The month is March and the Madness is about to begin. Each year, Open Life does a Bracket Challenge for any Open Lifers who want to participate. For the past few years we've even done both a Men's and Women's bracket.

What's a stake? Well... a lot.

Winners receive the following:

• A year's worth of bragging rights.
• A commemorative paper (card stock) certificate celebrating your victory.
• Sometimes we even spring for a Sunday shoutout or an E-news announcement.

How to participate:
After the teams have been picked for both the Men's and Women's Tournaments on Sunday, March 15th, fill out a Men's and/or a Women's NCAA Tournament Challenge Bracket, hosted by ESPN. Follow the following links to join our Open Life Church groups.

• Men's Tournament Challenge - Open Life Church (M) - password is: openlife
• Women's Tournament Challenge - Open Life Church (W) - password is: openlife
  • Please Note: You'll need to register for an ESPN account to participate.
• Be sure to get your picks in before each tournament starts.
  • The Men's bracket will lock at 9:15a PT on Thu, March 19th.
  • The Women's bracket will lock at 8:30a PT on Fri, March 20th.

Whether you've been following the college basketball season all year or you're going to pick the teams by how you feel about the mascots, we hope you have a fun time participating in this year's "OFFICIAL" Open Life Church Tournament Challenge.

Past Winners:
2025:

• M: Stu Renz
• W: Derek Rubino

2024:

• M: Greg Watson & Clark Rubino
• W: Gordon LaMay

2023: Dan Schultz
2022: Dan Schultz

This Sunday is Serve Sunday at Open Life Church, and instead of meeting at Bonney Lake High School, we’ll be gathering at GoodRoots Northwest for a special all-church serve opportunity. Together, we’ll be assembling Power Packs for students in our local schools—an awesome way for the whole family to serve our greater Bonney Lake region.

LOCATION:
GoodRoots Northwest
22503 97th St E
Bonney Lake, WA 98391

TIME?
10 AM (our usual service time).

PARKING INSTRUCTIONS:
Please refer to the image below for a map of the facility with marked parking areas.

• You may park in any green-marked parking areas around the facility.
• Please avoid parking in the spaces directly in front of Starlit Quilts (marked red) and Peak Paddle & Racket Club (located on the east side of the warehouse—these spots are not shown on the map).

ENTRANCE:
You can enter the Warehouse through:

• The main door on the Hwy 410 side
  • Note: this entrance includes a staircase.
• A stair-free entrance on the north side, through the right side of the Dock 8 ramp.
• We’ll have Open Life signs and volunteers guiding you.

WHAT WILL WE BE DOING?
We’ll be working together in a simple assembly-line process to pack as many Power Packs as we can with the supplies available. These packs provide students with nutritious food for the weekend. Last year, our church packed over 1,900 Power Packs during Serve Sunday! We’ll also have a team helping with sorting and date-checking donated food in the warehouse.

WHAT DO WE NEED TO BRING?
Just yourself and comfortable clothing. The warehouse can be a bit cool, so we recommend dressing in layers to stay comfortable while working.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Serve Sunday gives us a direct way to live out our value of being present with our community by serving together. Additionally, Bonney Lake High School is hosting a robotics tournament this weekend, making our regular service setup difficult. Being able to gather at GoodRoots Northwest is a huge blessing—and a great chance for our church to make a tangible impact in our community.

We can't wait to serve together. We’re looking forward to seeing you—and the rest of Open Life Church—at GoodRoots Northwest this Sunday!

QUESTIONS?
Email: info@openlife.church
text: (833) 701-8585.

For the start of 2026, we would like to, once again, practice fasting and prayer to enter into the new year. As a church, let's set the spiritual tone for the year by encouraging the Holy Spirit to move boldly in and through our lives afresh.

Fasting is setting aside the time you would put into preparing and consuming a meal to spend time reading the scriptures and in prayer. It involves a physical investment and the physical suffering of hunger as you pray, which opens a door to a deeper faith.

The purposes for fasting are vast: tune out worldly distractions and focus on God's voice, giving clarity to God's desires for our year ahead, and humbling ourselves in a posture of dependence on God. Fasting is useful for receiving specific guidance and breakthroughs for things that have persisted in our lives without a breakthrough. Besides strengthening our faith, fasting can also give us the quiet times to assist in finding and repenting of sin strongholds within our lives.

The early church practiced fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays until sundown. This was a common practice within the church rhythm for the first 1,500 years of the church. But this practice has fallen to the wayside so much that many Christians rarely fast for spiritual reasons within the entirety of a year. We want to help you experience the power of fasting and break that trend at Open Life.

When I was a youth pastor in Issaquah, WA, we used to fast and pray the first week of every year. We would open the church for anyone who wanted to stop by and pray, and at the conclusion of the week, anyone who fasted a meal, a day, or even the entire week would gather and break the fast together. We would share what God had revealed to us personally and encourage one another in the faith. It was a powerful time. I personally experienced many revelations and breakthroughs during these weeks of fasting and prayer, and I desire the same for our church members.

It has been many years since I practiced that first week of the year rhythm, but I have longed for it for a number of years now. This year, 2026, I want to lead all of us at Open Life into this practice again for our second year, developing a new annual rhythm. How beautiful it will be if we as a church find our space within the week of Jan. 4th to fast and pray, offering our lives up to Jesus, seeking greater holiness, believing for a breakthrough in our lives and those around us as our prayers are amplified.

Between now and the 5th of January, I challenge you to consider what you might do to participate during the course of the week, from the youngest to the oldest. We will fast from Monday through Friday and break the fast together at dinner on Friday at The Gathering Place. Maybe you will take a first step and fast a breakfast or lunch and devote that time to prayer or reading scripture and solitude. Maybe you will pick a day or a dinner and fast through to the next Dinner for a 24-hour period. Three days or the whole week…there is no right or wrong amount of time you choose to participate, but I challenge each of you to participate on some level and just see what God will do in you and reveal to you for 2026. We have made a simple form for you to share any specific insights or breakthroughs you experience during the week of prayer and fasting HERE. We want to celebrate what God does in and through your life during this week of fasting and praying together.

Also, consider what you will fast for: Do you need healing, is there a relationship you would like to mend, are you looking for a career change or clarity on if you should step into an area of ministry involvement like a missions trip, missional outpost or participating in a group or a serve team? These are all great things to fast and pray over during this week in January. I believe God can reveal to you direction, bring breakthroughs, and provide a clear roadmap for your year ahead.

Mark your calendars, January 5 - 9, with a break fast dinner at 6 pm on Friday the 9th at The Gathering Place for those who have participated on any level.  This will be a simple soup and bread meal that will gently reintroduce your stomach to food.

Different for 2026 is the form the week takes to guide you as you fast and pray during the week of the 5th through the 9th. We will create daily prompts that will be made digitally accessible, text the word "Fasting" to 833-701-8585 for these prompts. The Gathering Place will be open for anyone who wants to stop by and pray at Noon each day, Monday-Friday. In addition, we will host an hour of worship and prayer together at theGP on Wednesday at 6:30 pm.

Matthew 6:18 reveals to us that God rewards us when we fast. We are not told what this reward is, but we can be expectant of something amazing from God. Join with us as we collectively begin 2026 in a powerful way with Jesus and each other.

