Walking In With Expectancy!

I have a T-shirt with a picture of the old Seattle Kingdome printed on it. For years the Kingdome was the house of the Seattle Seahawks and Mariners. Every time I put on that T-shirt, I have fond memories of watching many a Mariners game there as a child, teen and young adult, before they imploded it to build two new stadiums. One of my most vivid memories is when I was a young boy going to a game with my dad. We would walk the concourse for a bit to look at the souvenirs and buy some snacks. Then...we would make our way to the tunnel, which would lead us to our seats.

Walking through that tunnel always caused me to suddenly feel like I was going to erupt with a sense of expectancy!  Expecting to see the inside of the massive dome, and the players scattered around the field warming up.

Every single time I walked through that tunnel, I expected the excitement of seeing real professional baseball players play the game I loved so much!

When it comes to entering Church and a worship service, I want the same kind of expectancy. The knowing that I am about to enter into a time and space where I can meet with God through music, prayer, scriptures and the community of believers. But the struggle is, all too often, I walk into Church like any other building, or room and forget that there’s something meaningful, empowering and life changing fully accessible to me.

We all have our reasons for why we fail to come to church with an expectancy to experience the presence of God, but the truth is...it’s our expectancy that often makes, or breaks our experience.

This weekend, I have the privilege of teaching with our worship pastor, Eliot Stone. Together, we will talk about more about the value of worshipping together as a community and why our expectancy matters. We hope you’ll join us this weekend!

Grace and Peace.

Pastor Rex

Soul Vision

I was recently in one of the largest slums of Nairobi called Mathere.  Our team of doctors had been working miracles from dawn to dusk, every member giving it their all to touch these amazing children who are living in harm’s way with the love of Jesus.  But, we could never bless them more than these Children of God were blessing us.  It was so hot and dusty in the sewage strewn slum in which they are forced to live that teachers from the school kept bringing me bottles of water so that I would not become dehydrated as the children had.  Each time they handed me a bottle of water,  the Bible verse popped into my head:  When you give a cup of water to the least of these you are giving it to me.  The teachers would command me – “don’t give this to the kids.”  But each time, with the defiance of a grandfather, I would open the bottle and hand it to the children around me.  They would break into tears and take a deep drink and hand it to the child next to them who would drink as fast as they could before the child next to them would grab it out of their hands and begin their turn.  Each time after they drank they would look at me and call me ‘Babu’. 

After two hours of telling them stories and singing them songs, the children grew tired and four of them fell asleep in my arms.  Maybe 15 others came up and put their heads on my arms, some of them sucking their thumbs, and whispering, “Babu, Babu, Babu”.  It was an experience that I will never forget.  I saw Jesus in these children and received the vision for the rest of my life.  Highlight that experience with three days of high fevers and chills and every one of our team caught a virus in the rubble in which these children live.  While we feed and help 130 kids there through Washington Cathedral, there are 500,000 living in this slum, many who would call out to us as we walked, “How are you? How are you?” It was a set up for God to speak to me and a fresh work of His grace to begin in my life.

Empowering Encounters has been our theme this summer as we raise the bar on worship for Washington Cathedral.  This week I have returned from a life altering encounter with God in Africa.  I dare you to come to worship this week and to not be touched, lifted and inspired.  My message is entitled Soul Vision (How to Experience God’s Dream for Your Life) and my text is from the book of Acts.  But I am going to tell you a testimony of how Jesus used the children of Kenya to change my life.  See a video of dancing, singing, and miracles in Africa which left every one of us changed people.  God has given me a dream for the best of my life which will last the rest of my life.  I want to break down biblically how God can touch us anew with His dreams; not just our self-centered whims but the very vision of heaven on how life ought to be lived.  The key to worship is that we actually meet Jesus Christ. This cannot happen without being blown away by the presence of God and our willingness to respond to this reality as big as the universe itself.  If you only make it to one service this year, make sure you make it this weekend.  Don’t miss out on your chance to catch fire with faith and vision again for your life.

