I am so excited to be working with the children at Lakeside. Lakeside is blessed to have great Children’s Ministry leaders and teachers, who deeply care about and love your children.  As we work together, our goal is to hear each one of our precious kids say:

1. This is MY CHURCH not just my parents church, but mine. I get to serve, give, learn, grow and go.
2. I am loved not just by the Children’s Ministry staff, but by the church.
3. I personally know Jesus.
4. I care about the world, starting with my friends.

We are working hard behind-the-scenes to create and implement an environment by September, which will cultivate the aforementioned response from our kids. If you are gifted, called, and excited about creating such a place for the Lakeside Kids, all of our kids, then contact me.  You are an answer to prayer.

Pastor Jon

jon@lakesidecf.com

This past year Janet and I have been with you as part of the Lakeside community. It has been our joy to be with you all in worship and to see the awesome things that God is doing here. I have been a part of the staff long enough to see what an incredible team of servants they are. When I arrived here last year I was in a time of recovery from a health condition that had forced me to leave my ministry position at our church in Snohomish. This was a great place to settle in and do as much or as little as I felt I could do while I regained a sense of strength and direction.

Over the past several weeks God has been unfolding to us what the next season of ministry is going to look like. Beginning July 1 I will be serving as the interim pastor for First Free Methodist Church in Seattle. This is our church associated with Seattle Pacific University and where I was on staff for 8 years prior to our move to Snohomish. I will be serving there for a period of 6 – 8 months while they are in a search for a new Lead Pastor. After that I am sure that God will lead us to the next place He wants us to serve. This is a great opportunity for me and we are looking forward to going back to where we served for so many years. It was also the church that Janet and I were married in 31 years ago.

Thank you all so much for your gracious response to us while we have been at Lakeside. You have reached out to us in many ways and we really do appreciate it. Our last Sunday with you will be on June 6^th. I want you to know that I believe in this church. I believe that Lakeside is in a place to make a huge difference in the Kingdom of God, both in and around Lake Stevens as well as around the world. God bless you as you continue to grow under the Lordship of the One who is the Lord of the church.

Pastor David and Janet Hicks

Walkers’ donations will help to support our Not for Sale efforts locally as we work to make sure Snohomish County is slave-free, beginning with Lake Stevens.   Additionally, half of the funds raised will support Not for Sale’s Thailand International Project.

Join our local walk!
Engage your friends and family!
We can end slavery in our lifetime!

Click here to register

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For more information email:
Kevin Austin, Lakeside staff pastor:  Kevin@lakesidecf.com
Sarah Sweeney, Washington State Director: Sarah@notforsalecampaign.org

Free2Walk Tentative Schedule

Where:
Mt Pilchuck Elementary School
20th St. – Lake Stevens

When:
Saturday, Sept. 18

8 – 9:30 a.m. Light, complimentary breakfast
8:30-9:30 Registration
9:30 Rally and preparations
10 a.m – noon Walk on Centennial Trail
11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Activities at Mt Pilchuck Elementary School: Bar-B-Q; kids activities, more

Sunday, Sept. 19

8:30am and 10:15am Gatherings
Not for Sale at Lakeside’s Fall Kickoff
Not for Sale Co-Founder Mark Wexler will be joining us

More about Mark HERE, and Not For Sale HERE.
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Also:
Saturday, Oct. 2

9 – noon
Slave Free Snohomish County Planning Meeting
Lakeside – Email: Kevin@lakesidecf.com for details

Pastor Kevin writes:  “God is a creative God, shaping and changing things, transforming us in ways both mysterious and delightful.  God is transforming all of us at Lakeside, which is the message God is giving us through the Revolution 2010 focus these past months.  Change can be difficult at times, but change should best be seen as orchestrated by the Holy Spirit – a good thing!

Not For Sale | Shadowhands from Not For Sale Campaign on Vimeo.

For me, this change is the fulfillment of years of searching, preparation, and trying my best to follow God. Over the past six years I have earnestly sought a way in which to engage personally, and professionally in the fight against modern slavery.  It has always made sense to do so within the context of my Free Methodist community.  Additionally, Biblical justice work is an outflow of worship; and worship is the end to which we point all of our work.  This work is best practiced within the context of the local church – for me this is Lakeside Community Fellowship.

