Worship Leader Wanted!!!!

Sanctuary Youth Church is looking for a worship leader to help get things rolling.  We’re only a month out from school starting and would love to assemble a team of talented young people to reach the youth of Seattle.  We are looking for someone who has a heart to lead young people in worship, not just singing.  If you are at all interested in being a part of a new church and feel that your gifts can help our team, then hop on the bus and let’s go! 

You can contact me, Joe Henrickson at 206.724.2449 cell, or e-mail me at joehenrickson@gmail.com

Sanctuary Youth Church

Summer Cleaning!

Today was an interesting day.  After working this afternoon for five hours at the lovely Magnolia Albertson’s I came home to find “the pile”.

The pile I had created the night before in the front of our house that we were hoping people would take home with them.  One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!  You’ve heard the saying before I am sure.  Funny thing is, I think that most of the stuff in the pile belonged to someone else before it became ours. 

We got rid of a lot of the things via a posting on Craigslist and people came, and people took.  GREAT!!!  Now our garage actually has some room and we even found some things we didn’t know we had, SCORE!!!!

The question is this…

How often do we go through the garage of our lives?  Are we able to look at ourselves and see the things that don’t belong?  Can we recognize the difference between the garbage and the keep pile?  Sometimes we cannot.  Even worse, sometimes we choose to hold onto things that aren’t doing anything but taking up space and/or are even causing us to stumble. 

How do we effectively do our summer cleaning?  We can pray and ask God to show us those things that need to go.  Although it can be painful to let some things go, God ultimately knows you better than you know yourself, don’t be afraid to ask. 

Another thing we  should be doing is meeting with someone on a consistent basis that is a mentor and someone you can share things with that you trust.  These people, if they are given the liberty, can know you well enough to see when there are things that are out of balance or cluttering your heart space. 

God is a jealous God and he has created you to be with him.  He doesn’t want to share your heart with the excess baggage that you pick up along life’s path.  If you thought about doing an inventory of your clutter in your heart, that may be enough to tell you that you need to do some cleaning.  I encourage you today, ask God to show you what needs to go, he will.  Then trust him, I promise you’ll be grateful.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Opening Night!!!

Today is the big day, it’s July 23rd!!  That is the first official night of Sanctuary Youth Church.  The Barbecue last week was awesome.  Lots of young people showed up and hung out at the beach, ate some seriously delicious hot dogs and had a great time. 

Tonight is a whole different story, this is church.  Not your typical Sunday morning service or maybe not like anything you’ve seen before, it’s solely built for youth.  This is the beginning of what we believe to be a monster move amongst young people that will transform our community and revive a generation! 

We are meeting at Ballard Boys and Girls Club – 1767 N.W. 64th St. in Ballard.

Hope to see you there!

New In Town

I just finished watching this heartwarming movie “New In Town.”  It’s a “cute” movie for those of you who may be into the chick flicks such as myself.  I know in writing that one statement I may get more response than anything else in this blog but that is besides the point.

In this movie, Renee Zellweger is a young business woman trying to make it to the top of a large corporation but in the process finds herself being moved to a poe-dunk town in Minnesota to down-size a factory.  Yeah, there is a love story and a large portion of laughter in the movie, but the gist of the movie is about Zellweger falling in love with the townspeople and not being able to do her job as requested. 

Corporate America has their quotas and their budgets to meet and often those things roll out without the thought of the people behind each reduction or layoff.  The person making that decision is obviously not the one affected.  

What if the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” was a law more than a suggestion?  What if a corporation had to make decisions for the upper management the same as they did their employees?  Would that make things a little different?  Maybe business would struggle a bit but it would definitely make things interesting.  

What about our personal lives?  What if we had to make the golden rule a law rather than a plea?  Would that change our behaviors or actions?  The truth of the matter is pretty hilarious if you haven’t figured it out already.  It actually is a law.  Jesus quoted it to the religious leaders, “love your neighbor as yourself” as being the second greatest commandment after “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  It may not be a Washington State law or have an RCW code that you can look up, but it does have a KJV code or an NIV code you can look up.  I found it in Matthew 22:37.  

Today’s blog is more of a challenge than a motivational message, but if you take the challenge I believe it will motivate a life change.  In every decision you make ask some questions.  1.  How does my desicion affect people?  2.  What would I do if I were this person?  3.  How would Jesus make this decision?

After all is said and done, it may not be the new motto of the corporation you work for, but it may be a way for you to see others in a new light and act in love rather than duty.  If after this your heart is still calloused and you still can’t love people, maybe you too should start watching some chick flicks.

Joe Henrickson

The Blind SHALL See!!!

