MEN’S ADVANCE THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

2008 Men’s Advance: Jesus | Author and Perfector

Men of Mars Hill, you have one opportunity a year to advance with your brothers in Christ at an intensive weekend of training and growth. These weekends have produced incredible fruit in the past. Men, DO NOT MISS THIS!

The advance will occur at Warm Beach Camp on May 16th - 18th. Pastors Mark Driscoll, Bill Clem, Tim Smith and Scott Thomas will be throwing down, as well as your campus pastors. Check out this link for full information and registration.

The City - By the numbers!

Built by Mars Hill’s pastors and staff to support the community life of Mars Hill’s body. Here’s what’s going on on the City!

• 3552 individual people are on the City
• 597 groups are on the city
• 207 of these are service groups! Are you in one? Email ballard@marshillchurch.org
• 103 prayer requests posted just last week!
• 402 responses to these prayers by people in community with one another.
• ARE YOU ON THE CITY?

Ask your community group leader, service group lead or stop by any info desk on Sunday to get invited.

Spring 2008: The Call to Mission

This is a very unique time in the life of our church as each member and attender is essentially attending our membership class each Sunday, through Pastor Mark’s preaching. Check out the Call the Mission special website.

UPCOMING EVENTS

JUNE

• June 4th: College Ministry Baptism and BBQ!
• June 20th: Family Ministry Kick-off with Illusionist Louie Foxx
• June 24th: Clique 116 Unashamed Tour

JULY

• July 17th: Annual All Church Baptism and BBQ Party and Golden Gardens.  Save the date - details coming soon!

JUST TWO WEEKS LEFT!

2008 Men’s Advance: Jesus | Author and Perfector

• Men of Mars Hill, you have one opportunity a year to advance with your brothers in Christ at an intensive weekend of training and growth. These weekends have produced incredible fruit in the past. Men, DO NOT MISS THIS!
• The advance will occur at Warm Beach Camp on May 16th - 18th. Pastors Mark Driscoll, Bill Clem, Tim Smith and Scott Thomas will be throwing down, as well as your campus pastors. Check out this link for full information and registration.

OTHER NEWS

The City - Mars Hill’s own online community networking site.

• Built by Mars Hill’s pastors and staff to support the community life of Mars Hill’s body. Ask your community group leader, service group lead or stop by any desk on Sunday to get invited. Check out this link to a great story about it.

Spring 2008: The Call to Mission

• This is a very unique time in the life of our church as each member and attender is essentially attending our membership class each Sunday, through Pastor Mark’s preaching. Check out the Call the Mission special website.

TONIGHT!!

All Members Meeting: April 21st at 7pm

• Members or those who wish to become members are asked to attend this important meeting at the campus they wish to request membership in. There will be children’s ministry at the Ballard campus for ages 5months - to Grade 4. The members meeting is a part of our spring Call to Mission, asking members to recommit to living lives for the Gospel in our city.

Spring 2008: The Call to Mission

• This is a very unique time in the life of our church as each member and attender is essentially attending our membership class each Sunday, through Pastor Mark’s preaching. Check out the Call the Mission special website.

Time of Prayer and Music: April 22nd 11am

• On April 22nd our elders are calling us to a day of prayer and fasting as we consider our call to mission in this city. Anyone who is able is invited to join in a time of quiet prayer, reflection and music in lieu of lunch. Ballard campus, 11am - 1pm, come anytime and stay as you are able.

Annual Men’s Advance: Jesus | Author and Perfector

• The advance will occur once again at Warm Beach Camp on May 16th - 18th. Pastors Mark Driscoll, Bill Clem, Tim Smith and Scott Thomas will be throwing down, as well as your campus pastors. Check out this link for full information and registration.

OTHER NEWS

The City - Mars Hill’s own online community networking site.

• Built by Mars Hill’s pastors and staff to support the community life of Mars Hill’s body. Ask your community group leader, service group lead or stop by any desk on Sunday to get invited. Check out this link to a great story about it.

Baby Dedications!