Join us Saturday at 5:30, Sunday at 9:30 and 11 as I share video and testimonies of how you too can experience a fresh vision with soul for your life.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim

The Biggest "But" In The Bible

A single mom who put herself through college in hopes of providing a better life for her family gets the call from HR after interviewing for her dream job. She hears, “You have amazing strengths and qualifications, BUT we just don’t feel like you’re the right fit for us at this time.” Her disappointment seems crushing!

A 15 year old boy spends all summer training and practicing for for high school football tryouts. He gives 110% and feels confident he’s made the team. Until the coach calls him into his office to say...”You gave a great effort kid, BUT we feel you aren’t quite ready. Keep practicing and try again next year...” It's a massive setback for his hopes of being a high school athlete!

A man who God called to do some seemingly impossible things answers, “you’ve got the wrong guy”, but eventually obeys and becomes the leader of an entire nation. Despite his insecurities and fears, he continues to trust God and faithfully leads His people through all the ups and downs with the hope that they would arrive in the land promised to them. Near the end of his days, God leads him to a mountain and shows him the promised land. The long, difficult journey is over and the hard-earned reward is there for him to enjoy!

Until God says this in Deuteronomy 34: “I have now allowed you to see it with your own eyes, BUT you will not enter the land.” (There’s that “but” word again bringing with it disappointments and setbacks!)

It’s the biggest “but” in the Bible and I can’t help but be gripped with disappointment for Moses every time I read the story. Can you imagine how he may have felt standing on that mountain? Yet the story ends by saying Moses was the greatest of all the prophets. Moses’s life is a model to us for giving our all to God even when we’re going through all of it.

I hope you’ll join me this weekend as we talk more about living lives of authentic worship to God, even when we’re in the mess of disappointments, setback and failures. I’m praying now that people will find hope and strength as they desire to trust God, while navigating their own life’s troubles. It’s never easy, but it is possible!

Grace and Peace.

Pastor Rex

Living Worship

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.  Yet their voice goes into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”  Psalm 19:1-4

To my recollection, I think my first “Empowering Encounter” of worship was when I was about 12 years old.  It was on a beautiful summer night in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California.

Summer vacation for our family was always a trip to our cabin in Calpine, California.  Being farmers, my parents had few vacations in the summer, but they had a co-op deal with another farmer who would look after our chickens and animals while we were gone and then we’d look after their turkeys and animals while they were gone.  However, the vacations we had were always memorable.  Early morning trout fishing in the streams of the Sierra Valley, delicious trout and egg breakfast, games and swimming in the heat of the day, and bonfires at night. 

One evening, we were having a bonfire at the reservoir above our cabin.  I walked up the levy with one of my girlfriends, Susie, and we laid down in the soft grass and looked up into the sky.  It was the most spectacular sight I had ever seen.  It was a hot August night, the moon was just a sliver, and the only light was the glow of the bonfire in the distance.  The stars seemed to be so bright and the sky was full of stars of all different sizes layered for millions, upon millions of miles.  I could only say “WOW, God is big!”  We both laid there in absolute awe of the majesty of our Heavenly Father. I never felt so small and yet so filled with the sense of God’s deep and abiding love for me.  Amazed that the creator of everything, would love and care about “little ol’ me”.

I don’t think I realized at the time what an incredible act of worship I had just experienced.  But from then on, I was much more aware of the how God’s creation shouts His Glory to all.

Join me this Sunday as we explore together “Living Worship” in our everyday life.  When we can do that, it takes everything to a new level of excitement and joy.

Pastor Linda Skinner

Carpe Diem (The Love Revolt Now)

This Sunday is not just a four-day weekend it is our opportunity to honor our country as Christians have done for many generations.  Let me ask you a question -  In this age of cynicism, who will be the ones who will bring peace, unity, authentic conversation between the ever-contrasting sides of conflict within our nation?  (Not to mention the dangerous world that we live in.)  That was the task before Paul and Barnabas as they set out on the first ever Christian Rock Tour of the world.  I call it a Rock Tour because they were frequently stoned.  Not stoned like rock stars might be, but people actually threw stones at them.  I’m glad that when I have a sermon you disagree with you don’t throw stones at me.  At least, not yet.  

