Imagine

Imagine Christmas Offering

2010-10-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

In May of 08’ Westside started Imagine “A Journey of Expansion”. It was an adventure that we took together to expand our FAITH, our INFLUENCE & our CAMPUS. Wow, it’s been an amazing experience. Together we have been a part of taking our campus to the next level, using our hands and feet to reach out to our local community, and changing hundreds of people’s lives in the process. Our Imagine Journey is coming to an end this Christmas and we want to end with a slam dunk. Throughout the months of October, November, & December our combined Imagine giving will go toward making a difference in the following areas:

Imagine Christmas Offering Goal: $50,000

$30,000 = Property payments

$10,000 = New initiatives for 2011 @ Westside

$10,000 = Digging a well in Nairobi, Kenya

If this Imagine thing is new to you, please feel free to join on in. If you’ve fallen a little behind and would like a chance to catch up, go for it. If you’re interested in making a difference through this awesome opportunity this Christmas, both locally and globally, then this is your chance. Let’s finish this together with a bang.

To give now, click here

WHIRLWIND!

2010-05-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement and energy at Westside. Clearly, God is at work in bigger ways than we could have imagined. What’s happening here is unique, and I don’t want anyone to miss out on this life-changing phase of our church’s growth!

As you know, our church began Imagine 2 years ago as a 3-year Journey of Expansion. I can’t even describe to you the electricity & sense of destiny that led us up to that point. Time after time, God confirmed in the hearts & lives of our leaders and members that He was calling us to step out in faith and go for His vision. So we did! We came together as a church and pledged to pray, give, & serve sacrificially so that His dreams for us could become a reality. We dreamed of having our faith stretched. That has happened! We dreamed of having our influence expanded. That has happened! We dreamed of welcoming more & more people onto our campus every week. And that has happened! We’ve done a TON of projects together (parking lot, roofing, remodeling, clearing the corner property, building indoor & outdoor kids’ spaces, and more), but the real deal has been the life change we’ve seen through it all.

The reality is, we’ve experienced more results in just 2 years than most of us thought would be possible in 3 years. Though the economy has presented challenges for many, God has proved faithful and He has worked beyond our expectations. The impact in our ministry has been worth every bit of effort & investment made.

Consider these exciting results since we began Imagine 2 years ago…

• Over 160 individuals have made first-time decisions to follow Jesus as their Savior @ Westside (over 60 just this year so far)
• Over 100 new believers have been baptized
• We are reaching an average of 250 more people every Sunday
• Our Children’s Ministry has doubled in size
• All of our ministries have experienced growth (Small Groups, Students, Celebrate Recovery, and Sunday Ministries)
• Our Food Brigade has served thousands and thousands of meals to hungry families on Saturdays
• We’ve helped start & sustain a growing church in San Francisco (www.journeysf.com).
• Our members have caught the fire & are sharing Jesus with their friends at a whole new level
• Our Easter attendance skyrocketed this year and 33 people made first-time decisions for Jesus on one day
• We’ve gone from 2 Sunday services to 3 Sunday services

And that’s just the stuff I can remember! God is up to something at Westside, and I firmly believe He’s calling us to give our lives to the cause.

God has increased our vision, and I believe God is calling us out to change our strategy so we can see even more effective ministry done on the west side and throughout the world. That’s why I’m writing this letter. You are a vital part of God’s plan here. I want to urge you to join with me in prayer so we can prepare for what’s ahead. The truth is, God has brought you & me together for such a time as this. Of all the ways we could be investing our lives, I’m so thankful you’re joining me in making your life count.

As I shared last weekend, we’ve felt the urgency to help our larger church connect with the opportunity to make a difference. As a result, our 3 year Journey is being shortened to prepare the way for our growing church to embrace God’s expanding vision for us. So between now & December we’ll be running the last leg of our Imagine Journey and preparing for what’s ahead in 2011. Though we don’t have exact details yet, we know that we’ll be launching into a brand-new expansion campaign next year in order to maximize our ministry impact and see God’s business finished before He comes back!

So here’s what I’m asking you to do:

1. Spend the next couple weeks in prayer about how God wants you (& your family) to be involved in our journey. We’ll be making our 7-month financial & prayer commitment toward Imagine on Sunday, June 6. (7 month commitments go from June – December of 2010).

2. If you’re new to Westside, or to the Imagine Journey, jump on board! Ask God to show you His will and then step out in faith and watch God provide. Your 7-month commitment will help us…

• Honor God and model the kind of sacrificial lifestyle He’s calling Christians to live
• Make serious progress toward paying off our new land (185th & Farmington)
• Open up windows of opportunity for using our new land to reach our community
• Help prepare our church financially to launch our next phase of ministry (2011)

3. If you’ve been involved in Imagine, seek God about how He wants you to finish out your Imagine commitment and prepare for our next opportunity. Plan to get as close to your original goal as possible by December of this year. If you’d like to continue your Imagine giving on into 2011, by all means do.