• May 11th is Mother’s Day and we’re celebrating with baby dedications.

SERVING NEEDS

Mars Hill is one body with many parts. We simply are not honoring the Lord when we are not sacrificing our time, treasure and talents for the church we attend. If you are not serving, please change that today.

For more details and specific opportunities, please click here.

LOOKING FORWARD…

Click here for the Mars Hill Calendar and a complete listing of our events and classes

April

• Monday, April 21st. All Members Meeting
  

• Saturday, April 26th. Children’s Ministry Pool Party!
  

• Mars Hill Outdoors: This ministry has some great spring activities planned. If you are interested in finding an excuse to get outdoors, or looking for a great opportunity to meet new people, checkout the Spring calendar.

May

• Sunday, May 11th, Considering Marriage Seminar. This is an overview/seminar which is a prerequiste of the Biblical Marriage class, required to be married at Mars Hill or by a Mars Hill pastor.

• Friday, May 16th - Sunday, May 18th: Annual Men’s Advance - Register now!

EVENTS THIS WEEK & UPCOMING

NEXT MONDAY!!

All Members Meeting: April 21st at 7pm

• Members or those who wish to become members are asked to attend this important meeting at the campus they wish to request membership in. There will be children’s ministry at the Ballard campus for ages 5months - to Grade 4. The members meeting is a part of our spring Call to Mission, asking members to recommit to living lives for the Gospel in our city.

Spring 2008: The Call to Mission

• This is a very unique time in the life of our church as each member and attender is essentially attending our membership class each Sunday, through Pastor Mark’s preaching. Check out the Call the Mission special website.

Time of Prayer and Music: April 22nd 11am

• On April 22nd our elders are calling us to a day of prayer and fasting as we consider our call to mission in this city. Anyone who is able is invited to join in a time of quiet prayer, reflection and music in lieu of lunch. Ballard campus, 11am - 1pm, come anytime and stay as you are able.

Annual Men’s Advance: Jesus | Author and Perfector

• The advance will occur once again at Warm Beach Camp on May 16th - 18th. Pastors Mark Driscoll, Bill Clem, Tim Smith and Scott Thomas will be throwing down, as well as your campus pastors. Check out this link for full information and registration.

OTHER NEWS

The City - Mars Hill’s own online community networking site.

• Built by Mars Hill’s pastors and staff to support the community life of Mars Hill’s body. Ask your community group leader, service group lead or stop by any desk on Sunday to get invited. Check out this link to a great story about it.

Baby Dedications!

• May 11th is Mother’s Day and we’re celebrating with baby dedications.

SERVING NEEDS

Mars Hill is one body with many parts. We simply are not honoring the Lord when we are not sacrificing our time, treasure and talents for the church we attend. If you are not serving, please change that today.

For more details and specific opportunities, please click here.

LOOKING FORWARD…

Click here for the Mars Hill Calendar and a complete listing of our events and classes

April

• Thursday, April 17th: Vintage Jesus 3 at UW’s Kane Hall

• Monday, April 21st. All Members Meeting
  

• Saturday, April 26th. Children’s Ministry Pool Party!
  

• Mars Hill Outdoors: This ministry has some great spring activities planned. If you are interested in finding an excuse to get outdoors, or looking for a great opportunity to meet new people, checkout the Spring calendar.

May

• Sunday, May 11th, Considering Marriage Seminar. This is an overview/seminar which is a prerequiste of the Biblical Marriage class, required to be married at Mars Hill or by a Mars Hill pastor.

• Friday, May 16th - Sunday, May 18th: Annual Men’s Advance - Register now!

Dayna began attending Mars Hill a year ago and was baptized on Easter Sunday.

“On Easter I was twenty minutes late and already feeling the conviction of tardiness. I had no idea what was in store. Of course being so late put me in the very last row, of the congregation of hundreds that had sacrificed their Easter morning of sleep to start their day with the glorious mercy of Christ on this day of passover.