Paul and Barnabas’ trip was more than a missionary trip, as it was once called.  The word “Missionary” has been intentionally changed by culture to mean something horrible, or at very least, watered down like milk toast.  If you have ever read the Book of Acts, you know that Christ followers who are on the move have little resemblance to modern concept of missionaries.  They represented a Revolution of Love.  

Revolution was a dangerous word then just like it is now. So, to make his purpose clear, Jesus explained that his revolution was not about becoming king and ruler.  His was a revolution of love and not force. A revolution that would change the world.  Whether it came to slavery, the concept of women, the family, or even how and when force was used, Christians have and will continue to have misunderstandings about this revolution of love.  When they do have those misunderstandings, their actions most often cause more problems than good.  There are even many who would like to hijack our revolution of love for political gain or profit.  Because of this, we need now, more than ever, authentic Christ-followers to pave the way in this nation and our world by reaching the hearts and minds of those who can only be reached by conversations of love.  

This Sunday, we are going to give our first ever Medal of Faith and Freedom Award to a hero from our church. It will be a touching moment.  If you like a patriotic service, go to the 9:30 time of worship.  We will have the Color Guard present the flag; we will honor our service men and women as the choir presents “Tribute to the Armed Forces; there will music of faith and freedom.  If you enjoy a different style of patriotism in worship, the 11:00 am service will be a better fit for you.  I will be preaching the same sermon in all the services.  On Saturday night after the service, you can enjoy Klondike Bars, which of course is the most patriotic ice cream bar ever made.  

Sunday at 12:30 is our “I Love America” Potluck Picnic so bring your best fried chicken, salad or dessert to share.  You know the rule of churches is to bring twice as much as you normally cook because we want to have a table that is open to those who don’t bring anything.  There will be bounce houses for the kids and fun games for all ages, plus a Western themed photo booth for family pictures. 

Your Friend For The Rest Of My Life,

Pastor Tim White

The Attitude You Bring

  Sunday is my favorite day of the week. Rich and I have a routine -- get up at 6:45 am, shower, dress, drive to PCC Market on Avondale, get a cup of coffee (or tea), go through their breakfast buffet line, stop at bakery section and get a mini croissant (that’s for me), sit down in their little eating area and enjoy our breakfast, leave at 8:10 to arrive at the church in time for music rehearsal, run through the songs with Eliot and Rhonda (laugh a lot – Eliot is really funny in the morning), greet people who are coming to worship and then spend an hour worshipping with the 9:30 congregation. I love that time. I can’t think of anything more fulfilling or exciting than worshipping our Almighty God with a group of people I love to be with.

For several years of my life, I didn’t have the same excitement and enthusiasm that I have now. To get up early Sunday morning and get ready to go church to worship with my friends. Sleeping in or riding my horse or bicycling to Folsom Lake to swim, had a bit more appeal to me than going to church to worship. But in my mother’s household there was no other option available to me. So, when I moved out on my own, Sunday morning became a time of sleeping in (I mean it was my only sleep in day). I worked and went to school and Sunday was my only day off. Dr. Phil might ask “And how did that work for you?” Let’s just say it was not my wisest move. I fell into the “I can worship God anywhere” trap (which is true, but there is something about worshipping God in community that is irreplaceable by individual worship time.)

What I discovered is that for me my enjoyment and my enthusiasm for worship has direct correlation to my attitude toward God. When my relationship with Him is strong then my enthusiasm for worshipping with others is high also.

When Rich and I travel we always find a place to worship with other believers. That has been a great experience and a great way for us to understand that worshipping God really is not about what is happening in the service, but what is happening in your heart. One of greatest times of worship was in a small Catholic Church in Florianopolis, Brazil. We were not familiar with Catholic forms of worship, we don’t speak Portuguese and we didn’t know a soul. However, we entered this beautiful little church which was filled to standing room only. The priest was leading the singing and he was a bit off key but everyone was singing out. They were all dressed like we were in their summer shorts and t-shirts and you could tell they were very excited about being there. We just got caught up in their enthusiasm and it was a bit like Pentecost. I told Rich, I think I know what they are saying. When they sang words, we hummed along. It was a great experience. I realized then what true worshipping “in spirit and truth” was all about. It’s about my heart and where it is at. It’s about my relationship with God.