We look forward to this fasting journey together.

Have questions about fasting or the week of prayer and fasting? Email thadh@openlife.church

- Thad

The past few weeks have brought about something that has not occurred in quite some time: people are seeking to return to church or maybe try church for the first time on their own initiative. And the way they are trying to find a church to go to is by asking on community social forums. See a few here from the Bonney Lake Community Group on Facebook. 

While the pastors could troll these sites and make sure to comment that Open Life is a great church that they should consider, it is so much more powerful for a person who attends to share their story and an invitation. And the more people from the church who comment on a post the more likely someone will add Open Life to their list of churches to check out. In fact, this past Sunday a new family made their way to Open Life because of a social post and those who recommended they come to Open Life. So proud of the handful of people who have already been commenting on these posts. 

What we have found is that the best invitations are those which are personal and make it easy for the person to explore the church you are inviting them to. Social media makes that second part pretty easy, but there are some tips and tricks of the trade that may give someone that much less of an obstacle to find their way on a Sunday.

MAKE IT PERSONAL
First, share why you personally feel Open Life fits the church they described. Some of you have said something like, "When I first came to Open Life I had some of the same concerns you expressed, but found that they were welcoming and genuinely cared for me just as I was. My kids loved their experience and my husband even has connected with others beyond my anticipation..." then here is where the power comes in, "...feel free to DM me, I would love to answer any other questions you might have about the church. Praying for you to find the best fit for you."

CONNECT YOUR CONTENT TO THEIR INQUIRY
This one was a hot button post recently. In fact, on Facebook, they eventually turned the comments off because the person had put a church's name and people were pretty divisive in their replies. Which is sad when you consider people were squabbling about churches and politics, and this person was just looking for a church as their "faith is hanging by a thread."  Again, some of you from Open Life jumped in and commented. "You will never hear worship for Jesus and worship for the empire from the same platform from one of our pastors. We are peacemakers at Open Life and are not gathering to lift the name of anyone other than Jesus."  

While we don't bury our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening in culture, we also keep our focus on Jesus and the scriptures vs. attempting to join the cultural noise and make our faith about aligning with political parties and current events, furthering the divide and polarization of our culture.

So again, sharing a reply based on the person's question is the best approach to referring the church to those who are hanging on a thread or whose faith is in the balance. 

The final touch, beyond making it personal and connecting to their inquiry, is tagging Open Life in your content in a way that makes it easy for the person to explore this church you are mentioning.

TAGGING
On platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you simply type the '@' symbol and begin typing OpenLifeChurch and the tag will pop up for you to select. This will add an easy hyperlink for the person to click on to explore Open Life's Facebook page. We are currently making a video to pin to the top of the Facebook page for this very purpose, so that someone can click the tag and instantly see some of what they might experience on a Sunday at Open Life. So, smile for the cameras in the coming Sundays ?.

What that looks like in a comment is this:

PASTING A URL
The final way to finish out your post and make it super easy for someone to explore the church is to paste the church's URL in the conclusion of your post. You simply go over to Open Life's website and copy the URL in the search bar and paste it to your post. It will look like this: https://openlife.church/

What this does is insert a graphic below your comment. I made this post for someone asking about kids and if they would feel welcome at the church, but again, from a pastor, it isn't as powerful and sounds kinda like an advertisement, when from a family attending would be amplified through personal experience. But none the less you can see how it might appear when you paste a url and allow Facebook to insert a graphic from the website. In this instance, I pasted the Visit page from our website as you can see highlighted in blue.

This is truly something that everyone can do. Find the social groups that are a part of your community, neighborhood groups, city groups and the like and look for the word church in posts (you can actually use the search function to help you find the post with church in them) and begin telling your story and inviting people to a conversation and to church.

There are people seeking, holding on by a thread and there are so many of you who are already engaged and many who could lean into this space and make an instant impact.

Excited to read and like your posts in the groups we have in common. God is up to something here and you and I get to be a part of it. 

For me, the heart of faith beats strongest in community. It's where my journey with Jesus began and continues to flourish.

I love conversations over coffee, the deep discipleship that happens in small groups of three, and the fellowship of larger groups where individuals, couples, and families can break bread, offer encouragement and support, and pray together. These experiences have helped me understand God more fully. I've not only come to know him better but have also felt his love and discipline personally through my relationships with others.

We can know God both in our minds and in our hearts. In our minds, we come to understand his character and attributes. We learn about the history of his people in Scripture and know his mind and will for humanity. As amazing as that kind of knowledge is, I believe it lacks the depth of a personal relationship characterized by trust, obedience, and love. It lacks the kind of knowing that comes from immersing ourselves in the lives of others, much as Christ did when he entered our story as a man to be fully present and relatable to us. This is what I call incarnational knowing. It’s an experience of deep understanding and identification with others where we are present and actively involved in one another’s lives.

This incarnational knowing, this deep understanding and identification with others, is precisely why community is so vital. Without community, we can't know God to this full extent. It's through our relationships with his people that we are challenged to new heights of growth, receive tangible love and care, and truly bear one another's burdens as we come alongside those who are struggling. This is something I want for all of us.

Some of my favorite incarnational discipleship moments have happened in settings where a few connect around a shared activity. Sometimes that's been a Bible study or a book club discussion. Other times, it's been around a Starbucks table sharing life's challenges while creating a wire sculpture. Serving together has often sparked these moments. And sometimes, the 'table' isn't a table at all—it's a trail or a mountain summit. Some of the most transformative conversations I've had have been while walking.

This year, I’m excited to experiment with creating small group incarnational discipleship moments for women. Our calendar will look a little different than it has in the past. Instead of regular Thursday evening meetings, I'm inviting each of you to Be Inspired, imagine and then share your "best discipleship moment" with others.

Do you love painting and want to share that with other women? Do you have a signature dish you think others might enjoy learning to cook? Do you want to collaborate on a meal plan or share home management hacks? If you'd like to host a meetup to create a space for these conversations to happen over shared activities, I'd love to help you.

To get started, please read through our "How to Host a Meetup Guide" and then fill out the form to set up your event. We’ve already had women lean into this opportunity, offering to invite others into their homes or to community activities. Ideas include making bagels, writing cards to community members, learning a new skill and visiting the pumpkin patch together. I’m excited for the faith forming fun we will have together this year. Let me know how I can help you Be Inspired.

Much of the Western world operates under an ethos of individualism and self-determination. We should be able to find our way, live our truth, achieve our goals, and overcome setbacks and hardships by picking ourselves up by our bootstraps. All we have to do is work hard enough. Not only is this “gospel of self-sufficiency" nonsense, it could not be more contrary to the true Gospel, which preaches complete dependence upon God for provision and grace.  

I bought into this mindset of self-reliance and determination for most of my young adulthood, truly believing I could work myself into a flourishing life.  Not only did it cause me great stress, but italso alienated me from God by blinding me to my desperate need for his help and that of caring people around me. Fortunately, there were people in my life who paid no mind to my misguided belief that I could manage on my own. They helped me, and through their kindness, I found a love for Jesus and a way forward that was hopeful and purposeful. The truth is, we may think we control our own destiny, but it is the Lord who determines our course and outcomes. (Proverbs 16:9)  

You don’t have to read too far into the church’s formation to discover at its beginning, the church was a family–like group of interdependent people structured and positioned to grow in their fellowship and to care for the well-being of its members and community. In Acts 2:44-45, we read, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” This model of deep interdependence was a defining characteristic of the early church.
 
