The following was written by Paul Freed, Deacon at Mars Hill Downtown Seattle and leader of the Business Ministry. Paul and his wife Rachel have organized an event on Saturday, February 11th to discuss the subject of Adoption and share stories with those who are interested.

Our story started while watching the This is Mars Hill Albuquerque video during the fall of 2010. We had never been to Albuquerque and didn’t know anything about the culture there. Pastor Dave Bruskus talked about the alarming number of children there growing up without fathers. It broke our hearts and opened our eyes to the children right here in the US who need a loving home where they are taught about Jesus. God used this video to begin a journey for us that would change our lives.

In the coming 3 months, God put a lot of adoption-related themes and messages in our daily lives. They ranged from strangers telling us their personal adoption story, to movies, books, sermons, news, and even TV sitcoms. The theme of adoption was everywhere. This became somewhat comical, but it confirmed that we were being sent a clear message to pursue adoption.

We prayed, read scripture, and talked with a pastor about all of this. We feared giving up the comforts and freedom that we enjoyed being married for the past 14 years with no children. We came to see how adoption is the gospel in action. We did nothing to deserve God’s love and grace, but we’re adopted into his family. A key piece to our decision was reading the book, Adopted for Life by Russell Moore, which articulated the Biblical case for adoption, the call for the church to lead on this issue in our cities, and answers to common questions.

At our church retreat in May of 2011, we got a chance to speak during a testimony sharing time about what we had been learning. We announced that we had decided to adopt a child. It was fun to see the room erupt with surprise and excitement as we shared for the first time publically what God had been teaching us. It’s been an amazing journey as we enter a new phase of life, learning about the various adoption options, and going through training. God-willing, we plan to adopt a child in 2012. We rest knowing it’s in God’s hands and timing.

Our invitation

If you’ve ever been curious about adoption, wonder what the Bible says about this issue, or want to hear more from two Christian agencies and couples who have adopted – please join us on Saturday, Feb 11th from 9:30-11:30am at Mars Hill Church Downtown Seattle. RSVP and invite others on TheCity, Mars Hill Church’s private online social network.

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Consider Adoption: The Gospel in Action Informational Meeting

When: Saturday, February 11th
Time: 9:30 – 11:30am
Location: Mars Hill Church Downtown – 2333 Western Ave, Seattle, WA 98121

What is adoption and what does the bible say about caring for orphans? In the United States, what is the need, who are the children and what does adoption practically look like? Whether you are actively considering adopting a child, think it might be an interesting idea in the future, or simply want to know what is going on and how you can support others, please join us for this informational meeting.

Join your Mars Hill friends at this event as you hear:

• Pastor Will Little teach about the biblical principles of adoption
• Testimonies from Mars Hill couples that have experienced the adoption process
• Local Christian adoption agencies perspective and information
• Interact with our speakers for a Q&A panel

Childcare will not be provided, but children are welcome to join us.
Light refreshments will be available.

Free parking is available at the Art Institute garage on Elliott Ave and Battery St. Please bring your parking ticket and get it validated at the church.

This event is sponsored by the Mars Hill Adoption Group on TheCity. Our mission is to reflect the love and compassion of Jesus by encouraging, educating, and enabling Mars Hill Church families to provide homes to children in need of adoption. For more information on this event, please contact Rachel Freed Rachel.freed@marshill.com

1) Lead in Repentance

As men, we have the tendency to be proud, competitive and stubborn. We do not want to “give in” and lose an argument. Real men lead through humility by being the first to acknowledge their own sin, pride and stubbornness (Proverbs 29:23). This will create a healthy, loving conduit for your wife to be led (Ephesians 5:25).

2) Lead by Learning to Love What She Loves

Often, men expect their wives to always follow them to the game, concert, or rodeo. Ask God to give you a liking for what she likes. Before I got married, I did not like figure skating, but my wife loves figure skating. I started watching it with her, going to competitions with her, and now I can say boldly, there’s nothing like a Scott Hamilton free skate! Learning to appreciate what gets her excited brings us closer together and shows her how much I care for her (Ephesians 5:28).

3) Lead in Household Management

Wives, especially those with children, have a very difficult and often stressful job. MSN Money Recently Reported That Based On The Job Responsibilities Of A Wife And Mother, Their Annual Salary Would Be $96,000 . My wife, at times, will not ask for help so it’s important for me to discern, pray, and analyze what my wife’s needs are. Because we have two young children, I recently set up a weekly system where trusted gals from the church watch our children for the morning or afternoon so that my wife can get a needed break and get errands done.