As I sat down Pastor Mark began his sermon on the resurrection of Christ and the beauty of this day that we rejoice in every year. Once Pastor Mark was finished, he invited our campus pastor Bubba up. And now it was the moment everyone had been waiting for . . . and the only one I had completely forgotten about. The baptisms. I watched as the two women walked on stage calm and collected. I personally would have been a wreck. But now I was getting hit with more conviction. All month I had been wrestling with getting baptized. But I didn’t want to have to speak in front of everyone. That’s just down right scary!

But, I knew I should be standing up there with them; giving my life to God proudly, without feeling intimidated or anxious, but excited and blessed. I began to tear up every time one of the ladies would get submerged and then emerge from the water a new life, in Christ. Feeling happy for them in the decision that they had made, but also jealous that I hadn’t been so bold. When they had finished Pastor Bubba returned to the stage with a little surprise for all of those feeling the conviction of baptism. “Spontaneous” baptisms! This was wonderful! I felt forgiven for not trusting God and coming to Him more willingly. And here He was giving me another chance to be made new in Him. I instantly felt called. My eyes welled with tears, my heart joyed to an amount I didn’t know possible. I was going to get baptized.

But what about my clothes? And my hair? And my make-up!? I was all ready to go have Easter with my family right after church. Talk about being put to the test. If I would have known, I would have prepared. As these thoughts ran through my head, Pastor Bubba announced that I should not “be so uptight.” They have taken these kinds of things into consideration. Well, some of them at least.

They had shirts for us to change into back stage, so that we wouldn’t get entirely soaked. And there are towels to help dry that which does get drenched. So, that is a little better. I know, I must go. Whether I want to get wet or not, this was the will of my Lord and I was ready to make our relationship a committed one.

As the band started playing everyone rose out of their seats to either head for communion or run to the stage to get dunked in a large pool of water. I quickly started walking towards the pool. As I veered around to get to the stage I saw Pastor Mark standing on the side with pride. Watching the kingdom of God grow in his church. I had always wanted to thank him for helping me to get to know God, Jesus, and the Spirit.” And what better time than now? I went to Mark and shook his hand with tears in my eyes and probably shaking from the excitement and emotional peak I had just encountered. I told him that I was going to be baptized and thanked him for helping me to understand or Lord and savior better than I ever had. Then something I never expected. He asked if there was anything he could pray for my about. All I wanted was to be made and born new in Christ that day. And he prayed for me! Right there!

I thanked him again and made my way to the stage. When I got up there, there was an information paper that we had to fill out so that the church could get ahold of us later and see how our new lives were going. I quickly wrote all of my info and waited for Pastor Bubba to come and take me to the stage. Looking up at it, and then walking next to it, the pool was so big! And everyone that got in and out were so wet! And I couldn’t wait to get in it myself!

I didn’t care anymore about my hair or my make-up. It didn’t matter. What mattered was the second chance that I was about to be given, by a man that committed no sin other than telling truth. And then died for me. He is what matters. I got to the back where everyone was trying to figure out where to go to change and where the line was to get baptized and where the shirts were that we could change into. It was crazy, but it was also beautiful. I wanted to hug everyone, but I also didn’t want to seem crazy. I was just excited! And so happy for everyone else that had found God! He is the most wonderful discovery a person can make and we did.

I finally found somewhere to change. It was a storage room with a hole bunch of electronics and cleaning equipment. But, hey, it was perfect. It wasn’t what mattered. And now, I could see the pool. There was no line for me to wait in. It was time. The pastor asked me if I had repented of all my sins, “yes.” The pastor asked me if I was ready to be made new in Jesus Christ, “yes.” He said a prayer and the two pastors immersed me in the pool of water and lifted me out. I could start new. Now if I could just get out of the pool without slipping and making a comical entrance into my new life. I got out quite gracefully, the the Lord!

The rest of the day was like nothing I had every experienced. I was the happiest I had ever been. But I looked the saddest. I cried every time I talked to someone new. Telling them about my baptism and how happy and excited I was. My heart soared, my soul lifted and I never want it to end.”