After much prayer, Godly counsel, and proper communications with our Bishop, Superintendent, Pastor Eric, and the Leadership Board, my position at Lakeside will be experiencing some change.  Beginning this month, my pastoral duties will include more abolitionist work on a national and global platform as a North American missionary with the Free Methodist Church in cooperation with the Not for Sale Campaign.

What does this mean for Lakeside?  I will continue to serve as a staff pastor overseeing worship and other areas.  It also means that Lakeside will have an incredible opportunity to join the abolitionist movement on the front lines both in our back yards and across the globe.  Look for ways to impact our community and world through this worship-filled activism!

I look forward to many years of service at Lakeside.  I anticipate that God will take us to whole new levels of obedience, worship, and service.   I also believe God will use Lakeside to change the world.” – Pastor Kevin

For More Information about Not For Sale, click here: http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

For those of you that know me, one word or a sentence often sends my brain spinning in all sorts of directions – thinking, dreaming, and planning.  Revolution 2010 has done just that!  I find myself thinking and dreaming about the eternal impact we could make in this community if everyone at Lakeside took part in the Revolution!

I love how this is about lost people coming to know Jesus, building lasting and meaningful relationships, loving Jesus in a deeper way and most of all, seeing God move in ways we would never even imagine! I can’t wait to see how God will use me and each of you as we join the Revolution and give our very best for the Kingdom of God here in this community.

-Cathy Tastad
Interconnect Ministries Director

We’re praying for a Revolution. We’re believing God for a Revolution; an uprising, a change because things that are stationery collect dust. We need a Revolution, because churches that are not in motion, churches that fall out of step with God’s Spirit are subject to the law of entropy . . . Spiritual entropy that brings deterioration, degeneration, crumbling, decline, degradation, decomposition, breaking down, collapse; disorder, and chaos.

So we need a Revolution. We need to fast and pray for it. We need to give ourselves to it. We need to dedicate ourselves to it.

Join the Revolution this year at Lakeside. Be centered on Jesus!

“Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” W.J. Cameron

Thanksgiving is not just a holiday. It’s a way of being. Not just something to do occasionally, but a way to live. By giving thanks continually, constantly, even in difficult times, our minds and hearts focus on the true reality. The true reality being that God is in control. Regardless of how we understand things, God fully understands everything and is working to fulfill his plans and purposes in the world and in us for his glory.

Jesus was our example of this practice of giving thanks even in the most difficult of times. At his last meal with his followers he gave thanks before partaking (I Corinthians 11:24). Jesus knew his betrayer was near. The doubter was there as well as was the denier. Soon he would be crucified. But Jesus gave thanks and brought them all into the true reality: “This is my body. . . this is my blood.”

Paul also shows us how to practice gratitude in the book of Philippians, chapter four:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. . . . I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Gratitude leads to faith. Gratitude and faith open the door for answered prayers. Gratitude, faith, and prayer lead to shalom, the Hebrew word not just for peace, but for well-being in us and around us.

Orthodox Jews have a daily practice of giving thanks one hundred times each day. The phrase they use for doing this is something like: “Praise be Thee, O Lord, King of Heaven, for ________.”

Can we count one hundred things about which to be thankful? Clean drinking water, family, friends, freedom, Thai food, peaches, a house, laughter, camels, autumn leaves, green frogs, pumpkin pie, football, Charlie Brown, Jesus, etc. We have so much for which to be thankful.

God has two dwellings; one in heaven,
and the other in a meek and thankful heart.”
Izaak Walton

For many Christians any means works as long as the end is reached. The truth of Jesus being the end, the big main point, has in many cases become a goal rather than a statement of truth. The life of faith, in other words, has been turned into a competition rather than an authentic way of life. This makes sense when looking at the crusades, manipulative preachers, and showy, entertainment oriented worship services. If the end is all that matters, then converting people with a sword, a lie, or a flashy smile is acceptable. But, is it really any means to the end? Is this what Jesus is saying above? Eugene Peterson, in his excellent book, The Jesus Way has this to say:

“In the text that Jesus sets before us so clearly and definitively, way comes first. We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get the truth of Jesus, living Jesus in our homes and workplaces, with our friends and family.”