This week I look forward to sharing with you what God’s word teaches us about the “attitude you bring” to worship each week.

Look forward to seeing you.

Blessings on your life,

Pastor Linda Skinner

Father Power

When I was a boy fishing with my dad in Hells Canyon, I hooked a monster fish. It was so big that after fighting it for about 30 minutes we concluded that my little Zebec rod and reel could not bring in that fish.  So, my dad, seeing the desperation in my eyes, dove into the raging Snake River, swam to the middle, and dove deep under the water to bring up the monster fish. It was 36 inches.  After grabbing it, my dad swam it over to the shore. Kind of sounds like a scene from Tarzan, but my dad did not want that fish to get away from his son.  I will never forget it. My dad was my hero! I have a wonderful mom that I would do anything for but we also all need some kind of a father.  And most of all, we need a healthy relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Father Power is the title of my message this Father’s Day as we continue our series on worship. The New Testament teaches a number of astonishing life perspectives for each of us. One of them is a revolutionary idea that all of us live with a father void. We were created with a need for strong, kind, purposeful, fun, bold, patient, and masculine influences in our lives. It’s called a Father Image and yes, when Jesus prays or speaks about our Heavenly Father it is always used in the masculine gender. Now God is referred to in the Old Testament in the feminine gender when it speaks of God himself as a mother bird who would spread its wings to protect her children.  And God is referred to in a gender-neutral way once in the Old Testament.  But the majority of the time, he is referred to in the masculine gender.  Jesus always refers to him as our Heavenly Father.  Every one of us need positive father-like figures in our lives. If we had a difficult or painful father experience, processing our need for a father is important for us in order to get on with our faith and our lives. I have invited a strong Christian man who was a NFL Quarterback to be my special guest to discuss what it means to be a Godly father.  He has not confirmed yet for this Sunday and because he is a very busy man I have a back-up plan. However, I can assure you that this will be a life-changing service of encouragement for every man and for every person as we honor earthly fathers and explore our Heavenly Fathers role in worship.  

I look forward to sharing with you at 9:30 and 11:00 this weekend. Pastor Becca will be preaching at the Worship, Prayer and Healing service Saturday night at 5:30 pm and Pastor Eliot is bringing in an all-star worship band made up of worship leaders of some of the leading churches in our area.

See you this weekend!

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White

Living A New Song

Sing to God a brand-new song.He’s made a world of wonders! He rolled up his sleeves, He set things right.  Psalm 98:1 The Message

Have you ever wondered where, or how the Church got all of the hymns, praise songs and worship choruses?  There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of them!  Some of the songs we sing in Church every Sunday were written from a place of pain and despair. Others were birthed from hearts full of hope.  But many of the popular hymns and worship songs which have been sung through the years came from a place of excitement and personal, or corporate revival.

In other words...these songs come to us as a response from people who were in the middle of experiencing something new and fresh from God.

When God does something new in us, we should bring new worship to Him!

Now, maybe you’re thinking...”what if I don’t write music, or know how to play an instrument?”  Remember this: Worship is a lifestyle. It’s never just about the songs we sing in church!

So when I say that we should bring new worship to God when he’s in the midst of doing something new in our lives, I mean that we should, in return, seek to worship, praise and thank Him in new ways, rather than what we’ve always done in the past.

In order to understand this approach to new worship, we need to remember that God is always on the move. He’s never a stagnant, boring God. Neither should our worship to Him be stagnant and boring. The challenge for each of us is to look for how He’s moving in and around our lives and respond with adventurous and fresh worship!

I’m excited to talk more about this at all of our weekend services this week as I’ve invited our new worship director, Eliot Stone to join me in teaching. You’ll enjoy his insights into how music and other forms of art are meant to be authentically worshipful. We hope you’ll join us!

Grace and Peace.