4) Lead by Pointing to Jesus

After teaching the marriage class for a number of years, the absolute top desire I’ve heard from every wife in their marriage (and quite frankly the biggest disappointment thus far in their marriage) is to be led to Jesus. Our wives desire to be encouraged in their prayer life, bible reading, taking a Sabbath, silence and solitude (Ephesians 5:26-27).

5) Lead by Turning Off Technology

The new AT&T commercial of the couple out to dinner where the man is sneaking peeks of the game on his phone is so funny because it’s so true of so many of us. Husbands come home from work and either turn on the TV or pull out their computer. When they go out on dates he’ll excuse himself to go to the restroom so he can check his email. Husbands, close the laptop, stop texting, and be more concerned with your wife’s status than people you barely know. Pursue her, communicate with her, and give her your undivided attention.

*BONUS: LEAD WITH SPONTANEITY.

A couple ideas of ways to surprise her:

• Hire someone to come clean the house while you two take a weekend away
• A love letter, a rose (or more), and you telling her “I’d marry you all over again.”

Authored by Tim Gaydos, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church Downtown Seattle

Here’s a live recording from Sunday, January 22nd.

Ghost Ship, “In Tenderness He Sought Me”

Ghost Ship – “In Tenderness He Sought Me” by marshilldts

In tenderness He sought me
Weary and sick with sin
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again
While angels in His presence sang, until the courts of heaven rang

Oh, the love that sought me
Oh, the blood that bought me
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold of God
Grace that brought me to the fold of God

He died for me while I was sinning
Needy and poor and blind
He whispered to assure me
“I’ve found thee, thou art mine”
I never heard a sweeter voice, it made my aching heart rejoice

Upon His grace I’ll ponder
And sing anew His praise
With all adoring wonder
His blessings I retrace
It seems as if eternal days are far too short to sing His praise

Authored by Cam Huxford, Worship Director at Mars Hill Downtown Seattle

What is a “Great” City?

When you think of a “great” city, what do you picture? Do you think of beautiful, untamed landscapes and unspoiled nature? Small town USA? Clusters of tall skyscrapers and tangles of busy freeways? How about culture, arts, and entertainment? Is your ideal city filled with millions of people from all over the world or is it a smaller town of born-and-raised locals who all know each other?

We all want Seattle to be great, but different visions of greatness sometimes make it seem like our city has a bit of a split personality. Laid-back and “let it be” Pacific Northwest culture collides with the simultaneous desire to be a west coast metropolis. Popular Seattle culture calls these two sides of the coin “Greater Seattle” and “Lesser Seattle.” It’s as if Seattle is constantly asking itself, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

As a church that is all about Jesus, our desire is to build a city and a civilization that honors God. The gospel speaks to the universal desire for a great city – to the vision of both the Greater and Lesser Seattle mindsets.

Greater Seattle, meet Lesser Seattle. Now Play Nice.

We need to understand our city’s historical roots in order to understand its present situation.

Seattle first began as a town of independent, opportunity-seeking settlers in the 1850s. Their pioneering spirit was catapulted forward in the 1890s when the gold rush hit the Pacific Northwest region. Seattle was such a boom town that it was colloquially referred to as “New York Pretty Soon” among its residents. Greater Seattle’s vision was born.

At the same time, severe drought and famine in Scandinavia drove large numbers of new immigrants to Seattle. These new settlers brought their more laid-back, tolerant, low-key culture, which was at odds with the boom-town vision of the gold rush pioneers. Their more European-inspired attitude later became known as the “Lesser Seattle” mindset.

Fast forward more than a hundred years, and our city still grapples with these conflicting visions.

In fact, the city has coined its own term for the gridlock that often results from leaders’ attempts to define the future: “The Seattle Process.” The Greater/Lesser clash has even played itself out in our area’s businesses. One example is Starbucks, which started as a single shop that sold whole-bean coffees in Pike Place Market. Its original three founders had no interest in creating a nationwide chain of coffeehouses that served brewed espresso drinks. In the 1990s, Howard Schultz was eventually able to transform Starbucks from a single-store merchant into a global coffeehouse, but he had to buy out the company from the founders in order to do it!

Both Seattles Really Want the Same Thing

So what do we do with this conflict of visions? How do we move forward? The ironic reality is that both Greater and Lesser Seattle actually want the same thing. We all want to be made new, we want meaning, fulfillment, and wholeness. We want a city that flourishes and thrives. This is what the Bible calls “shalom,” which is a Hebrew word that is used to convey the idea of peace and wholeness with God and with people.