Spring 2008: The Call to Mission

• Yesterday we began a new sermon series: Doctrine ~ What Christians should believe. This is a very unique time in the life of our church as each member and attender is essentially attending our membership class each Sunday, through Pastor Mark’s preaching. Check out the Call the Mission special website.

All Members Meeting: April 21st 7pm

• Members or those who wish to become members are asked to attend this important meeting at the campus they wish to request membership in. There will be children’s ministry at the Ballard campus for ages 5months - to Grade 4.

Time of Prayer and Music: April 22nd 11am

•  On April 22nd our elders are calling us to a day of prayer and fasting as we consider our call to mission in this city.  Anyone who is able is invited to join in a time of quiet prayer, reflection and music in lieu of lunch.  Ballard campus, 11am - 1pm, come anytime and stay as you are able.

Annual Men’s Advance: Jesus | Author and Perfector

• The advance will occur once again at Warm Beach Camp on May 16th - 18th. Pastors Mark Driscoll, Bill Clem, Tim Smith and Scott Thomas will be throwing down, as well as your campus pastors. Check out this link for full information and registration.

OTHER NEWS

The City - Mars Hill’s own online community networking site.

• Built by Mars Hill’s pastors and staff to support the community life of Mars Hill’s body. Ask your community group leader, service group lead or stop by any desk on Sunday to get invited. Check out this link to a great story about it.

Baby Dedications!

• May 11th is Mother’s Day and we’re celebrating with baby dedications.

SERVING NEEDS

Mars Hill is one body with many parts. We simply are not honoring the Lord when we are not sacrificing our time, treasure and talents for the church we attend. If you are not serving, please change that today.

For more details and specific opportunities, please click here.

LOOKING FORWARD…

Click here for the Mars Hill Calendar and a complete listing of our events and classes

April

• Thursday, April 17th: Vintage Jesus 3 at UW’s Kane Hall

• Monday, April 21st. All Members Meeting
  

• Mars Hill Outdoors: This ministry has some great spring activities planned. If you are interested in finding an excuse to get outdoors, or looking for a great opportunity to meet new people, checkout the Spring calendar.

May

• Sunday, May 11th, Considering Marriage Seminar. This is an overview/seminar which is a prerequiste of the Biblical Marriage class, required to be married at Mars Hill or by a Mars Hill pastor.

• Thursday, May 15th, Vintage Jesus 4. The final in the series

• Friday, May 16th - Sunday, May 18th: Annual Men’s Advance - Register now!

I just wanted to thank you for the incredible service you held at Mars Hill Ballard this past Sunday and to let you know how much it meant to me and to my family to be able to be a part of it. Our family served as Greeters at the 11:00 service – it was such a joy to us to be able to stand together as a family and welcome people into the service, wishing them a happy Easter and helping them to feel loved and welcomed! Then we got into the service and we were completely overwhelmed with emotion – the three of us wept through most of the service – the songs, the message from Pastor Mark and the baptisms just overwhelmed us with tears of joy.

I have been a Christian for 28 years and I can tell you honestly that I have never experienced such a celebration as we did this past Sunday at Mars Hill. Watching the people come forward to be baptized on the day we were celebrating Jesus’ resurrection felt like we had stepped right back into the New Testament Book of Acts….I had attended the Good Friday service (my family had other obligations and couldn’t attend) and experienced such an incredible appreciation for what Christ suffered on my behalf and really felt so very overwhelmed by His love for His people all weekend long. So by the time I got to church on Sunday morning I was ready to celebrate His resurrection and triumph over Satan, sin and death. But I never expected to be as blessed as I ended up being by that service – and I just wanted to let you know what you and the people of Mars Hill did for me and for my family that day.