4. Come celebrate & commit with me toward God’s exciting journey on Sunday, June 6th. I’m ready for God to amaze us again by proving Himself faithful and blowing away our expectations!

Thank you for being part of God’s family through Westside. It’s a privilege to be your pastor.

Let’s go for it together!

Gabe Kolstad
Lead Pastor

See the Videos!!!

2010-05-15T17:15:00.001-07:00

BUNNY SUIT

2010-02-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

This year Easter is on April 4th (I can never figure out how the Easter date is selected!), and I've been thinking a lot about how to prepare. So now I have the perfect Bunny Suit picked out and I'm all ready. Ha!

Seriously, Easter is the most significant holiday of the year. It's the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It's the day that changed history forever, the day the human race received the hope of the world. It's the day our faith is founded upon. It's the July 4th of Christianity. So it makes sense we should get ready. Just like we plan our 4th of July BBQ & fireworks show, let's prepare for the most spiritually moving season of 2010.

As with the past couple of years, I'll be participating in "Lent" this year. That's the 40-day stretch leading up to Easter where Christians of all shapes, sizes, and variations will be seeking God through a heightened prayer life and a focused spiritual life. The season starts on "Ash Wednesday" (February 17, 2010). Whether you begin on Ash Wednesday or start sometime closer to Easter, I want to challenge you to step up & seek God in bolder ways this year.

Here are some ideas:

*Fast for 24 hours (anytime from Ash Wednesday - Easter)

*Fast for a week or more (for the best info on fasting, click here: http://www.ccci.org/training-and-growth/devotional-life/personal-guide-to-fasting/index.htm).

*Fast from something for the entire 40-day Lent period

*Start a prayer journal & carry it all the way through Easter. Spend your Easter worshiping with your church family & reviewing all that God has done in you through this season.

Here are some areas you can focus your prayers on:

*Pray for God to continue to reveal His vision for this community to our church leaders

*Pray for God to give you a personal vision for seeing your unconnected friends & family members find a spiritual home at Westside

*Pray for God to give you 5 specific people to invest in and invite to our Easter Services

*Pray for your church to thrive, to be a center of God's activity, to pursue His vision, and to receive His provision.

*Pray for EVERY WESTSIDER to step up and take part in our Imagine Journey - to become prayer warriors and generous givers so we can see God's vision move forward at God's pace.

*Pray for a movement toward Jesus to be started this Easter season. Pray for Christ to be the King in our community!

Pastor Gabe

MAKIN' ROOM FOR THE BOOM!

2010-02-09T15:40:00.001-08:00

Things are heating up in our Children's Ministry - so we're making space for all the new kids that have come our way over the past few months. How exciting! Check out the pics of our building space transformation - we're moving our offices out and moving some kids into the big room in our Community Center.

Stay tuned for expanded opportunities for kids & families on Sunday mornings.

Wanna help serve families on Sundays? Contact bruce@westsidemail.com - there are tons of ways you can make a difference.

2009-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

A Journey of Expansion from Westside on Vimeo.

FIX UPS FOR FALL

2009-07-24T06:41:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest project related to Imagine - some Community Center repairs that were DESPERATELY needed. Can you tell by looking at the pics?

The Community Center is home to our 3rd-5th grade class ("The Edge") and our Student Ministries (6th-12th grades), as well as our Celebrate Recovery Ministry, our Food Brigade, our Staff Offices, and several community-based groups who meet here. Needless to say, this building gets used every day of the week and we want it to be safe, clean, and welcoming for the fall when we expect even more use & activity here.

This project involved rebuilding the upper walkway on the south side of the building, rebuilding the south exterior staircase, and replacing siding on the south side as well as the upper walkway.

Next we'll spruce it up with some fresh trim paint & some decorative plants.

Campus For the Community

2009-01-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

In December, Westside lived out our vision to be "A Campus for the Community". Not only did we feed hundreds of hungry people at our campus on several weekends, we also came together as a church to "share Christmas" with some hurting families in our community who would have otherwise gone without. On Saturday, December 20th our campus was buzzing with well over 100 volunteers braving the worst snow storm in decades in order to succeed with our plans. In the end, we delivered food boxes, Christmas dinner (complete with all the trimmings), and gifts to around 130 very grateful people. Great Job Westsiders!

August Rush!

2008-09-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

August was a very full month! As we continue to prepare our campus for the community, a lot of things have been accomplished:
-The parking lot was torn out and repaved.
-The new curbs went in.
-The parking lot lights were mounted and painted.
-The play stucture area was cleared, leveled and the play structure was built.
-The audio system in the Worship Center continues to be improved upon.
-The brush on the back side of the new property was cleared.
-The new and old portions of the parking lot were seal coated.
-And finally, the biggest day of August, our lumberjack work day took place on Sunday, the 17th. What an awesome day and an awesome turn out! It was estimated the 75 of you showed up for the work day. Here is a list of some of the things that were accomplished during the work party:

1)Numerous trees came down including the apple orchard.
2)The islands and other planter areas were groomed.
3.)4 - 40 cubic yard dumpsters were filled and hauled off.
4.)The new property was cleared of overgrown bushes and debris
5.)4 units of barkdust were spread.
6.)9 units of cedar chips were spread
7.)new sod was layed
8.)A new retaining wall was built between the Worship Center and the
Children's Center.
9.)20 - 18" pizzas were inhaled!
10.)180 Arborvitaes were trimmed
11.)200 bottles of water and 120 cans of pop were gulped up!
12.)The house on the new property was gutted to prepare for renovations.