Greater Seattle can rest in knowing that God does desire a truly great city. In Hebrews 11:10 we are reminded of what Abraham’s trust in God to build great civilizations: “He was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” We see the greatness of our city in the beauty of its skyscrapers sparkling in twilight on the banks of Elliot Bay.

The natural beauty of our region and the way God cares for it speaks to the Lesser Seattle vision, which is often concerned with the impact of the Greater Seattle spirit on our region’s livability, environment, and sustainability. In Genesis we see God set Adam and Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden and commission them to have dominion over creation and care for it. And of course God cares most of all for his most valuable of creations – people.

The Gospel Builds Civilizations that Honor God

Image via Seattlest/Vintage Seattle

Our God desires that we have shalom not only with him, but that we have it with each other as well, which was his original design as we see laid out in Genesis 1 and 2. The Gospel speaks to this need for shalom in particular with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because it shows that not only does the physical matter (our city, our earth), but so does the eternal (our relationships with God and with each other).

The question isn’t whether Seattle should be “greater” or “lesser.” The question is, will our city have shalom with its surrounding environment, among its people, and with God?

Our desire is that it would – because we believe that this “shalom” is what constitutes a truly great city. That’s our heart for our city – to have shalom with our God and with each other through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Authored by Pastor Tim Gaydos, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Downtown Seattle

We need more men & women with this same love and vision for our city and for the Church! As Mars Hill Church continues to grow at unbelievable rates, our greatest need is for more people to step up into service and leadership roles. For the Downtown church in particular – did you know that we are now actually larger than we were before we sent out several hundred people to plant Rainier Valley? And we just launched Rainier Valley two weeks ago!

So this begs the question – what is God calling you to? How is God calling you to serve his bride, the Church?

Maybe you need to think about:

• Attending Doctrine Class and becoming a member (Doctrine Class starts tomorrow, January 25, at 7pm!)
• Joining a community group and start loving those in your neighborhood
• Giving sacrificially, cheerfully, and regularly
• Starting to serve
• Stepping up to lead a community group
• Pursuing the Deaconship process
• Starting the eldership process to become a Pastor

God has gifted all of us uniquely through the Holy Spirit, and we have the great joy and privilege of using those gifts for Jesus’ glory by serving, loving and caring for his church. We need to walk into church with a service mentality instead of a consumer mentality – looking for needs that we have the ability or gifting to fill.

Jesus has stepped on the gas, big time – and we want to keep up so that more people can meet him! Ask God in prayer to show you how you, like our new pastors, might best serve the church as he has called you to.

Authored by Pastor Tim Gaydos, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church Downtown Seattle

We hope you were able to join us this weekend for the launch of our new series, Real Marriage. The series kickoff was definitely something special and we saw the Holy Spirit move powerfully, concluding with the men of the church standing and vowing to love & serve their church, their wives, and their families.

But what if you’re not married? What if you’re part of that 60% of Mars Hill Downtown Seattle that is single? What on earth, you ask, are you going to do for the next 11 weeks while we focus on marriage?

Well, the truth is that Real Marriage is first and foremost about biblical relationships, so whether you’re married or single you’ll find plenty of applicable and valuable content:

• What should a biblical friendship look like?
• How has my family of origin and/or my parents’ marriage affected me & my view of relationships?
• What idols of independence or dependence do I have?
• How can I can with sins I have committed or sins that were committed against me?
• What does it look like to live a full and productive life as a single person?

In Biblical times, singles faced a very different set of cultural and social norms when it came to dating & marriage. Most people married very young (sometimes as young as 13 or 14 years old) and with heavy involvement from their parents, families, and friends. Today people are marrying much later in life and are often left to make sense of their relationships alone, with most of their guidance coming from a culture that doesn’t value what God has to say on the subject.

The Truth About… Series

That being the case, and since a large part of our church is single, we did want to make sure that Mars Hill Downtown Seattle addressed the specific needs and questions that are sure to come from our unmarried members. In order to do that, the Downtown Seattle church will be hosting a 4-part teaching series in parallel to Real Marriage with content geared exclusively toward singles. On Saturday January 21st, we’ll hold the first event, The Truth About Dating. Special guest and New York Times Bestselling author, Les Parrott, and myself will address these questions and more: Should I date or court my future spouse. What’s with this weird word “courting” anyway? How do you date in a “Christian” way? How can I avoid stalkers? How can I keep from making a huge mistake with my life?