As I said, I’ve been a Christian for 28 years. I was baptized as an infant I think mostly out of some sort of superstition and not out of any faith on my parents part as they weren’t Christians. I never went to church as a child and my parents never spoke about God or about a faith in Jesus – but for some reason I was baptized as a baby. I came to Christ my junior year at the UW after a dramatic transformation took place in my life. I had been an atheist for most of my life – but my junior year I ended up getting pregnant, having an abortion and then completely fell apart emotionally at what had become of my life. My boyfriend at the time had a Christian mom and to try to calm me down he started reading to me out of the Psalms. I felt like he was telling me about the home and the Father that I had been longing for my entire life. Soon after that , I found myself starting to read the Bible and I ended up at a college retreat sponsored by University Presbyterian Church in Seattle – it was on that weekend retreat after reading John Stott’s “Basic Christianity” that I asked Christ into my heart. The transformation in my attitude and my actions was dramatic and I longed to tell everyone about what Jesus had done in my life. The college group was holding baptisms at Greenlake later that month and I desperately wanted to participate. But the college pastor told me that since I had been baptized as a baby by my parents, I couldn’t get “re-baptized”….he talked about denying the impact of my first baptism and somehow “recrucifying Christ” all over again by getting re-baptized. I was devastated for not being able to make a public proclamation of my new-found faith – and also felt horribly guilty for even having wanted to be baptized when it was so obviously wrong by my new church’s standards. I eventually put this longing out of my mind – but it stayed in my heart always as something that I wished I could have done.

After having my own children, my husband and I baptized both of them – also at UPC since that is the church where we were members. It was the thing that all the young parents were doing and I felt like it was something that I had to do as a Christian in that church environment. Years later, my youngest daughter Callin came to faith in Christ and she (like her mom had) wanted to get baptized. But she was told the same message that I had been told so many years earlier. She couldn’t since she had already been baptized as a baby.

To make a long story shorter – our family ended up finally feeling like we needed to find a new church. The Presbyterian Church just wasn’t a fit for us - at least in the theology they were expressing from the pulpit….there wasn’t any church discipline, the sermons were topical always and not at all challenging – and never out of the Scriptures. It seemed like they cared more about keeping the congregation happy and donating then they did about challenging them to be true disciples of Jesus Christ. We ended up being led by God to come to Mars Hill – and there we found the church we had always longed to be a part of….a church where the Scriptures are preached and honored, where discipleship is taken seriously and the members are challenged to live obediently and repentantly, where church discipline is carried out. We’ve been at Mars Hill every Sunday since October and just completed the membership class to join the church.

So that brings me to last Sunday – as we stood in worship at the 11:00 service I knew this was my opportunity to get baptized…Pastor Bubba had even said, “If you are a Christian and you’ve never been baptized, this is your chance…..” I was nervous since I had technically been baptized as a baby – but I knew that Mars Hill supported believers’ baptism and I so desperately wanted to get baptized….even if it was 28 years after the fact of accepting Christ into my heart. I was really nervous…making some excuses about having on my nice Easter outfit and having to go out to Easter Brunch after the service with my parents…what would they think if I showed up all wet? But I really felt God moving me to go forward. Just then my daughter turned to me and said, “Mom – I want to be baptized….but I’m too afraid to go up there by myself. Will you go with me?” “Go with you? Callin – I won’t just go with you – I’ll get baptized with you! I asked my husband if he wanted to go up with us – he said he wasn’t feeling led to go – he, too, had been baptized as a child – but he encouraged my daughter and I to go forward. Together we kicked off our shoes and went forward holding hands. It was an incredible experience for us. Our hearts were pounding – we were nervous but so excited. I stepped into the pool and my daughter was encouraged to “get close to watch your mom get baptized”. She was really touched by how encouraged she was to feel a part of my baptism. After I came out of the water, Pastor Brad turned to me and asked me if I wanted to help baptize my daughter. I couldn’t believe that I was going to get to participate in my daughter’s baptism like this. What an incredible joy it was to hold her as she went down into the water and came back out again. As she was baptized, her baptismal verse that I had chosen for her as a baby 18 years ago just kept going over and over in my mind: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”. (Gal. 2:20) We couldn’t stop crying and just held on tightly to each other as we stepped out of the pool.

