They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

Psalm 1:3

April Sermon Series

April 2 Water Purification

Trusting the Glory to God

Numbers 20:1-13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

April 9 Snake Bite Survival

Looking to the Cross for Life

Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-17

April 16 EASTER

Genesis 3:8-9; John 20: 11-18

April 23 At the End of Days

Resisting Hopelessness

Daniel 12; Revelation 12:7-12a

April 30 A Veggie Tale

Selective Resistance

Daniel 1; 1 John 15-17

CURRENT April , 2017

Contact Us 425.743.2386

church@northcreekpres.org

NCPC Staff

David Casson, Lead Pastor

Kurt Helmcke, Associate Pastor

Lolly Brasseur, Dir. of Music Ministry

Molly Pankow, Childcare Coordinator

Nathan Wagner, Children’s Ministry

Sean Lian, Youth Ministry

Trinity Moffat, Office Supervisor

Terry Summe, Finance Manager

Hal Hunt, Choir Director

Bryan Venn, Sound Technician

Art Clark, Facilities

Pastor’s Paragraph 2

North Creek News 3

Youth Ministry 4

Youth Ministry 5

Church Work Party/Prayer 6

Confirmation 7

Youth Retreat 8

3 2016 Annual

Report

Pastor’s Paragraph 2 “Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies . . .

– John 12:24

As Christians we believe the Biblical events we relive during Holy Week are the pivitol events in human history . . . and the defining events in any of our lives. So what a privilege it is to welcome neighbors, family members and friends as special guests for Holy Week worship. Here’s a sneak peek . . .

Palm Sunday (April 9) - With our 2017 Confirmation Class as worship leaders, we’ll wrap up our “Wilderness Survival” series with one more (rather strange) episode from Israel’s 40-year trek.

Maundy Thursday (7:30pm April 13) remembers the night Jesus gave the disciples the first Lord’s Supper. In a con-templative Taize service in the Fireside Room, we’ll dig deep into that story. We’ll get help from Henri Nouwen’s book Life of the Beloved, which observes that—like the communion elements, and like Jesus himself—we too are taken, blessed, broken and given.

Good Friday (7:30pm April 14) – With gravity befitting the day Jesus died, we’ll explore what Jesus meant by “unless a grain of wheat dies.” The choir will sing, and representatives from both our Wednesday Lent Listening series and our Thursday It is Finished small groups will share reflections on their Lenten journey.

Easter Morning (8:30, 10:00 and 11:30am April 16) – Join us for the most glorious Sunday of the year! Featuring choir, orchestra, and even a talking egg, our theme this year is Hunting for More? (but we don’t want visitors hunting for parking spots, so please park off campus if you’re able).

Lent Wednesday Evening Series

Listening Together for Jesus’ Call to Two NCPC “Missional Communities” Each Wednesday evening during Lent an intergenerational group has met over soup including borscht!) to listen for Jesus’ voice calling us to new mission in south Snohomish County. We had our ears open for a call to organize and send a new model of mission team, called a missional community, to engage two specific nearby needs: poverty in south Everett (around Greater Trinity School) and sponsoring a refugee family through World Relief. If either of these adventures sounds intriguing, consider attending a 6pm information dessert: on Sunday evening April 23 for the refugee resettlement missional community, and Sunday evening May 7 for the South Everett missional community

Spring Worship Series on the Book of Daniel The writing on the wall . . . the lion’s den . . . feet of clay. The Book of Daniel gave the English language these familiar idioms. But it also gave God’s people a survival guide to life in a hos-tile empire. Like Daniel (and his buddies Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego), we often find ourselves balancing loyalties between our faith and the culture. Sunday mornings after Easter we’ll be looking at eight episodes from this Old Testament book, and asking how each might help us survive (and even thrive) in our own modern empire.

Looking forward to celebrating Christ’s resurrection with you soon!

Grace & peace, Pastor David

Holy Week

Easter Potted Plants If you’ve been here for Easter services before, you

will remember that it’s our tradition to decorate the

sanctuary with spring flowers celebrating and

remembering those important

to our members.

Plants are $10

including tax and

can be picked up

after the last

Easter service. To order a plant,

fill out the yellow

form in the

Sunday bulletin and place the form and payment in the offering plate

by April 9.

Holy Week Observances We are approaching the end of the Lenten season,

which means Holy Week and the observance of some

of the most important days of the Christian year. We will be hosting five services to mark these days —

including three services for Easter Sunday — all of

which will be at North Creek.

Mark your calendars for the following services: Maundy Thursday—4/13, 7:30 p.m.

Good Friday—4/14, 7:30p.m.

Easter Sunday—4/16, 8:30, 10 & 11:30 a.m.