Pastor Rex

Empowering Encounters

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." St Augustine

Empowering Encounters from God and the Holy Spirit are something I crave today in my faith. To be newly awakened to His great love and divine presence in my every day living. To experience the supernatural and be freed from the traps of a boring, lazy and mundane faith.

Do you resonate with this? Are you finding yourself with the same desires? Restless for more of God? You're in a good spot, my friend!

Here's what I've learned whenever I crave new and empowering experiences with God...

1. Receiving this fresh revival of faith almost always begins with worship. Intentional worship that sets my heart and mind in their rightful position where I'm more aware of, and open to receive God's presence.
2.  My worship cannot be dependent upon feelings. My feelings are in constant flux, therefore, making it almost impossible to experience authentic connection with God who is always unchanging and unwavering.

The unfortunate reality for many of us (myself included) is we have become convinced that worship is music and the worship music needs to make us feel connected to God for it to be good worship.

Eugene Peterson, in his book: The Pastor - wrote these prophetic and convicting words regarding worship:

By the time I arrived on the scene as a pastor, the American church had reinterpreted the worship of God as an activity for religious consumers.  Entertainment, manipulation and cheer-leading were conspicuous in high places.  American worship was conceived as a public relations campaign for Jesus and his angels. Worship had been cheapened into a commodity marketed by using tried and true advertising techniques.  If so called worshippers didn't "get anything out of it," there had been no worship worth coming back for. Instead of calling people to worship God, pastors all over the country were inviting people to have a "worship experience".  Worship was evaluated on the satisfaction scale of one to ten. 

It struck me as a violation of the holy, a secularization of the sacred.  Taking the Lord's name in vain. I determined to reintroduce the idea: let us worship God. I knew this wasn't going to be easy.  The entertainment model for worship in America was pervasive.

Tough words, huh?

If you're craving a more empowering faith and find yourself desiring God to move through you in fresh, powerful ways; I strongly encourage you to join us this month as we dive into the topic of worship.  Our aim is to explore the Bible and the many stories of genuine worship from regular, every day people AND to help provide you with a guide for living a life of worship.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn how much God desires it and how we were made for it.  See you this weekend!

Grace and Peace.

Pastor Rex

The Lost Evangelical

When I was 16 years old, I joined a 6-month youth discipleship class which met every Saturday for the entire day to pray, study the Bible, memorize scripture and do various outreach projects. It was a long, tough class!

One of our “outreaches” was something I will never forget. We had to go to downtown Tacoma and join other churches in a anti-abortion protest. I hated every minute of this experience. It just didn’t feel right to me and the contrarian in me kept wondering, “how is this considered outreach?”.

While I always have and always will believe that abortion is not part of God’s plan for humanity, I’m also not proud of the fact that I once took part in protesting abortion, and the kind of witness I was for the women who walked in and out of that clinic.

In today’s culture, we see and hear the trending topic of “evangelicalism”...the “evangelical vote”...the “evangelical church” so often. Its come to the point where I’m certain too many Christians aren’t even sure what the word evangelical means anymore.  Frankly...the word has been hijacked for political purposes and the Church faces a tough decision. Do we keep going along, or take the word back and start over?

The word evangelical is over 2000 years old and it means “good news”. When the early Christians confessed in their Roman occupied lands that Jesus is Lord, they were proclaiming good news! When the church feeds and takes care of the poor, this is good news!  When churches rally together in their communities for the sake of unity, this is good news! 

In John 10, Jesus describes himself as the gate. The gate by which his sheep have complete access to the Father. I believe this illustration is a crucial reminder for us today. Access to God has always been through Jesus. He is the gate...yet somehow too many Christians have positioned themselves to be the gatekeepers. Jesus never once taught that we are to be guardians. He taught us to be bringers and inviters!

This weekend, I will bring a close to our Trending series as we explore this complicated and sometimes controversial term - evangelical. We’ll look further into Jesus’s illustration of being the “gate” and ask ourselves...”have I become a gatekeeper?”  “How can I take back this word evangelical so that my family, neighbor and community can once again see it as Good News?”  I hope you’ll join us this weekend!

Grace and Peace.

Pastor Rex