What a difference it has made in both of our hearts since that time. God has done a work of grace in both of us – causing us to feel like brand new Christians in some strange way. This public declaration has been long coming for both of us – the burden and the heartache we have both carried in not being able to participate in this most holy action has been such a weight to carry – more than either of us ever realized. We have been so delighted to find our faith refreshed, invigorated with some sense of the newness of Christ’s presence with us and the gratitude of all He has done on our behalf.

My daughter is now witnessing on her Cornish campus with a renewed vigor – even allowing her baptism to be the topic she uses to introduce people to her faith in Christ. Everywhere I go I share with people the joy that I feel at being able to fulfill this long-awaited proclamation and to use my recent baptism to tell them about who Christ is and what He has done in my life.

You have truly made a difference in both our lives by allowing two Christians to finally be baptized as believers in Christ. Bless you for this step of faith you have taken and for your willingness to put yourselves out for so many who wanted on this particular Lord’s Resurrection Day to proclaim their faith in Him and their desire to be identified with Him in His death and in His glorious resurrection.

He is truly risen and you and the staff of Mars Hill have helped to mark this particular Easter Sunday forever in my heart.

Thank you for this gracious gift you’ve given to me and to my daughter.

Gratefully,
Tracy Stone (and my daughter Callin Regan)

To check out the recorded testimonies from Easter Sunday go here!

Spring 2008: The Call to Mission

• Yesterday we began a new sermon series: Doctrine ~ What Christians should believe. This is a very unique time in the life of our church as each member and attender is essentially attending our membership class each Sunday, through Pastor Mark’s preaching. Check out this post on the Mission and Vision blog for full information and details as well as key links to the Call the Mission special website.

Annual Men’s Advance: Jesus | Author and Perfector

• The advance will occur once again at Warm Beach Camp on May 16th - 18th. Pastors Mark Driscoll, Bill Clem, Tim Smith and Scott Thomas will be throwing down, as well as your campus pastors. Check out this link for full information and registration.

EVERCLEAR concert at the Downtown Campus

• On April 5th at 8:00pm, the Downtown campus will host a benefit for New Horizons ministries, which ministers to at-risk street kids. Multi-platinum rockers Everclear will play as well as our own Red Letter. For $15 tickets, click here.

OTHER NEWS

Mars Hill is Hiring!

• Mars Hill is hiring for an Accounting Manager. To request a job description and apply, please email apply@marshillchurch.org. In the subject line, please include “Accounting Manager.”

Mars Hill Sports Softball

• Co-ed Softball starts soon! Check out MH Sports website for more details!

SERVING NEEDS

Mars Hill is one body with many parts. We simply are not honoring the Lord when we are not sacrificing our time, treasure and talents for the church we attend. If you are not serving, please change that today.

For more details and specific opportunities, please click here.

LOOKING FORWARD…

Click here for the Mars Hill Calendar and a complete listing of our events and classes

April

• Thursday, April 17th: Vintage Jesus 3 at UW’s Kane Hall

• Monday, April 21st. All Members Meeting: The first of its kind in more than 5 years, this evening is an essential for all Mars Hill members and those who wish to become them.

• Mars Hill Outdoors: This ministry has some great spring activities planned. If you are interested in finding an excuse to get outdoors, or looking for a great opportunity to meet new people, checkout the Spring calendar.

May

• Thursday, May 15th, Vintage Jesus 4. The final in the series

• Friday, May 16th - Sunday, May 18th: Annual Men’s Advance - Register now!

TONIGHT!!

All Members Meeting: April 21st at 7pm

• Members or those who wish to become members are asked to attend this important meeting at the campus they wish to request membership in. There will be children’s ministry at the Ballard campus for ages 5months - to Grade 4. The members meeting is a part of our spring Call to Mission, asking members to recommit to living lives for the Gospel in our city.

Spring 2008: The Call to Mission

• This is a very unique time in the life of our church as each member and attender is essentially attending our membership class each Sunday, through Pastor Mark’s preaching. Check out the Call the Mission special website.

Time of Prayer and Music: April 22nd 11am

• On April 22nd our elders are calling us to a day of prayer and fasting as we consider our call to mission in this city. Anyone who is able is invited to join in a time of quiet prayer, reflection and music in lieu of lunch. Ballard campus, 11am - 1pm, come anytime and stay as you are able.