Later in chapter 4:32-35, we read similarly, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Later still, in Chapter 6, as the fellowship of believers grew and consequently the needs among them grew, the apostles began to delegate. They continued in their important work of preaching the Gospel, but did not allow the also-important work of caring for the widows and poor to be neglected.
 
God wove community into the human story—writing our need for connection onto our hearts and making his love tangible to us through the kind words and actions of others. Ancient Israel’s lawbook guided God’s people to live in deeply integrated community with one another in family and tribal units that met one another’s needs daily. The early church’s common bond of fellowship around Christ compelled them to do whatever was necessary to ensure there were no needs among them. And a very cool thing happened as they gathered in interdependent fellowship with one another around the Lord’s Supper and the Word. The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47)

2025 at Open Life has been a year of learning about and reflecting on what it means to love our neighbors and spiritual family. We have engaged in serving our global neighbors through mission trips and a new strategic partnership with World Relief. We have leaned into opportunities to connect with one another through our small groups and meetups, and most recently, our Open Life sponsored Neighborhood Meetups that brought over 90 adults and children together. As our fellowship grows and our influence in the community grows, it is our desire to follow the example of the early church in meeting one another’s needs. While the day-to-day care of our church family happens best in small groups where we come to know others’ stories and struggles personally, we also know that sometimes people face trials of a magnitude that require a larger, more structured response. It could be an extended job loss, a mental or physical health crisis, a catastrophic home loss or an experience of abuse or sudden displacement. We want to be positioned to help when the need arises.

Through the creation of a benevolence fund, we will be able to step in to help with short-term needs like electricity or housing costs, medical expenses, or other basic needs. The distribution of resources through the benevolence fund will be administered through a carefully crafted and executed policy which requires transparency and facilitates the best outcome for our church family members first, and our community members second. We currently have families among us who have needs and field requests regularly from community members, so this is not a fund for a later time but for right now.
 
Open Life is built on the foundation of living life “open”--doing life together, growing in faith and caring for one another, just like the early believers. The Benevolence Fund is our next step in living that truth. We invite you to be a part of this collective journey of provision and grace by giving today. And maybe through the depth of our care for one another, the Lord will add to our numbers daily those who are being saved as well. To learn more about our vision for this fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.

- Stephanie French
stephanief@openlife.church 
Associate Pastor Pathways & Missions

In recent months, Open Life has been interviewing and seeking a new youth pastor since Jon Parker communicated his transition out of youth ministry and into policing at the beginning of 2025. After a thorough search, we’re excited to have found an incredible leader from within our own community, Michelle Paxton.

Michelle comes with years of experience serving youth within churches and volunteering within the community with youth. She has received awards for her volunteer work for the past couple of years at Glacier Middle School in Buckley, while also leading Wildlife (YoungLife) in this community. Michelle will bring her experience from the community and her years of experience as a youth pastor to our students at Open Life.

In an attempt to help Michelle start strong, we will be taking Student Life off on Tuesdays for the remainder of August and relaunching Student Life at our Back To School Night on September 2nd as we celebrate the start of the new school year and season at Student Life. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more info.

- Thad Huff (Pastor of Open Life) & the team at Student Life

Hi Student Life Family,

I want to start off with a huge “THANK YOU!” for the warm welcome Sunday for myself and my family! It truly is a blessing to join such an amazing family!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to officially be part of the team here at Open Life! God has clearly been moving in our students and our community, and I feel so blessed to get to join you in what He is already doing. Over the next couple of weeks, my heart is to listen—to hear the team's hopes, needs, and dreams for our students, as well as the desires God has placed on their (& you're) hearts for reaching our community.

I’m also eager to learn about the unique traditions, fun memories, and meaningful moments that make this ministry feel like family. I believe those shared experiences are part of how God knits us together in unity and joy, and I can’t wait to be part of creating more of them with you.

Thank you for welcoming me so warmly—it already feels like home. I’m praying for our students, our leaders, and for God’s direction as we step into this next season together. I know He has big plans, and I’m expectant for all He will do through us.

With much joy & excitement,
 
Michelle Paxton (Student Life Pastor at Open Life)

This past Sunday we announced the resignation of Jon Parker who has served faithfully on a part time platform for Open Life with our students.  Serving for 10 years is no small accomplishment with the average tenure of a youth pastor in America being 18 months to 3 years.

Over the course of 10 years Jon has welcomed into the youth and witnessed the graduation of 3 waves of students from 6th grade to graduation.  From investing into students on Tuesday nights to creating opportunities for them to join with the Northwest Ministry Network Youth events like camps and conferences.

For the majority of those years Jon had to find a unique host home every month for our youth to gather in. So many have partnered with our students over his 10 year tenure. We couldn't be more grateful for his faithful investment into our lives and the students within the church.

Jon has been hired as an Auburn Police Officer. He is currently in the training season and will be for the remainder of this year. This shift in calling and professional pursuit began at the beginning of this year and has been coming into focus quickly over the past few months. He had to put a ton of hard work and effort into qualifying and finding a placement. But with this comes the sunset on his ability to work two jobs and continue facilitating youth ministry at Open Life.

Jon and Jessica still plan on living in Bonney Lake and attending Open Life, but will not be on staff after July 6th. He will be a great asset to the Auburn Police Department and are praying a great career for him there.

Open Life has a pastoral staff that has all served students for many many years. We see the potential of reaching the next generation and there are no better years than those of Middle and High School. We are committed to finding a Youth Pastor who will not only pastor the students who are currently a part of Open Life, but will put in a considerable number of hours creatively equipping students to reach other students within the community. Facilitating campus ministry and being present with students during key moments of their lives.

A huge part of this will be through empowering leaders to invest into a number of students. Raising up a team who will actively be those trusted adults in the lives of students. If you have felt the tug towards ministry involvement we can't think of a better use of your time than investing into the next generation. And there is no greater time to lean into this than now.

During the interim time, we plan to continue facilitating the ministries to our youth with our team in place and recruiting you to join in and allow us to reach even more students in the coming months and year. 

We believe someone is being raise up to be that next leader to youth within our community and your prayers are a key part in our finding the person or people God has equipped to step into this role.

If you know someone you think would be a good fit for our students you can forward their information to thadh@openlife.church and we will reach out and begin the journey of determining fit and calling.

We covet your prayers and look forward to seeing who will join our pastoral team soon.

- Thad

Powerful things happen when people who follow Jesus pray together. Scripture assures us that God hears us (1 Peter 3), promises to give us good gifts (Matthew 7), releases his power and heals the sick (James 5), raises up workers (Matthew 9), empowers us to share the Gospel (Ephesians 6) and so much more. And prayer remains our supreme weapon against evil. There is no doubt from Scripture, God moves in response to our prayers.

