We arrived in Seattle on Saturday March 27 at around 7:00 PM, the evening was tiring as you can imagine and it seemed to take forever to get our luggage. All in all the team was in good spirits and excited about what the week held for them, we met Greg from Network Tacoma that night along with Aaron and Sonia from CIY who we were working with. They picked us up and we settled in for the night back at the Network headquarters.
Before we left I didn’t know what to expect exactly except that we were going to a really cool city in the pacific northwest, so I prayed this prayer “God just break me this week.” I landed expecting this to happen and it does everyday, it’s the art of dying to personal kingdoms and consumerism everyday which is difficult for Americans I’ve noticed especially this one. We love to be in control and think we have everything figured out and we love to be right and will challenge all who oppose us, this is the part of the heart that has to die and I’m reminded of this even here and now sitting in Mandoline’s a local coffee shop in downtown Tacoma. So in this blog let me start out by sharing with you what I experienced Sunday.
On Sunday we got to see brothers and sisters at the Soma community in the morning and the Mars Hill community at night, they are both Acts 29 church plants and both are influential in there own way needless to say I was excited. I went into Soma with Church planters eyes on and got a whole lot more, I’ve been seeking and searching into the direction of church planting these past few years and have continued to feel a calling towards it. At Soma it’s bigger than what it looks, it takes place in a space that looks like an old cafe and this is where about 350 to 400 brothers and sisters gather every Sunday. But that’s the thing Soma is more than Sunday morning, most of there people are being ministered in homes all throughout the week and they understand what it means to be missional everyday and you can feel it. A lot of the people that go to Soma live in community and here’s what I mean by that, instead of a family of 4 living in a 3000 square foot home you would maybe have families of 4 a shut in and anyone else for that matter living in a house, in the words of greg it’s God’s house not ours and they live in community by doing this. Soma loves there city and it shows, in the middle of what was an outstanding hour long sermon the Teacher stops mentioning a sick member and prays for them on the spot, I loved it and it wasn’t fake it was so genuine and so built into the DNA of Soma. Soma is a special place and you can just tell that God is on the move there.
At Mars Hill it’s a lot bigger but it doesn’t feel like it, they meet on about 8 different campuses across Seattle and one in New Mexico, the Ballard campus where Driscoll preaches meets in what looks like an old wherehouse and not very big for mega church standards but what I love is how they use the space. They’re not into building a bigger building for people to come to instead they go to the people, this is why they have campuses instead of building the next biggest building. Mars Hill also is missional and it shows in everything they do, the sermons are an hour long and the service as a whole last’s about 1 hr 40 to 1 hr 45, what’s even more refreshing is that it’s young mostly 25-30 year olds and they want to be there. It’s so refreshing cause I see this happening more and more in the world, Jesus is being discovered and we are currently in a new age of great awakening just see Dallas Willard on that. Needless to say Mars Hill is an inspiring place just like the city and I want you all to know about what the Kingdom is doing out here, I will post more blogs in the coming days on all the other discoveries we are having. Keep praying for God to break me and our team, also pray for the city of Seattle and Tacoma.
Grace and Peace be with you,
C-DUB
