Dec 01

Christmas Behind the Seen

Christmas Behind the Seen 2010, Northshore Baptist Church No Comments »

In the Gospel writer Luke’s version of the Christmas story, we discover stories behind The Story… stories of Christmas Behind the Seen. In these stories, we see the lives of real people who understood the significance of The Story… the amazing reality that God would come to change everything.

In the stories behind The Story, we see blessing as young Mary looks behind the seen, recognizing the blessing of God as He has chosen her to bear Jesus, the Savior. So she responds by blessing her God. We see joy as Elizabeth anticipates the joy of God in the flesh, and she cannot contain her joy. We see compassion as Joseph chooses to see behind the seen and responds with kindness and compassion, even amidst the dramatic upheaval of his own plans. We see hope in Simeon longing for the hope of Israel. We see serving as Anna dedicates her life to the God who has come to rescue and restore.

From stories of obscurity to The Story of the Nativity, what could happen in our lives and in our world if we respond to Christmas Behind the Seen?

December 5 – “Blessing Seen”

December 12 – “Joy Seen”

December 19 – “Compassion Seen”

December 24 – “Hope Seen” (Christmas Eve Services at 2:45, 4:45, & 6:45 pm)

December 26 – “Serving Seen”

Join us at Northshore on Sundays at 8:45 am, 10:45 am or 5:45 pm. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors to this message series to experience a Christmas they’ve never encountered before.

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Nov 20

Step by Step Christmas Party

Missional Living, Northshore Baptist Church 1 Comment »

A Northshore Partnership with Step by Step

Bringing Hope & Health to Mothers, Babies and Families

On the weekend following our Christmas outreach to our community, Christmas at RainCity Lounge, we have another great opportunity to share the love of Christ, this time with families less fortunate than many.

On December 18th, from 4-7 PM, Northshore will host the annual Step by Step Christmas Party for underprivileged families in our community. The Christmas party is run through volunteer support and donations from Northshore and other area churches and we could really use your help to make this year a success.

Step by Step is an organization that works with vulnerable families, serving pregnant women and new mothers in Pierce, King and Snohomish Counties. Case workers arrange for nurses, dietitians, and counselors to come alongside clients throughout pregnancy and during the first year of a child’s life. With assistance from federal funding they provide medical care and connections to health and community resources and also offer life skills classes such as budgeting and parenting so that these families can become self sustaining.

For the past six years Northshore Baptist Church has had the privilege of hosting the annual North Sound Christmas party—Making Memories Together. At this event we serve a complete turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Clients also have an opportunity to Christmas shop for their children in our free toy store. The main floor of the church is filled with family-fun activities such as face painting, cupcake walk, cookie decorating, family portraits, and a telling of the Christmas story with a live nativity (Real animals in the Courtyard!). All of this requires a great number of compassionate, servant-hearted volunteers.

Many of the Step by Step case workers have shared that when they walk into a client’s home the only photo on the wall is the family portrait taken by the volunteers at the Christmas party. Clients cherish these photos and the gift of a professional picture of their family to hang on their wall. Throughout the evening your heart will melt as you watch families laugh, play, and make precious memories together, knowing that this is a special addition to their normally challenging lives. Volunteers repeatedly say they are honored and blessed to get to know and serve these families and their own lives are impacted through volunteering at this event.

If you’re looking to make an impact on a family in need this Christmas season, won’t you please join us for this Christmas party? You can view and sign up for the volunteer spots online at our website, nsb.org/register-online. You can also register to provide a donation of a grocery gift card, a new toy for the free Toy Shoppe or even a turkey for the dinner.

Here’s a link to this week’s featured eNews article that includes all the ways you can volunteer before and during the event.

This is a great way to live out Jesus’ call and live on mission as people who are servant-hearted & kingdom-minded.

Thanks for serving our local community with the love of Jesus!

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Sep 01

The Life I Planned vs. The Life I Needed

Book Reviews, Literature, Theological Musings 1 Comment »

One of my favorite summer reads was Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited.  It captures the conversation of two characters: Black and White. Black is a recovered addict and former inmate who found Jesus, and White is an atheist professor who tries to kill himself. The whole book is a conversation in Black’s kitchen after he’s rescued White from a failed suicide attempt. The conversation ultimately is a theological one that centers on the hope or hopelessness with or without God in the equation of life. And it’s written in McCarthy’s terse, sparse language that gets straight to the heart.

Here’s one of my favorite points of dialogue:

Black: If this ain’t the life you had in mind, what was?

White: I don’t know. Not this. Is your life the one you’d planned?

Black: No, it ain’t. I got what I needed instead of what I wanted and that’s just about the best kind of luck you can have.

So often we try to define and control what we want life to look like… the life we’d plan for ourselves. But for some reason, it doesn’t turn out that way. And there’s a tension in perspective here. In McCarthy’s story, White didn’t get the life he’d planned so he gave up. Yet Black, shaped by a far different perspective, sees the grace of God in giving him the life he needed. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). And in the abundance of life that Jesus gives, it’s always the life we truly need but not always the life we’d plan for ourselves. Such a marvelous mystery in the adventure of faith.

(P.S. Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones will star in the HBO debut of The Sunset Limited in February 2011)

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Jun 24

Summer Series at Northshore

Bible, Ecclesiastes: Meaning of Life, Northshore Baptist Church, Sermons No Comments »

This summer, we will have two sermon series for our weekend services. July 11, 18, & 25 Pastor Wayne Phillips will preach a three-week series entitled Three to Thrive.  I return to the pulpit on August 1, and we’ll explore the ancient book of Ecclesiastes in a 6-week series called The Meaning of Life.  Here are brief overviews of the series:

Three to Thrive: Faith, Hope & Love

July 11-25

Like a good parent God wants the best for us. He wants us to thrive. When we consider the teachings of the New Testament we see that the thriving life that Jesus has come to give us is characterized by two things: love for God and love for others (Mt 22:37-39; Mk 12:30-31; Lk 10:27-28). The Spirit of God is working to remake us into men and women who live that out daily. As we do that more and more, as we take off the things that get in the way of loving God and loving others, we will truly live (Lk 10:28). We will step into the fullness of life that Jesus has come to give us and that Satan seeks to steal (John 10:10). Simple enough, but it turns out that love is very difficult in practice. In fact, Biblical love is downright impossible without two other essentials that the Spirit of God is building in us: faith and hope.

These three—faith, hope, and love—are primary themes throughout the Bible, and they make up a framework used by the apostle Paul to examine the condition of his churches and strengthen them where needed. The interplay of faith, hope, and love in his writings is seen most clearly in 1-2 Thessalonians (ex. 1 Thess 1:2-3), Colossians (ex. 1:3-8), and in this classic:

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13

Through the series Three to Thrive: Faith, Hope, and Love, you will learn what defines and undermines each of them, and you will take away the Paul’s framework to help you more fully love God and love others wherever you are.

 

 

The Meaning of Life: Exploring Ecclesiastes

August 1 – September 6

What happens when we seek ultimate meaning outside of relationship with the Creator God? What happens when we’re desperate for the answers to life but can seem to find none? What happens when our souls get wearied from the constant pursuit of pleasure and possessions? These are enormous questions of life and meaning that Ecclesiastes grapples with in the timeless complexity and messiness of reality. Ultimately, the ancient philosopher recalibrates our hearts, minds, and lives to pursue ultimate meaning in the Ultimate God because God alone holds the key to the meaning of life.

August 1st–through September 6th during our weekend services, we’ll explore Ecclesiastes and the ultimate meaning of life. We’ll discuss five key themes in the book which can truly shape how we live a life of meaning and purpose today.

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