We have a mighty tool available to us, but did you know fewer than 46% of Americans pray, and of those, fewer than 50% claim to follow Jesus. Depending on how you interpret the data, it seems that around 23% of people who follow Jesus pray occasionally. Very few (only about 2%) feel satisfied with their prayer lives. The reasons people give for not praying are varied and include things like busyness or distractions or not really knowing how. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised by this data though, after all even Jesus’ disciples had trouble keeping alert in prayer.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about the power available to us in prayer when set against the numbers of Jesus-following Americans who actually pray, something inside me shifts. I’m still thinking about the farther-reaching implications, but I believe there is a call in this for us at Open Life to heed. If God’s word promises he will move when his people pray and if it is true that we want to see a move of God in our region, then we simply must start praying.

The needs are plenty with over 57,000 people in the 98391 zip code alone, and if we try to pray through them all, we could get overwhelmed or feel defeated and quit or at least doubt the effectiveness of our prayers when we don’t see immediate results. I don’t think it should be the aim of every person to pray for everyone and every need. In fact, I think that sort of overwhelmed or defeated thinking is a distraction from the enemy who wants to keep us from praying. What if we set out to pray simple prayers. Jesus gave us a model in Matthew 6:9-13 after instructing his disciples to keep it simple—not praying grandiose or wordy, high-sounding prayers, but prayers with few words from the heart. Here is what he said from the New Living Translation:   

“Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

What do you suppose could happen throughout our region if we began praying simple prayers like:

Lord may your name be kept holy in my life.
May your kingdom come to my neighborhood.
May your will be done in Bonney Lake.
Give my hungry neighbors the food they need.
Forgive me for offending my coworker.
Help my friend to not yield to the temptation to sin.

I think we should give it a try. Let’s commit to adopt a new prayer routine to our daily or weekly rhythms. Beginning on June 20th (the first day of summer) and continuing through the Labor Day weekend, let’s take on the challenge of praying through our streets and neighborhoods and around our schools, businesses and city.

To help get started, HERE IS A RESOURCE for you to download to guide you as you pray and walk. You can walk and pray alone, with a friend or as a small group. If your mobility is limited, you can pray your frequently driven routes or visited places as you envision them in your mind.

We’ve also created THIS MAP of some key locations throughout our region that offer a unique opportunity to pray on site strategically or over an entire region from a high place.
Let’s pray this summer like we’ve never prayed before. Let’s invite God to move through us. I’m excited to see what He will do.
   

Graduation parties, vacations, long weekends, gardening, hiking, BBQs... it's beginning to smell like summer. The summer is a season where it's tempting to DISCONNECT. Often, we can let aspirations of rest and relaxation distract us from remaining rooted within our church community causing us to unknowingly drift away from others.

We can still take time to rest, getaway, and go on vacation, while choosing to remain connected to those that will encourage us to grow in our relationship with Jesus.

Let's be honest, every season can tempt us toward drifting away from the things that are most important. In three months, we'll be headed towards fall, a season which holds it's own temptations trying to fool us into drift. At some point, we need to choose to resist this drift and get connected with others. This summer is that point, a season to connect with other Open Lifers.

To that end, here are some opportunities to get connected this summer.

• Wanting to host a BBQ with OLers who live near you?
• Interested in going on a hike, but don't know where to begin?
• Headed to a Sounders match?
• Taking the kids to the spray park?
• Trying to get a group of people to play pickleball?

These activities (and more) are all great examples of potential meet-ups that can happen this summer, connecting Open Lifers with other Open Lifers.

To be clear, these are not official Open Life Events, they are informal events and activities hosted by you and other people of Open Life looking to connect. People wanting to partcipate will RSVP directly with the host.

It's convenient to join in with what others are already doing, but maybe you don't see something that fits your schedule or interest. That's okay, it might just be a great opportunity for you to host a meet-up and and invite others to join you. Check out our Meet-ups Host page to find out how you can get your meet-up listed on our calendar. We even have a host kit that can help guide you along the way to your meet-up.

Soon, you will see some meet-ups on the calendar that are neighborhood-targeted to help you get to know those who live within your same neighborhood or close region. This will be a great way to connect and maybe even meet those you didn't even know lived in the same neighborhood as you. If you are interested in being a part of hosting a one of these Meet-ups you can email Stephanie to express your interest.

Text the word "meetups" to +18337018585 to get text updates. You'll be asked about specific types of meet-ups when you text in. You can also scan this QR code to easily open up your messaging app and press send.

Don't sell yourself short.
Your presence matters.

Each time you come to worship with us at Open Life on Sunday mornings, RSVP for a meet-up, go to your small group, show up to the prayer room, men's breakfast, women's meet-up, student life gathering, and etc., you're helping someone else know they're not alone through whatever season they might be in. Choosing to be present, to connect with someone else, might help them find an anchor while they're feeling adrift.

Remember this verse we've been looking at during our current series at Open Life, Family Matters: Hebrews 10:23–25 (NIV)
²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Your presence can encourage others just as much as it will encourage yourself by participating.

18 [The Lord your God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:18-19

Currently, it is estimated that there are over 100 million people in the world who have been forcibly displaced due to violence, war, famine, criminal activity (like human trafficking) and extreme poverty. Of these 100 million people, over 3.6 million refugees and an estimated additional 2 million asyless/asylum seekers are our neighbors, residing among us in the U.S.  

The story of human migration goes back to the beginning. Adam and Eve were forced to leave their home when they were expelled from the Garden as a consequence of their disobedience. Abraham and Sarah left their home by choice to migrate to Canaan in response to a call from God. Severe famine prompted Jacob and his family to migrate to Egypt. Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt in a great migration to the Promised Land. And in the New Testament, Jesus, Mary and Joseph migrated to Egypt as refugees to flee persecution by Herod.

Scripture is clear how we are to receive and treat those who are strangers among us. Leviticus 19:33-34 instructs, "When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the stranger. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."  Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Micah 6:8 instructs us to act justly and to love mercy. In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews states:  2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

An essential act of our discipleship to Jesus is to become people who treat foreigners with respect and dignity and show hospitality with compassion and understanding. This is why we are partnering with World Relief.

For 80 years and across 100 countries, World Relief has been partnering with churches to reduce the suffering of displaced families around the world and welcome immigrants to the United States. World Relief meets a broad spectrum of needs beginning from the moment a refugee, asylum seeker or immigrant’s feet touch the ground. Their support includes helping families resettle in a new home and community, learn English, find employment, and aid in the adjustment of children and youth. All of this and more continue until families are able to navigate community resources, employment, government systems and healthcare on their own.  

So, what is Open Life’s role? In our recent meeting with World Relief’s Church Engagement Specialist, the pastoral team felt particularly moved in some specific areas. Though members of Open Life may engage in any capacity they feel called or equipped, our primary focus as a church will be on the following:

Post-Release Welcome Center RV We can play a part in welcoming those upon their release from the Tacoma ICE Processing Center. People in the detention center may be held for a few days or even years while awaiting their hearing. Upon their release, we may greet them with friendliness, find necessary resources to communicate travel plans, assist with the purchase of tickets and provide transportation to the bus or airport or connect them to a host home if they need a temporary place to stay.

