Five years ago..
If you would have asked me five years ago what my five year plan was, I would have told you a whole list of things that I hoped and dreamed for myself because, well, I am a planner. At times, I have even been a dreamer. Ironically enough, one of the things that would not have been on the list was working on staff at a local church.
My life five years ago looked dramatically different than it does today. My husband and I had just got married. We both had full time jobs in the area but we did not attend a local church. I grew up in a Christian home, went to church on Sundays off and on for my entire childhood. I knew who Jesus was; I was saved and baptized when I was 12 years old. John, however, did not grow up in a Christian church. His only real exposure to church was when he visited his sister or when we visited my parents.
One day, he and I were talking and we both expressed interest in trying to find a local church. Our friends, Mark, Maggie, and Tim, were regular attenders/members of Northstar and had invited us to come with them so we decided to start by checking out Northstar. I don’t think either of us ever imagined we would still be attending the same church five years from then, but here we are.
A new Christian…
In our time at Northstar, John became a Christian! We have seen many, many college students come and go, we have seen families that poured into us and loved us like their own family leave, we have been in several small groups, made many, many friendships that we have become dependent on. We have added a little girl to our family. We have witnessed many baptisms, some of close friends and some of acquaintances from Sunday morning. We have experienced an unquantifiable amount of spiritual growth, as individuals, as a couple and as parents. And so much more. . .
The mission
All of that to say, one of the biggest reason why I love serving at Northstar is because I believe in the mission of our church and in some way, I feel like serving in the capacity that I do allows others to experience God in their life. I love that we are truly a family and that we not only take care of each other, but we strive to take care of our community. We do those things, not so that we can be viewed as good, caring people but, so that we can proclaim what Jesus has done for us and show others how that impacts our lives.