New Member Class Returns

Anyone interested in becoming a member of North

Creek has a chance to do so starting this month!

The spring new member class cycle will be on five

consecutive Tuesday nights beginning April 25 and ending May 23.

Classes are from 7 –8:30 p.m. and will take

prospective new members further into the life of our church as they learn more about what we believe

and what their role in the church might be.

To RSVP for classes or for more information contact

New Member Coordinator Margy Witten at 425-385-2912.

One Great Hour of Sharing If you’ve been watching our church’s Facebook page,

you will be aware that we are taking our annual One

Great Hour of Sharing offering April 9 during our

Palm Sunday service. One Great Hour is a denomination-wide effort to

fund missional outreach for the Presbyterian Church

as a whole. Funds from the fish banks our children

took home last month and a special offering during both services will go equally to Presbyterian Disaster

Assistance, Presbyterian Hunger Program and Self-

Development of People. These programs aid communities in recovering from

natural disasters, fighting food insecurity globally and

building up economically poor communities in the

United States. Special envelopes are provided in the bulletin for the offering.

NCPC News 3

Youth Ministry 4 Middle School Spring Retreat This spring the middle school students attended Island Lake’s FUSION retreat, where youth groups from across the state gather for an incredible weekend focused on growing in Christ. Some highlights include worship time with the Konzelman Brothers, speaker Nick Stienloski’s RED letters talk, gold rush skit, life size clue game, motor x, paintball, high ropes course, amazing meals, and great times building deep friendships.

Youth Ministry 5

Share about your favorite part of the night.

“ZONK! Lots of fun to be the host and be able to inter-act with everyone in an open way.” - Robby H. Grade 10 “Watching the kids having fun. They were being funny and they didn’t even know it! The whole experience was fun!” - Tessa Grade 6 “Wilbur eating a lot of chicken nuggets” - Nathan G. Grade 8

“By showing love to them and the way that they accepted us/” - Kynan Grade 7 “It was really that all of them would be so nice and outgoing to complete strangers like us.” - Matt Grade 9 “At first, I was a little nervous but after being with them a little bit, I saw that they were just normal kids. They may have some strug-gles at home, but they seemed happy and comfortable there.” - Nathan Grade 8

“They could pray that more and more kids would join and that Tyrone would continue to have strength and passion.” - Kasana Grade 11 “The funding keeps coming and they can keep doing fun activities and continue to feed the kids good food.” - Will Grade 6 “Someone could pray for the Ministry because some-times it is hard and they were having a great time being there and that it could continue to be like that. Also that they can be safe walking home each night.” - Cliodhna Grade 7

How did you see God at work or what did God teach you?

How could someone pray for Casino Road Kids Ministry?

On March 20, North Creek’s youth groups led an evening program for Casino Road Kids Ministry, a local program that provides mentoring, homework help, hot meals and opportunities to know Christ for disadvantaged kids in south Everett. The night included a meal, games and a Bible lesson. Here’s what they thought of their service expe-rience:

Church Work Party 6

Prayer Ministry

April this year contains the most important Christian observant / holiday — far more important

than Christmas. Like many religions we celebrate the birthday of Jesus, the founder of Christian-

ity, with celebrations, food and gifts.

However our religion is unique. We are very different because we observe the death of Jesus

AND THE GLORIOUS RESURECTION OF JESUS OUR SAVIOR ON EASTER!

Yet we have allowed society to minimize observance of this glorious event to the level of col-

ored eggs, candy bunnies and new spring clothing. As Christians it is important that we recall

the deeper meaning of this season and honor it in our homes.

What is the significance of Easter to your household? How will you answer to Jesus for this situation? Is there

something you need to change? When?

As we approach Holy Week, prayerfully consider these questions and bring them to the Lord. Should you feel

the need for prayers in this area of your life, contact the prayer ministry via Ron and Mary Wilmot at mary-

roan@aol.com or Leona Burgess at leoburg1@gmail.com.

- Chuck Popik

Confirmation 6

Welcome to Active Membership in the Church!

On Thursday, March 30th, the session welcomed the students of this year's Confirmation Class into mem-bership in the church upon hearing each one's statement of faith in Jesus Christ. On Sunday, April 9, our confirmation students will serve as our worship leaders for both services.

(back row, left to right): Nathan Giboney, Spencer Little, Kasana Anderson, Jacey Sistrunk (middle row, left to right): Nathan Odell, Wyatt Carter, Elizabeth Hirman (front row, left to right): Kynan Anderson, Chase Weber

Grades 9-12

Register by April 23

Register by March 1 and enter to win a Camp Casey hoodie! Inconceivable!!!

Lessons from the book of Ruth

print registration forms