Good Neighbor Teams We can come alongside World Relief staff for 3-6 months to ensure a family is on a path to self-sufficiency. We may cultivate friendships and aid community integration by grocery shopping together or helping to navigate enrollment in needed programs. We may help a family by connecting them to resources to provide for their basic needs.

Youth & Family and Other Services We can connect Open Life families with World Relief families, serving in areas like digital literacy, ESL, the community garden, employment preparedness and more. We may come alongside World Relief staff to facilitate after-school programs, summer camps and home visits as God moves the heart of our church and we have relevant gifts.

Prayer One of the most-needed resources according to World Relief staff is the power of God to move on behalf of the people they serve. We can partner with World Relief in prayer. You’ll see added resources in our prayer room offering specific prompts to guide us further into this important task.

We are excited about this new partnership and the opportunity to serve our global neighbors here in our own community. Serving at World Relief requires rigorous vetting which Stephanie will help to facilitate initially. Vetting includes background checks and training, most of which is self-paced online. If you’re anxious to get started, visit https://worldrelief.org/theworkshop/ and enroll in the “Intro to Resettlement” course.

Check the Open Life App for links to express interest in these areas.

Open Life's Serve Sunday location has changed to Victor Falls Elementary, located at (11401 188th Ave Ct E, Bonney Lake, WA 98391, just a mile and a half away from BLHS. This change will provide a larger space to accommodate everyone at Open Life serving together (families, singles, young and old) as well as facilitating a larger project that is urgently needed by GoodRoots Northwest. We'll be packing 2,000 "Power Packs" which are sent home with students over the weekends in our local schools. Our service duration will be the same as usual, 10am to 11:10, but this time we will be on location at VFE.

For the past number of years, Open Life has taken one Sunday each year to serve our community through an act of service connected to the community around us. Our first serve Sunday was actually February 14th, 2016 when we packed food supplies into individual bags for World Vision.

In recent years, there have been certain Sundays that limit our access to the PAC at BLHS which we rent every Sunday for our weekly in-person service (Robotics Tournaments, School Musicals). Add in the annual Women's Retreat which concludes on Sunday morning, there were decisions to be made as to what we would do without access to the venue and less people in service.  It is Craig Groeschel that has coined the phrase "limitation breeds innovation". When one door is closed another opens, and this is the case every year for Open Life. So we thought of a creative way to pivot our regular scheduled Sunday Service and move everyone over to the Commons at BLHS and do a Serve project that would benefit the local food bank. What is possible when we gather a bunch of people ready to serve with the supplies that are needed within the community over the coming months? Well, we packed through hundreds of individual bags of spices and oatmeal, all while having a blast serving together.

What seemed to be an obstacle became a powerful day doing something with our faith that we usually don't get to do on a Sunday morning.

As the years have gone by we have discovered that the best Sundays to avoid trying to battle through the overcrowding at the High School and this year, for the first time, we will take our serve day offsite to serve GoodRoots Northwest and their most pressing need on Sunday, March 16th. The obstacle at the High School is their annual Robotics Tournament which is so massive we really can't coexist on the same facility during their tournament as we discovered in 2024. So last year when the date was added to the school's calendar we immediately called GoodRoots and began planning to do a serve Sunday with them on March 16th.

Originally we had planned to go to their facility off of 410 just past 234th, but in the last few weeks it has become evident we would not fit everyone at their Market venue. Additionally, there were going to be no fitting opportunities for families with kids to serve. So we began planning options and a perfect option presented itself.

GoodRoots warehouse locations are in the process of moving and this is where they prepare school backpack meals called Power Packs. They will have a challenge preparing these packs during their move. Collectively, we determined that if we can can pack all 2,000 of these meals to get them months down the road they will be in a great position to continue serving the students within the Sumner Bonney Lake School District with Power Packs this year. We quickly reached out to the School District and rented Victor Falls Elementary in order to facilitate the assembly of these Power Packs on Sunday.

We hope you will join us at Victor Falls Elementary (11401 188th Ave Ct E, Bonney Lake, WA 98391). It is a time for the whole family to join together doing what Jesus challenges us to do... Loving our community in a tangible way through acts of service. 

To sign up for regular text updates from Open Life Church all you need to do is text the word UPDATES to +1 (833) 701-8585 (just long press #, press MESSAGE, type UPDATES, press SEND). Or you can just scan this QR code below with your mobile phone and your message app will open with the keyword entered, all you need to do is press SEND. You'll then receive a text message asking for your name. Once you respond you'll be signed up for future text messages from Open Life.

It all began with the vision to purchase a vehicle for some Missionaries to reach the most unreached people group in the world.

In 2009 Dana and I (Pastor Thad) were youth pastors in a church in Auburn. We sensed the calling of God to raise 100% of the funds for a missionary and his wife who were missionaries in Surabaya Indonesia named John & Korie Taylor. They were targeting the purchase of a Speed The Light vehicle, which is just a fancy name for a vehicle paid for by youth ministries in America, that will be used on the mission field to reach people for Jesus.

The youth ministry set out to raise $27,000 over the course of the next year, but little did we know that God was about to call us to start a new church in Bonney Lake that would require us to raise funding to the target of 200,000.

Here we had a goal we had committed to, and now a huge personal need in addition. So, we committed to raising both our funding and the funding for these missionaries headed to Indonesia. I will never forget the astonishment from John as he found out what we were doing and that we were continuing to raise the funding for his vehicle in Indonesia with such a task ahead of us here in Bonney Lake.

As it were, we raised the funding and in 2010 John was able to purchase a Ford Everest which he named Thad (pictured below in 2013...two Thads in one photo), which remains their families main form of transportation to this day. 

It was a no brainer to support John & Korie and their two girls when Open Life began in 2010 and they invited the Huffs out in 2013 to serve their church for a month with our entire family. 

Not only were we able to serve their church, ICA Surabaya, and pray over the property they wanted to launch a second campus at in East Surabaya, but Thad was able to go and build one of their Vision 100 churches outside of Kalimantan on the island of Borneo (church #29). 

The Huffs and Millers went back to serve the churches in Surabaya in 2019, laying the groundwork for a number of additional churches to be built in Bacan, Indonesia. Which are all thriving today. And we were able to minister in two services in the new East Campus they had constructed between 2013 and 2019, which we had prayed over on our previous visit. 

All that to say, I wanted to share with you the impact we have been able to make in Indonesia by sharing their Vision 100 video and the transformation that has been made within Indonesia which you have sown into since Open Life began, and really before it ever began. Your generosity makes an impact beyond what you will ever witness with your own eyes. We now support John Vincen in Indonesia as well who shares in this video.

These are two of our missionary couples and the amazing work they are doing on the other side of the world with a people who do not know Jesus. As we look to the future, we will return to Indonesia. Be praying and see if you want to be a part of the ministry they are doing as highlighted in this video.

Thank you Open Life, you make a difference in the world!!

- Thad

We have submitted our official request to have the setback changed from 25' to 20' in order to make necessary adjustments to our lobby design. Thank you to all who wrote letters to the county to help build a positive light on the future this facility will hold for East Pierce County.

For the submission to carry weight we have created some renderings to show what would be possible with this adjustment of 5' on the front of the building as well as painting a picture of what this building could take on as far as form for the future. I wanted to share some of these, but know that these are purely conceptual and things like stair directions, veranda and color are not specific to future choices for sure.