Annual Men’s Advance: Jesus | Author and Perfector

• The advance will occur once again at Warm Beach Camp on May 16th - 18th. Pastors Mark Driscoll, Bill Clem, Tim Smith and Scott Thomas will be throwing down, as well as your campus pastors. Check out this link for full information and registration.

OTHER NEWS

The City - Mars Hill’s own online community networking site.

• Built by Mars Hill’s pastors and staff to support the community life of Mars Hill’s body. Ask your community group leader, service group lead or stop by any desk on Sunday to get invited. Check out this link to a great story about it.

Baby Dedications!

• May 11th is Mother’s Day and we’re celebrating with baby dedications.

SERVING NEEDS

Mars Hill is one body with many parts. We simply are not honoring the Lord when we are not sacrificing our time, treasure and talents for the church we attend. If you are not serving, please change that today.

For more details and specific opportunities, please click here.

LOOKING FORWARD…

Click here for the Mars Hill Calendar and a complete listing of our events and classes

April

• Thursday, April 17th: Vintage Jesus 3 at UW’s Kane Hall

• Monday, April 21st. All Members Meeting
  

• Saturday, April 26th. Children’s Ministry Pool Party!
  

• Mars Hill Outdoors: This ministry has some great spring activities planned. If you are interested in finding an excuse to get outdoors, or looking for a great opportunity to meet new people, checkout the Spring calendar.

May

• Sunday, May 11th, Considering Marriage Seminar. This is an overview/seminar which is a prerequiste of the Biblical Marriage class, required to be married at Mars Hill or by a Mars Hill pastor.

• Thursday, May 15th, Vintage Jesus 4. The final in the series

• Friday, May 16th - Sunday, May 18th: Annual Men’s Advance - Register now!

Nathan, before I get to your super cool “testimony”, let’s answer the 5 W’s. What is your current role at Mars Hill?

Assitant to Pastor Tim Smith. I work in the worship dept doing a whole mess of different things.

In 20 words or less, when did you become a Christian?

Spring 2001. I was baptized in 2005. (which was printed in the voxpop right after that event)

When did you first set foot in Mars Hill Church?

2001. It was around the time I was becoming a Christian. I had heard a tape of Pastor Mark and thought it was pretty good. When I was visiting Seattle (I lived in DC at the time) I went to Mars Hill when it was in the old Paradox building on University Ave. What I heard kind of pissed me off, but as I thought about it, I realized it was what Jesus said that was actually the source of my irritation…which caused me to do a lot of re-evaluating.

How did you end up in Ballard?

Turned west at Fremont.

What is your Scripture?

Col 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Favorite Quotation?

“Who dares wins” - British Special Forces (SAS) during WWII

What was the last book you read and what are you working on now?

“Gates of Fire” Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans.

The last movie you watched?

Loud-Quiet-Loud (A documentary about the Pixies)

Music of choice?

If you insist…

Favorite Seattle-area eatery?

The Rajun Cajun at Other Coast Café is pretty serious.

Okay, thanks Nathan…and on with the rest of the story…

There is so much I could say about becoming a Christian. There are even a million ways to say it; “becoming a Christian”…”got saved”…”met Jesus”…”Jesus saved me”…etc, etc. So many of those terms seem loaded with cultural stigmas. So be it. The point is that I now know that Jesus Christ is Lord and I want to live my life accordingly.

Until the age of about 25 I was an atheist, agnostic, or theist depending on when you asked, and usually felt very clever for being so. I prided myself on my intelligence and thought that true belief in the Christian sense was for the weak-minded and ignorant. I prided myself on my open-minded universalistic self-created theology, thinking that Christians were close-minded. I didn’t realize that what I had created did not resemble any absolute truth, but rather my own selfish hopes. Like a fool I created my own little universe with myself seated on the throne as the god of my own destiny. It took me a long time to realize that for truth to be truth, it must exist despite what I think of it. In retrospect I am grateful that God’s truth is much kinder and full of grace than anything I would have conceived of for myself.

