Our Epic Life Website

If you come to this website, I want to encourage you to check out our official site:

www.epiclifechurch.org

The site you are on does have links to our team’s personal blogs, though, which we want you to read!

Thanks, grace and peace to you all!

 

A Newsletter

This week we will be sending out a Newsletter from the Epic Life Church in Seattle.  We know that so often newsletters get tossed aside in the vast waste land of junk emails and junk snail mail and are soon banned to the abyss of spam and the recycling bin.  We pray that this newsletter, a mixture of past news and future vision, will be spared the shame and disgrace of finding itself in these places of abject neglect. If you would like to help our newsletter’s odds of actually getting eyeball air time please let us know your preferred avenue of perusement; i.e. do you want a digital copy – for this we must have your email address, or would you like the blissful feeling that you have mail with meaning in your postal box out in the front of your home – for this we need your mailing address.  If you would like this newsletter to become part of your bi-monthly reading program for the well informed please email us at discover@epiclifechurch.org and we will make sure you are on the prominent positioned list of greatness. 

For those of you who would rather not know what God is up to here in Seattle…why are you reading this blog?

We really appreciate all of you who tune into this website! You are a cherished partner in Transforming Seattle.  We love to receive your encouragement and comments on this blog and all of our personal blogs. 

Live Epic Lives,

Keith Carpenter/Lead Pastor/Epic Life Church

 

Epic Life

We are now officially a Non-profit Organization as far as the State of Washington is concerned. We are organized as Epic Life Church Seattle.  It is, of course, an Epic Life that Christ offers us and that we get to live as Christ Followers. I hope you are living your Epic Life to the fullest!

Next is a very long list of organization, tax numbers, and financials, all just so we can function as a legal organization, hmmm, just steps to pass through for our government, but not steps that hold us back from sharing Christ with those around us.

Keep Praying for us! God is good and keeps answering your prayers.  Thanks to Bernie and Lorraine Vander Veen, Kristine’s Dad, who just told us they are praying specifically for security, confidence and faith. They are a great encouragement to us as are so many of you who are praying often and giving sacrificially.

Keep praying for those on our team who haven’t been able to join us yet. Averi will arrive in just under two weeks along with Jeff and Kari. Brandon and Carissa are still waiting on the new package to arrive…the baby is schedule to show up August 5th, but sounds like it could be sooner.

Also, just a note for those of you who have kept telling us how much it rains in Seattle—it has been sunny and 75-80 deg. for ten of the 16 days we have been here and has only rained once.  Well, it is summer, we are told the 7-8 months of rain will resume in the fall, but we’re ready for it.

It’s time to chop some beans and brew up a cup.

 

life so far.

hello friends.  this is shelli writing from gig harbor!  things are going well here, we have had alot of crazy wild experiences already and are excited for the ways we know God will continue to provide.  today, the five girls will move into ther new place (with the help of some strong men and a truck).  we are learning to get accustomed to life here and to each other.  it is a challenge and a joy.

we will keep you updated- again, please check out our individual blogs on the left side of the page for more individual updates and thoughts.

~Shelli

 

blogs

hello friends!
please check out our individual blogs, you’ll find more updates there…

(the links are on the right side of this page)

 

Where?

Many people have asked us, “Where are you going to plant a church?” To which we answer, “In Seattle.” Well that’s really not the answer they’re seeking. The answer that would make people comfortable would go something like this, “We will be on the corner of 88th and Wallingford.” But frankly that is really not an answer that we are going to give, because we are not seeking to be “located” on a corner but instead in neighborhoods.

Where is the new Church in Seattle going to be located? That will depend on where our home is located. Which is completely dependent upon where God gives us a home. The Church will be in the community that we’re placed. The Church will be in our surroundings as we serve, care and share with our neighbors.

What most people mean is, “Where will you meet for a time of corporate worship? Where will all of the home groups/churches get together and celebrate with music, testimony and a message?” The answer to that question can only be answered with a resounding, “We don’t know yet, but we’ll most likely be mobile for a few years as we go through growing stages.” We’ll meet together to worship. We just want to make sure Sunday morning isn’t the only place Church happens.

It’s kind of freeing to not have a building where Church is performed.

 

Seattle Paths

This is the third video in the four part series on Seattle and our Church Plant. It’s much different than the others, I don’t think we quite got the feel we were seeking but it turned out pretty good.

 

Partnering Pattern of Believe

Financial Partnering has been a difficult process for us. There seems to be a pattern or process that we have been working through; although we as a team are all at different stages of this pattern. I think it goes something like this.

1. A stark realization that we need financial partners to make this possible.
2. Thinking that we don’t know enough people who would support us.
3. An overwhelming twitch that we will never raise enough money.
4. Wanting to make sure we have enough money to live on.
5. Fear that people will reject us.
6. Fear that people will reject the vision.
7. Believing the vision fully.
8. Fear that we won’t be able to minister fully unless we are funded.
9. Deep Faith that God will supply all of our needs.
10. Understanding that we will be able to minister out of our poverty. (2 Corinthians 8:1-7)
11. Realizing that we do know enough people, only because God knows who he wants to be partnering with us and a dependence on him to bring people to us – to his work.
12. Understanding that we are giving others a chance to be blessed because they give sacrificially.
13. Confidently asking people to partner with us, not because we want the money to survive personally or even to minister with, but because we truly believe it would benefit our partners.
14. Understanding that #1 “A stark realization that we need financial partners to make this possible,” only works if both partners are working together and that God brings his blessings on everyone who sows generously – generous in finances, in prayer, in ministry, in encouragement, etc.

As we “travel” through these stages our faith progressively matures and we begin to understand one of the beautiful facets of Church Planting: Partnership.

 

Seattle – The City

Video Number two in a four part series on Seattle. 

 

Seattle People Video

We have been given the opportunity to share with Pleasant Valley Church for four Sundays in a row. We will have each of the four videos posted on YouTube. Here’s the first one.