Let me walk you through what we envision. 

There is a lot going on within this but let me point out a few of the details. Notice that on the southwest corner it would be cut off if we had to keep a 25' setback from the property line. We envision the possibility of moving the bathrooms to this southwest corner if we are approved with the additional 5' we are seeking. This would give us a larger rectangular lobby space to work with vs. an "L" shaped lobby.

In addition, you can see with the landscaping of the parking, remember this is conceptual at this point and not our official actual parking layout, we would  reduce our parking spaces to 26 within the property line, but on the north side of the lot against Entwhistle there will be space for street side parking. Landscaping and tree locations are not official as well, just giving the county the visual of what this property can look like to get the ball rolling.

One of the greatest challenges with the current facility is the entry is very confusing. We envision clearing up this confusion with a distinct entry that projects out to the north of the building towards the parking area.

In order to accomplish this we will need to do a few things; change the direction of the ramp, move the septic tanks (which we already have to dig up due to bringing drainage to them from the back addition with kitchen and janitorial closet), and then determine where the stairs will go up to the entry doors. All this while keeping enough space for wheelchairs to be able to have required landings and turnaround space that is required by code. If we are able to move the bathrooms to the south wall of the lobby we gain the two windows you can see to the left of the entry door brightening up the lobby tremendously.

While we keep the existing side exit door for fire purposes, it is much more obvious that this is an emergency exit vs an actual desired direction of entry for the building. 

Onto the back of the building will be the addition of a two story portion which will have a kitchen on the bottom and some common ministry use offices on the 2nd floor. While our original thought was for this to be built on top of the existing back room, the foundation was not built to support this, so by coming out in front of that existing back room we are able to accomplish the necessary space to add a kitchen. 

As you can see on these conceptual plans from a few months ago, we have made adjustments already with some of our thoughts for the lobby entry and design, but this gives a good look at the potential of the space and how it might look when we add on this kitchen and office space. 

We will continue to re-envision this space for the best possible functionality and use for our future impact within the community. We truly still believe that God has given us this space to fulfill the passages put on our hearts at the time of it's purchase.

Psalm 90:17 (NIV)
17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.

 Isaiah 58:12 (The Message)
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.

Jeremiah 33:10–11 (NIV)
...there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness...

And to that we give thanks for your generosity and faithfulness for those of you who have given already towards the Establish Legacy funds that have made this dream possible to move forward. It will once again take our faith extending towards generosity to move ahead on these plans as permitting is approved and we welcome anyone to sow towards this vision in the coming months prior to our pursuit of bids from contractors. If you want to regularly support the funding for this project, simply select the giving line Legacy (The Gathering Place Future) when giving above and beyond your tithe and you will join with others in supporting this work for our future space.

More to come as we hopefully get approval soon on the 5' adjustment to our setback and move on towards permitting.

Blessings,

- Thad

Open Life is going to work alongside Jamie & Berly Bello to meet the needs of their local church and community this summer from July 24th to August 1st. Our presence will serve as an encouragement to the DR church at the same time their model for discipleship and fellowship will shape our own views at Open Life here. You can watch our missionary partner, Jamie Bello, below when she spoke at Open Life in 2023:

During our time there we will do some of the following and more.

• Block party (food trucks, inflatables, 3 on 3 tournament, lawn games, face painting) [PRAY with me for permission] (1 day)
• Basketball camp (?) – if you have at least 2-3 who can “coach” it (2-3 days)
• If this doesn’t work, we will do some kind of community service project – and I will ask what are the giftings, skill sets of the team members to try to get an idea of what we could do.
• Outreach / Serve the Plaza (where our church venue is located) – prayer walks, free coffee & desserts giveaway, or another creative approach that we haven’t figured out yet. (1 day)
• Sunday ministry at church(es) – depending on team size, we may split up to have you minister at multiple churches in our part of the city.  (set up, hosting, kids min, coffee & donuts serving, prayer, preaching)

Follow this link HERE for the detailed Missions Packet and important dates to note.

If you are desiring to join this trip, please email thadh@openlife.church before our next meeting on Jan. 26th.  Also, complete the Missions Application for 2025 Missions trips.

Our target date for initial deposit for the trip is Jan. 26th, so time is of the essence to get signed up and begin prep for July.

- Thad

The Gathering Place Letters to the County

Hello Open Lifers,

We want to extend an opportunity to write letters addressing the Pierce County Planning and Public Works Staff regarding Support of The Gathering Place.  This letter will serve to encourage forward progress with both administrative approval of a setback and will be submitted with our permitting paperwork following.

Currently we are attempting to move forward to receive an administrative approval to reduce the building setback along 234th Avenue East from 25 feet to 20 feet. This has been our hold up for a year with the County. It would allow us to build out a lobby in order to create an entrance that extends towards the parking and adjust our bathrooms to be off the lobby vs. off the main room within the space. Once this is approved we can submit our permits and begin working on building out the additions of a lobby and then in back the kitchen and general use rooms for ministry use.

Our architectural firm, Innova Architects, has encouraged our letters be submitted by the 9th of January to thadh@openlife.church in order to attach to a new submission to the county requesting their Administrative Approval. Please do not send the letters directly to the county as they may be lost in the shuffle. We will be attaching them to a fresh submittal to the Administrative Staff at the end of next week and then saving them to resubmit with permitting. They have also encouraged us to coach the writing of these letters to be in a positive tone and pointing towards the current needs and future benefits of the facility in its future form.

Instead of highlighting how long this project is taking the County, we want to help the County see the positive impact this facility will bring to the community at large, benefitting the greater good within this area of the County upon their prompt approval.

Things you might consider including that are a benefit to the community could be:

• Greater capacity for youth outreach
• A more accessible building for those with accessibility issues
• A space that will provide weekly community dinners, for people desiring connection with others and a hot meal 
  • These meals will partner with local farmers to reduce waste from produce not sold at Farmers Markets on the weekends
• A smaller community space available to those who face the need for funerals, weddings, company meetings, HOA meetings, local School Staff meetings and more
• A space to continue hosting distribution partnerships with non-profits within the community (Bonney Lake Giving Tree, Sumner Family Center, GoodRoots Northwest, Olive Crest Foster Agency, Veterans Housing Village and more in partnership with World Vision) 
• A space to host Kids at Play events for East Pierce County families
• A space to host courses for families, married couples, youth and more.
• Continue to serve the White River School District as an emergency pick up location during inclement weather or school events

The top of your letter should be addressed like this

1/2/2025

Pierce County Planning and Public Works
2401 South 35 th Street, Room 2
Tacoma, WA 98409-7460

RE:   Open Life Church, Letter in Support of The Gathering Place
         10411 234 th Avenue East – Bonney Lake, WA
Parcel(s): 0159013050
Project No:22-038

Subject: Support of The Gathering Place

Dear Staff,

Put your content there and then…

Sincerely,

Your Name
Who you are…like Open Life Member, Resident of East Pierce County

If you have further questions, please email thadh@openlife.church and I will get back to you quickly as we want to see this facility permitted this year and open the doors to greater service to our community and members within 2025.