I was raised in an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C. My parents were ex-Catholics, and the topic of God rarely came up. When it did it was inconclusive at best. I went through an educational system ripe with post-modernism and intellectual elitism, and I bought into it. Outside of school I became very involved in music. Most of the people I encountered there only re-enforced what I wanted to believe. Yet at the heart of it was a spirit of blind and empty discontent. None of us had any real answers. My heart was hardening, but I felt powerless to stop it.

The period of change for me began in late 1999. I met Rachel, the woman who would later become my wife. It was a brief encounter, but we began emailing and talking on the phone. She was the first person to really challenge my beliefs. I found it unsettling. I longed for the calm, love, and centeredness I saw in her. That was, of course, Christ. She never bested me with any philosophical arguments…her faith held fast, and my whole world-view unraveled before it like waves breaking against rocks.

There were a lot of other things happening around this time as well. I have subsequently found that God does not act singularly, and there is no such thing as coincidence. A close friend of mine died in March of 2000. It was a real blow. What seemed odd was that she had become a Christian some time before that. I sat on her death bed waiting for some kind of wisdom. She looked at me and just said, “do the right thing.” Somehow that resonated with me. But what was the right thing? I set out to find it. I can’t remember a word from her eulogy, but I do remember that it shook me up.

I started tentatively going to church. I went to a Catholic church downtown where I could sit anonymously. I liked the peace and reverence of it, but something was still missing.
My discussions with Rachel intensified, as did our relationship. We had become best friends and wanted to be more, which seemed to bring everything to a crisis. She wouldn’t be with a non-Christian man, but I wanted badly to be with her. I felt like I was drowning. God was bringing me to my knees.

That summer I decided to take a couple religion courses at the local community college. I had already taken loads of classes about Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, etc, but this summer there was a class called “The Life and Teachings of Jesus.” I signed up for several reasons, some good, some bad. One, I genuinely wanted to understand more. I realized that I was being hypocritical in making huge sweeping judgments about something I hadn’t even read. It wasn’t like me to not investigate something I was interested in. I felt more comfortable with the “secular” setting, not worrying that someone was going to suck out my personality and turn me into a Jesus robot. Two, I felt desperate. I started praying that God would come into my life, but it had always been on my terms. My prayer was basically “Anything but Christianity, please.” The other reason I took the class was to find the loop-holes. I wanted to argue against Christians with their own words, to find the flaws in the book they held in such esteem.

What happened was something entirely different. I encountered Jesus. He was not the permed, blonde, gaunt, domesticated Jesus I expected. He didn’t just do and say sweet things, but also tough stuff like “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” (Luke 12:49-51) Jesus didn’t ask me to leave my mind at the door, or to become Ned Flanders, but rather to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matt 22:37) I came to love what he said and did. I eventually came to trust him, including what he said about himself. The conclusion was unavoidable…Jesus was not just some hippie, or some nice guy…he was the Messiah. He was crucified for the sins of the world (including mine) and rose again to defeat death (including mine). He was, and is Lord.

What is so funny to me about that time is that I had a Buddhism class right before the Jesus class. Before the semester I thought it was going to blow my mind with wisdom. As time went on I found myself falling asleep with Buddha’s verbal acrobatics and waiting eagerly for Jesus to change the world and me in the process in the next class. I meditated on the Lord’s prayer (Matt 6:9-13) and was floored by its profundity in such few and simple words. My prayers changed from “my will be done” to “thy will be done.” The veil fell from in front of me and the face I had been trying to see my whole life was that of Jesus.

There is so much more to tell, but all I can really say is that since then God has blessed me immeasurably. Is everything better? No, but I feel whole…not like I am wearing a façade. My value is no longer placed on the things of this world. I am no longer “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Col 2:8)

Rachel and I are very happily married and moved to Seattle October 2004. My father and mother have both come to Christ. I have seen God do what I thought was impossible. I have purpose and the calm I so longed for.

Christ be praised!