything that is said during the yearly evaluation that hasn’t been discussed previously in a regular one-on-one meeting, there has been some communication failure along the way.

What does your process of planning look like? Is there anything you’d add to this process?

 

 

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May 26

Ministy Action Planning, Part 2

Leadership Development, Northshore Baptist Church 5 Comments »

Yesterday I posted Ministry Action Planning, Part 1. I focused on our process from vision to strategy to execution, paying specific attention to the cycle of our year and how different teams collaborate to execute vision and strategy.

This post will focus on the actual Ministry Action Plan template that each of our pastors and directors use with their teams to develop their specific ministry plan for the year.

Part 3 will focus on the actual process of presenting, regular follow-up, and yearly evaluation.

Here’s a snapshot of the Ministry Action Plan (you can download a PDF copy HERE):

Here are some of the key components of our Ministry Action Plan template:

1) Ministry Objectives. These are 5-8 things we’re going to focus on as a church and therefore in each of our ministries. Each ministry leader develops their plans and share how their ministry will accomplish these objectives and goals. And notice that some of them are focused “internally” for the staff (personal spiritual development, communication/social media development).

2) Desired Outcome & Metrics. What do you want to see happen as you accomplish this objective? How will you measure it? How will you know that you’ve succeeded?

3) Action Steps. What’s the game plan to accomplish this objective? What are the key steps you need to develop?

4) Point Person. Who’s in charge of getting this done. If the ministry leader’s name is on too many of these, it’s an potential indicator that they’re not developing and equipping leaders.

5) Completed By. This should have two sets of dates. Dates for each action step and the date for the objective to be completed. And then the supervisor should help the ministry leader do the necessary “backwards planning” to accomplish the objective.

6) Budget. What financial resources will this require, and is it allocated in your annual budget? This is always a good check to make sure we’re being the best stewards possible with the resources God has entrusted to us.

7) Notes. Important notes and additional thoughts/comments/reminders.

This template and format is working for us right now. But everything has a shelf-life. We continue to make necessary changes and tweaks along the way.

What changes, tweaks, additions or subtractions would you add? Do you have a Ministry Planning template you use?

 

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