- Thad

I would like to open a door to greater blessing and breakthrough in your life through prayer and fasting. We see the practice of prayer and fasting connected in scripture but often times we do not link them or practice fasting at all. What is it and what is possible if we practice this in our own faith walk?

Simply put, fasting is setting aside the time you would put into the preparing and consuming a meal with time reading the scriptures and in prayer. It involves a physical investment and the physical suffering of hunger as you pray which opens a door to a deeper faith.

The early church practiced fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays until sundown. This was a common practice within the church rhythm for the first 1,500 years of the church. But this practice has fallen to the way side so much that many Christians never fast for spiritual reasons within the entirety of a year. We want to help you experience the power of fasting and break that trend at Open Life.

When I was a youth pastor in Issaquah, WA we used to fast and pray the first week of every year. We would open the church for anyone who wanted to stop by and pray and at the conclusion of the week, anyone who fasted a meal, a day or even the entire week would gather and break the fast together. We would share what God had revealed to us personally and encourage one another in the faith. It was a powerful time. I personally experienced many revelations and breakthroughs during these weeks of fasting and prayer.

It has been many years since I have practiced that first week of the year rhythm, but I have longed for it for a number of years now. This year, 2025 I want to lead all of us at Open Life into this practice and annual rhythm. How beautiful it will be if we as a church find our space within the week of Jan. 6th to fast and pray, offering our lives up to Jesus, seeking greater holiness, believing for breakthrough in our life and those around us as our prayers are amplified. 

Between now and the 6th of January I challenge you to consider what you might do to participate during the course of the week. We will fast Monday through Friday and break the fast Friday at dinner together. Maybe you will take a first step and fast a breakfast or lunch and devote that time to prayer or reading scripture and solitude. Maybe you will pick a day or a dinner through to the next Dinner for a 24 hour period. Three days or the whole week…there is no right or wrong amount of time you choose to participate, but I challenge each of you to participate on some level and just see what God will do in you and reveal to you for 2025. Share how you plan to engage at the simple survey HERE.

Also, consider what you will fast for. Do you need healing, is there a relationship you would like to mend, are you looking for a job change or clarity on if you should step into an area of ministry involvement like a missions trip or participating in a group or a serve team? These are all great things to fast and pray over during this week in January. I believe God can reveal to you direction, bring breakthrough and provide a clear roadmap for your year ahead. 

Mark your calendars, January 6 - 10th with a break fast dinner at 6pm on Friday the 10th at The Gathering Place for those who have participated on any level.  This will be a broth soup and sandwich type meal that will gently reintroduce your stomach to food. During the week of the 6th through the 10th the Gathering Place will be open for anyone who wants to stop by and pray at 6:30am and Noon each day Mon-Friday. In addition we will open theGP Monday and Wednesday at 6:30 pm for an hour of prayer those two evenings. 

Matthew 6:18 reveals to us that God rewards us when we fast. We are not told what this reward is, but we can be expectant of something amazing from God. Join with us as we collectively begin 2025 in a powerful way with Jesus.

We look forward to this fasting journey together.

Have questions about fasting or the week of prayer and fasting? Email thadh@openlife.church

- Thad

By the numbers:
• Together, we raised enough funds to supply 7864 people in our community with a Thanksgiving meal.
• 809 people came together to pack these 1500 meals and deliver 1363 of those to residences in our community. The rest went to our local food banks for pick up.
• All of this was completed within just a few hours on Saturday morning, November 23rd.
Thank you to every sponsor, volunteer, and individual person who donated to make the Community Big Give possible.

We must also remember that it is organizations like GoodRoots Northwest, Sumner Community Food Bank, and Emmanuel Food Pantry who are serving those in our community who need it most, day-in and day-out. The Community Big Give exists to serve these organizations by helping to lift the holiday meal load during the Thanksgiving season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

: Eduardo Alvarez and Stephanie French

This September, we are kicking off our 2024-2025 ministry year with the theme: Captivated—Cultivating an Intimate Relationship with God! What captivates us attracts and holds our attention. To be captivated by God is to be drawn into knowing God—not only with an intellectual understanding of his attributes, but with a coming alive to God through surrender to Jesus’ love, knowing in an experiential way the depth of his love, the goodness of his character and the joy of walking in community.

Rooted in Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (NIV), our year will delve into what it means to cultivate an intimate relationship with God in five aspects of life: emotional, physical, spiritual, relational, and intellectual.

We hope you’ll be excited to join us at The Gathering Place for a new, hosted format. We’ll enjoy light food, time learning together, discussion, a thematic activity and prayer as we come to know how much God love us.

Join the group to receive email updates on other events like the Holiday and Spring brunch and Ladies Retreat.

September 19th @ 6:30 PM—Knowing God
October 17th @ 6:30 PM— Knowing God in Your Emotional Life
November—No Meetup
December 7th @ 9:00 AM—Holiday Brunch
January 16th @ 6:30 PM— Knowing God in Your Physical Life
February 20th @ 6:30 PM— Knowing God in Your Relational Life
March @ TBD—Retreat (No Meetup)
April 17th @ 6:30 PM — Knowing God in Your Spiritual Life
May 15th @ 6:30 PM — Knowing God in Your Intellectual Life
June 7th @ 9:00 AM—Spring Brunch
July @ TBD—Summer Book Club
August @ TBD—Summer Book Club

Dallas Willard wrote in his book, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship, “The greatest issue facing the world today … is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

Twenty-one times in the New Testament (NIV) Jesus said, “Follow me.” But what does it mean to follow Jesus in the context of the lives we are actually living today with overnight shifts and busy schedules and migraines and toddlers climbing on us? If we wait until the circumstances of our lives become what we envision or dream of as ideal for an encounter with Jesus, we will end up missing him in the moments he wants to inhabit today.

The Practicing the Way course will get us started on a pathway to experiencing the transformation that comes when we learn to truly follow Jesus on the road he’s marked out for us. Employing the weekly rhythm of learning and processing in community with practicing and reflecting on our own, this eight-week course will prime us for what has been likened to a lifelong spiritual journey. The goal is to be trained to live as an apprentice to Jesus: being with, becoming like and doing as he did.

The Practicing the Way Course looks and feels different from anything we’ve seen before. It will help us slow down, think deeply about our formation and invite us into the way of living modeled for us by Jesus. The course will be held at The Gathering Place on Monday evenings from 6:30-8:30 beginning September 23rd. If you are already in a group, consider participating with your existing group at your regular meeting or adjusting your meeting rhythm to join us for eight weeks on Mondays at the Gathering Place.

On Thursday mornings at Starbucks in winter of 2022-23, a few Open Life moms connected over coffee and conversation about a broad range of topics from parenting and marriage to sabbath and prayer. It was one moment during a hectic week where they could relax with a cup of coffee and a few friends and be reminded of how it feels to be one’s self before resuming the demanding rhythm of life as a mom of young children. For one mom in
particular, God used those Thursday morning respites to stir the desire in her heart to bring
similar moments to other moms.

Fast forward to June 2024 and the wrap up of our first year of Kids Connect: We saw familiar faces week after week as well as occasional drop-ins. New relationships formed while others were deepened. The space created by the team was engaging for the children and provided a nice break in routine for moms.