Hard Times???  Man, I guess I could say that we all go through them.  We’ve had our share over the past year and a half, that’s no understatement.  Through it all, however, we have not lost our sight, at least not for any extended period of time.  As a Christian I have come to realize that it is pretty easy to get trampled on by others.  What makes it even more difficult is when you look at those around you that don’t even claim to believe in God and it looks like life is a bed of roses.  Yeah, I can get pretty turned upside down by that myself sometimes.  Really though, many of us allow the devil to drive these peircing arrows into our hearts that not only make us feel worthless but so turn the course of our thoughts that we can actually forget the purposes that God has for our lives.  We get trampled, we trample ourselves and soon we are saying to ourselves, “I’m not able”, or “there’s no way!”  We forget the word of God that says that “the gifts and calling of God are irrivocable.”  We forget that we can do “all” things through Christ whom strengthens us.  We never remember that there is “NO” condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus and therefore we find ourselves thinking we’re abandoned.  We believe the lies of the enemy that say we are not worthy to do the things God first called us to.  Sanctuary is a place of rest and of healing.  A place that says let’s go forward and not look back.  We are planting this youth church to allow young people an oppotunity to dream again and begin to have victory in their lives.  You had a dream once, didn’t you?  What was it?  I have to tell you not to forget, don’t let it just fade away or die.  God hasn’t forgot.  God is still calling.   The blind shall see again!

Sanctuary Youth Church – July 16th – Golden Gardens – 6pm – Barbecue

Ballard Boys and Girls Club – Thursday, July23rd – 7pm and every Thursday thereafter.

Joe Henrickson

You’re an All-Star

My son Josh is 10 years old and made the All-Star team in his first attempt this season.  Way to go Josh, round of applause, pats on the back.  I know, as a parent, it’s like being on cloud nine. 

Today was the second game of All-Stars out in Woodinville and it was awesome – at least for the first 5 innings.  Ballard was ahead 3 – 1 going into the final inning and after getting two outs  we were set to win, just one more out.  To make a long story short, we had a pitching change and it made a huge difference.  A couple of big hits and an error later and Ballard was now down 4 – 3 and went on to lose by that same score.  LAME!  I was mortified and I knew exactly the people to blame and if I could (and boy did I want to) I would have let everybody know what I thought.  All frustration aside, it made me realize something about church, ministry and leadership.  Every one of us are All-Stars and are capable of All-Star plays, All-Star hits and even All-Star seasons, but not every one of us are pitchers, not every one of us can hit the ball every time up, in fact we may be terrible at hitting but have a way to flash that glove and make stellar plays in the outfield like nobody’s business.  I didn’t tell you that the pitcher who gave up those final three runs played third base before he came in as pitcher.  As a third baseman he made about five awesome defensive plays that I’m not sure many kids out there would have made.  Each of us have our strengths and our weaknesses and we need to be focused on those things that we know we do well and do them for the glory of God.  If we’re not pitcher material, there are other pitchers, no big deal, but you’re an All-Star, and God knows exactly what position you should play and can play well.  Too many of us give up because of a lack of hitting, but God, he has you on the team because he needs your glove.  At Sanctuary we are about helping you find your position.  If you already know your position and nobody else will let you play it, we can help there too. 

July 16th is our kickoff barbecue at 6pm at Golden Gardens.  Come out and share some food and we can begin to BE All-Stars together on God’s great team.

NEW BEGINNINGS!

JULY 16, 2009  GOLDEN GARDENS at 6pm – 8pm officially!

It’s been over a year since Joe and Jenny Henrickson left their position at Philadelphia Church as the youth pastors.  Although it was a very hard decision to make at the time, it was obvious that it had to be done.  Over the past year, in the absence of the many relationships that were established with young people in the Ballard area, Joe and Jenny have prayerfully recognized that God’s calling has not changed in their lives, nor has their location.  Still in Ballard, they are looking at starting a new venture.  Sanctuary of Seattle is not just your average church, but a church designed and run by youth themselves.  Joe and Jenny are looking at investing into young people and encouraging them to be leaders of their schools, their communities and their families.  Kids today have the ability to do a lot more than they are given credit for and it is recognized  by the leadership of Sanctuary of Seattle that even churches fall short of believing in their young people.  Throughout history young people have been the backbone of many revivals around the world, they have been the driving force behind many prayer movements and a valuable part of global missions.  It’s time for us to change the course of history by investing in our youth and encourage them to take the reigns and not just believe in them, but really get behind their dreams and help to make them happen.  This is our SANCTUARY! 

To be a part of the movement, subscribe to the blog and pass the link along.

Joe Henrickson