The means are just as important as the end. The Jesus way plus the Jesus truth leads to the Jesus life. This is so important! It’s clear that much of what is wrong with American Christianity originates in elevating the truth above the way. We cannot attach any way we want to the truth of the Gospel. Only the Jesus way will do. The Jesus way is not one of coercion, or manipulation. The Jesus way does not involve violence or any dishonesty of any kind. The Jesus way does not prefer safety, riches, comfort, or selfish ambition. The Jesus way is characterized by: love, humility, sacrifice, submission and faith. And this way, combined with the truth of Jesus naturally leads to life. We wonder why our churches are lifeless, or why our lives are shallow, or why Christianity is viewed as irrelevant. Could it be that we have inadequately, inappropriately, attached the wrong ways to the right truth? Are we trying to use a spoon to drive a nail? In John 15:6, Jesus shines the light on this:

“If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

We must stay connected to Jesus and the Jesus way or we lose our life, are pruned, withered, and eventually are good for nothing but feeding a fire. Read more about this in: The Jesus Way, by Eugene Peterson

-Pastor Kevin

Original Post here: http://austinthai.com/2009/07/10/have-christians-lost-the-way/

I have been thinking a lot about rest lately. When I had to leave pastoral ministry last summer for health reasons I entered into a time of rest (I call it a “season” because that helps me think that it won’t last forever). At first I thought this was primarily for physical rest. My body was completely exhausted and needed a break. It’s been a year and I have had plenty of physical rest yet there is still an exhaustion that plagues me. I am beginning to see that “rest” means much more than simply the ceasing of activity. I am in a “season” of rest but I am finding that I need to do much more than rest physically.

Ceasing from activity is a necessary first step in the rest that Jesus calls us to but it must go much deeper. I think the kind of rest that Jesus is talking about is closely associated with the word ‘wholeness’. Wholeness implies a kind of rest that goes much deeper than our physical need. It goes all the way down to our soul and spirit. This is the place where our truest self resides. It’s also the place where brokenness lives. It’s hard to really be at rest when we are broken in those deep places. When we are broken we are fractured, divided in a sense. Think of a compound fracture in your arm. It is ‘divided’ from itself, in a way, and needs to come back together in order to heal. As long as it is divided from itself it is not well or whole. Parker Palmer in an excellent book called, ‘A Hidden Wholeness’, says that life is a journey toward living an undivided life. In essence, a whole life. Brokenness creates a kind of division within us. Things are not quite right. They are out of sync. Brokenness creates disorder in the soul and it’s hard to be at rest in the presence of disorder.

That’s why we can cease from our outward activity and still not enter into a place of true rest. Ceasing is the doorway to true rest, and it certainly does provide a measure of rest, but we must walk through this doorway in order to get to the deeper places of rest that Jesus calls us to. We must rest from our activities, but once there we must learn to rest from other things as well.

We need to learn how to rest from our false sense of identity. It’s exhausting on the soul to try and be someone that we are not. And it’s impossible to truly discover and embrace our true self apart from that quiet place of reflection when the voice of our soul and the voice of the Holy Spirit come together and speak the truth to us. Most of us have numerous “false selves” that we don’t even know are false. Brennan Manning calls these “imposters”. If we live with these imposters for long we begin to treat them as real and this creates a divided soul and a divided soul is not a soul at rest.

We also need to rest from attitudes and thought patterns that deplete the soul rather than fill it. The soul that has been surrendered to Jesus will be ill-at-ease with certain attitudes that are contrary to the Spirit of Jesus in us. For instance, anger and bitterness will deplete the soul rather quickly. So will things like jealousy, lust, and envy. We need to learn how to rest from (cease) these in order to enter into the rest of Jesus.

Sometimes we need to rest from our pursuits. Some of our pursuits are good and noble: learning and knowledge; exercise; hobbies; service and ministry. But even these require a certain level of striving and sometimes we need to rest from our striving (maybe only for awhile) in order to re-engage them with energy and passion. Other pursuits are less than holy and noble. Busyness, obsessions, harmful habits. Sometimes we are not even aware of what these are until we enter into that quiet place and let our soul and the Holy Spirit speak to us.

When Jesus calls us to come away with Him to a quiet place in order to get some rest ceasing our activities is only the beginning. Having removed ourselves from the frantic busyness and relentless distractions of our lives we can then listen to the voice of our soul that stands in desperate longing for a deeper awareness of the presence of Jesus. Only then can deep rest come, rest, not just of body, but of soul. That is the cry of the psalmist who says, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone.” (Psalm 62:1)

-Pastor David Hicks

Original post is found at:  http://dghicks.blogspot.com/2009/08/place-of-quiet-rest.html

Pastor David’s latest post:  http://dghicks.blogspot.com/

-Pastor Bryan