The heart of Kids Connect is to love families through loving their children by providing a
consistent space that fosters a sense of belonging. We want children and parents to be
seen, heard and valued. I have been told many times that when I have shown love to the
children of my friends, my friends feel loved more deeply as well. One mom said, “when my
children find joy and belonging it's like discovering another sense of home.”

We are excited to build on the foundation that was laid as we head into a new school year
of Kids Connect. “An hour and a half every week might seem little in comparison to the rest
of these kid's lives but history and personal experience has shown me God's power in the
small. Our loving God just needs a little bit of us to carry out his extraordinary plan to bring
all his children home.” (Fran)

Each week during the school year, we invite preschool age children and their caregivers to
engage natural curiosity and imagination in activities that promote creativity, problem
solving, and collaboration. To see Kids Connect realize its vision, we need to build a team
of individuals who offer their talents and time to things like providing fresh baked goods and prepping materials, previewing books and helping with setup and of course we would
welcome friendly and smiling faces on site each Friday in support roles as well as song and
circle time leaders.

If you are interested in joining the Kids Connect team, please click below on the desired role and sign up or email stephanief@openlife.church.

I still remember loading the van to head to the airport for my first international mission trip to Ukraine over 24 years ago. The anticipation and excitement mixed with apprehension and fear of the unknown were palpable among the entire team of 20 moms and dads, pastors and youth. Reading from my journal I remember the prayer that began with that trip and echoes still in my heart every time I step into something scary-exciting and new: “Lord, I surrender my expectations for today to you. You hold the agenda. I pray you use me, as you have crafted me uniquely, for your purpose and your glory.”

From the time we arrived at the curb at LAX until we arrived home again ten days later, every moment was filled with awe and wonder, overwhelm and emotion. Our trip was in partnership with a ministry that visited poor children across the globe, opening doors to share the gospel through tangible gifts. As we presented each child in the hospital or orphanage or poor village church with a gift packed, chosen and prayed over just for them, we were demonstrating the truth that the gospel is presented to each of us as a gift to receive from our loving Father. No one on our team spoke Ukrainian. Each encounter was brief, but there is no doubt those we met felt seen and loved.

My favorite moment was just after a gift distribution when I saw an elderly woman sitting quietly alone, her skin worn by years of adversity. A moment passed between us as she greeted me with a smile which lit up her shining blue eyes, transforming her countenance. She reached out to touch my cheek tenderly as if to say, “thank you” and handed me a small … coin? pendant? A religious pocket token? I’m not sure exactly what its significance was to her, but it felt exceedingly generous to me at the time. I smiled back at her, holding onto that moment until we were ushered back onto our bus and moved on to the next ministry post.

I won’t try to sugar-coat it. Missions are hard. International travel is exhausting. Communication is challenging. Sleep is disrupted. The food is often fair at best. The facilities require flexibility (mental and physical, at times). The schedule is demanding and the senses are overloaded from morning to night. It seems a little odd that one would enthusiastically sign up for this. Yet there is no other experience that has come close for me in terms of transformational impact, than to labor across the planet to show the love of Jesus to the poor and the lost. As I have continued to pray that prayer of surrender, asking the Lord to use me for His purpose and His glory in 7 countries and 4 continents, I have seen my life and that of so many others changed.

In 2025, Open Life has two opportunities to serve globally. The first opportunity is coming fast in January to Bangladesh to serve Speak Up for the Poor. Registration for this trip will close at the end of August. The second opportunity is to serve missionaries Jamie and Berly Bello in Dominican Republic in late July.

CLICK HERE FOR TRIP DETAILS

At Open Life we believe that every follower of Jesus should “go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” (Mark 16:15, NIV) In Acts 1:8, Jesus instructs his disciples, and consequently you and me, to testify as his witnesses to the good news that there is peace with God through him (Acts 10:36). We are to carry this testimony to our Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth—that is to our neighbors, our cities, our regions and our world.

We see many examples in Scripture of Jesus serving the poor, marginalized and foreigners. “Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:35–38, NIV)

Later, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus gave his disciples this command in Matthew 28:19–20: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (NIV)

Then, early in the book of Acts, before ascending to Heaven Jesus commissions them once again in verse 8 saying, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We have the example of Jesus. We have been called and commissioned by Jesus and we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to go. The Gospel that has changed our own lives so profoundly is not only for us but for all people. We are God’s chosen instruments to advance his kingdom.

When we say, ‘yes’ to God and go, it first challenges and encourages us as we learn to trust in his provision. We must rely on his strength as we experience new cultures and people. And as we step out in faith, we see God’s faithfulness in his demonstration of love to us and through us as we humbly serve our global partners. It’s a privilege to partner with our global ministries and missionaries, not only with financial support, but by going, seeing their work firsthand and experiencing their impact. And when we go and serve as a team, offering our gifts to complement the ministry and outreach they are already doing, we help move their ministry forward.

In 2025, Open Life has two opportunities to serve globally. The first opportunity is coming fast in January to Bangladesh to serve Speak Up for the Poor. Registration for this trip will close at the end of August. The second opportunity is to serve missionaries Jamie and Berly Bello in Dominican Republic in late July.

CLICK HERE FOR TRIP DETAILS

We wanted to make you aware of a couple of role shifts we have made at Open Life.

As staffing availability and needs continually flex with different seasons of life, Open Life has always been flexible and agile, and this is one of those moments.  With the needs of being a new parent, Jadon Haynes has expressed the need to reduce his hourly investment at Open Life from full-time to 20 hours weekly.  

Therefore, we will be shifting some of the responsibilities that have been on Jadon's plate to Stephanie French and shifting more hours to Stephanie, bringing her to full-time. Jadon’s pastoral role now shifts from Executive Pastor to Associate Pastor (Operations & Worship) and Stephanie’s will continue to be Associate Pastor, but with the clarity of (Pathways & Missions).

How will this impact you?

When you reach out to Jadon for a need you have been familiar with having him address, he just might reply, “I will forward this to Stephanie and she will get right back to you.” Especially with needs regarding Discipleship or Groups as Stephanie will now be facilitating this area. Jadon will continue to facilitate worship, sound, video and Operational needs like finances and church database management.

What is “Pathways” you might ask?  

At our recent Staff Advance we continued to dream of discipleship pathways for people. How we could invest in empowering leaders to facilitate groups, classes/courses and have a pathway for people to grow in their relationship with Jesus. Stephanie will be taking on all of these connected pieces in order to create a seamless strategy and system for people to grow their faith at Open Life. The weekly prayer launching at The Gathering Place this week is one of the pieces made possible by this additional time invested into pathways already.  

We are excited that the gifts and availability of our staff have allowed for this shift to be seamless and work for both Jadon and Stephanie and allow for better alignment within roles that each of them are facilitating for the church. 

The Missions Team to Chile is leaving June 22nd in the morning. We have designed a prayer page and will be posting updates from the trip that you can quickly access from the link entitled "Updates" on the page.

Please follow the progress of our team, be praying daily for them and see what God does through the generosity of so many in both funding the teams and allowing us to be a part of the trip through prayer.

Through prayer “God has given you a way to make your presence count, a way to be a true partner in His kingdom’s work.” (Touch the World through Prayer, Wesley Duewell)