Here are the top 5 reasons to come out to the Truth About Dating:

1. Be encouraged in your walk with a few hundred others from Seattle
2. Learn how to date biblically
3. Hear Pastor Tim and Les Parrott share openly and transparently about their personal pitfalls in dating
4. After party at Urban Enoteca – great spot for food and drinks in SODO
5. Ask any Question on dating, relationships and sex (Text your questions to (530) 454-6060

Join Les Parrott and I as we navigate the waters of biblical relationships and dating this Saturday, January 21st. You can RSVP here for the event.

Authored by Pastor Tim Gaydos, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church Downtown Seattle

Join us for the first Doctrine class of 2012 at 7pm next Wednesday, January 25th.

Despite Snowzilla 2012 dropping in on our region this morning, we saw an amazing turnout for the official launch of Mars Hill Rainier Valley. 512 people braved the weather and came out to see God begin a completely new work in their neighborhood.

It was so beautiful to see the men and women on stage this morning who have spent the last three years in a total labor of love, toil, blood, and sweat to birth this campus. This is a unique type of launch for Mars Hill. For most Mars Hill church plants, there is already a strong presence of people in the area who make up the core. In this case, we have more of a “parachute plant” happening as many members of the core group actively relocate from their current neighborhoods into the Rainier Valley. Many members of the church were born and raised there, but eventually left the neighborhood – sometimes to find other opportunities, sometimes to find a safer place to live. Now, God is working in the hearts of many of these same members, bringing them back to the Valley in order to be a part of what he’s doing there. It is a great joy to see people being faithful and obedient to God’s calling.

Let’s celebrate this new church plant and pray actively for the team of people who are leading it. Planting a new church an in urban context is an extremely difficult task, and the mortality rate for inner-city churches is very high, so Mars Hill Rainier Valley needs your prayers! We are looking forward to the amazing things God is going to do, knowing that he is able to do far more than we can possibly imagine.

Authored by Pastor Tim Gaydos, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church Downtown Seattle

1. Reach out to “the least of these” in your city –

the downtrodden, forgotten, or underserved. Start a mercy ministry to reach out to these groups. Create a transition plan for homeless people from shelter into community. Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for him.

2. Get involved civically.

Set up a meeting with your mayor or city council members and find out specifically what your city needs – then rally your church or community group to help meet those needs. Start attending your neighborhood association meetings and volunteering your time to make your city better.

3. Throw parties & invite your neighbors.

This could be anything from a get-together in your apartment to a full-scale neighborhood block party. The transient nature of many cities can lead to neighbors barely knowing one another – sometimes all it takes is to initiate by invitation!

4. Take care of your city’s environment.

Pick a block or neighborhood and clean it up! Own it and take care of it. Organize an annual Green & Clean event to rally your church and keep your city sparkling.

5. STAY PUT.

Most cities have a sort of “revolving door” as people move in and out. This is one reason why, in places like Seattle, most people put little effort into trying to get to know their neighbors. So dig in, stay put, and put effort into developing your relationships.

6. Give a gift of artistry.

Get your artists together and create a mural that blesses the city. Open your building to your city’s artwalk.

7. Be a positive, not a negative.

Create a city or neighborhood blog that tells stories of hope and progress in your city. Focus on what’s working and instead of complaining about what’s not working, be a part of finding solutions to the problems your city faces.

8. Participate in and help plan & execute your city’s events and festivals.

Seriously – it’s OK to have fun. Enjoying your city and investing in its happiness is a great way to show you love it.

9. Pray for your city.

We can often forget that God does really listen to our prayers – and that he wants to hear from us. Not only does he hear us, but he acts. Pray that God would change your city. Pray that he would save its citizens. Pray that he would give wisdom to its leaders. Remember that your city’s well-being is your well-being.

10. Start ministries that address your city’s specific felt or unseen needs.

Rescue girls out of slavery in sex trafficking. Connect your businesspeople with a business ministry that helps them connect and share life together in a way they may not otherwise have the opportunity.

11. Leaders are readers.

Read up on your city’s history to understand how it started and what historical & cultural forces shaped it into the city it is today. Knowing your city’s past also enables you to speak boldly to its context and mindset, because your city’s history shapes its present more than you can possibly imagine. Get a newspaper subscription so that you can keep up with current events as well.

Authored by Pastor Tim Gaydos, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Downtown Seattle

We love to worship Jesus through music. We have a number of worship leaders at the church and each has been saved by Jesus and has a story to share. This week, we want to introduce you to Chris Bristol. Our Worship Director, Cam Huxford, sat down with Chris to talk about music and the mission of Jesus.

Join us this weekend for the launch of the much-anticipated Real Marriage series. Chris is leading worship all day on Sunday. Come out to any of our services and worship Jesus with us.