And that's not even listing everything that happened that day. Here are some pictures of the lumberjack party for you to check out.

August was a huge success but we're not finished yet! Here is a list of some of the things still to come before our big BBQ day on September 14th:

1)Striping of parking lines.
2)2 - new paver paths installed
3)New toddler play structure to be installed
4)Final removal of debris
5)Final spreading of bark dust
6)Campus signage installed.

We are excited about what God is doing through Westside! We hope you are too! Be sure to invite someone you know to attend the September 14th BBQ. This will be a chance for us to open our campus up to the community and to share with them how their lives can be radically changed by the love of Christ. This is what Imagine is all about!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

2008-07-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Pardon our dust! If you've driven by or been to the church in the past few days, you've definitely noticed the mess:) Our first big project - the Parking Lot repaving - has begun, and progress is underway.

Bones Construction is doing a fantastic job, preparing the ground, running electricity & irrigation lines, setting bases for our new light poles, and lots of behind-the-scenes work to get ready for the new pavement.

We had only minor delays this week. The machine that was scheduled to come in and "grind up" the pavement malfunctioned! Thankfully our contractors were able to shift gears and work ahead in other areas.

Our current timeline will have us paving during the week from July 28-August 2. If all goes according to schedule the paving, curbs, new islands, and light poles will be done by mid-August. Then in September we'll seal the entire parking lot & restripe the parking lines. Hopefully just in time for us to see more guests coming in from the community this fall.

PRAY WITH US!
Let's keep in mind that our goal in all we're doing is not the parking lot - it's people! We are passionate about helping people find & follow Jesus. Pray that the project will be completed on-time and on-budget, so we'll be ready to receive more & more friends from the community.

IT'S OFFICIAL!

2008-06-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yep - that's right...it's official! We signed our lives away yesterday for our $1.5M loan and the purchase of our new property on the corner!

God has been so good to us as a church. So many of the obstacles that could have slowed us down or stopped us didn't - thanks to God's grace & power.

I'm so thankful to the amazing Imagine Team for their leadership, encouragement, support, prayer, and friendship. This whole thing has been a team effort. Thanks everybody!

In addition to that, our Trustee Team really went above & beyond in helping us scout out opportunities, meet requirements, think through issues, and ultimately succeed. Thanks to Dan, Garrett, Mike, Pat, Nate, and Brian.

God also sent us an incredible Broker, Stan Ames, who worked for a small fraction of what he deserved. His generosity and commitment to excellence have helped us get this part of our Imagine Journey accomplished. Thanks Stan!

Now we get to jump into the next exciting phase of Imagine - making use of our new space. While we're not going to be developing the property right away, we will be making some changes to help improve the church's visibility on the corner and to maximize the space for community use. Stay tuned for our next steps on that!

PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray with me as we continue on in our Journey:

1. Pray that God will continue to help us succeed. Let's rely on God's power to bring us the right opportunities, contractors, and His provision to get it all done.

2. Pray for each of us to experience God's financial blessings so we can continue to give generously. Because we each asked God for His leading on our financial involvement in Imagine, we can be confident that He has the plan to make it all work out! Whether you're experiencing hardship or abundance in your life right now, God knows and He will be faithful.

3. Pray that God will give us His heart for our community. I'm convinced that our biggest job is seeing our world and our community like God does, and acting on that vision. Ask God to show us as a church how we can best minister to the community as we begin our Imagine Journey, and how we can use what He's given us for His glory.

Thanks for praying!

Gabe

GOD IS GOOD!

2008-06-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Where do I start telling the good news about what God is doing through Imagine? It seems like every time I turn around there's another answer to prayer, another amazing circumstance, another miracle. What a great God we serve! I'm reminded of one of my favorite passages from the Bible - "With every bone in my body I will praise Him!" (Psalm 35:10).

It's been just over a month since we celebrated the beginning of our Imagine Journey on May 4th. On that day our church pledged $1.23M over the next 3 years toward Imagine. Since then, so much has happened! Let me share some of it with you:

OUR BANK LOAN WAS APPROVED!
On Friday, May 16th our request for a $1.5M loan was approved by Columbia Community Bank. The really good news is that the terms for the loan beat our best expectations! We are getting a great rate, great terms, and no prepayment penalties!

OUR FIRSTFRUITS OFFERING WAS HUGE!
On Sunday, May 18th, Westsiders partnered with God to bring in a total of $47k for our first Imagine offering. That was unbelievable! This first offering helps us get off to a strong start on our 3-year journey together.

OUR COMMITMENT IS GROWING!
Our new 3-year commitment total for the Imagine Journey is up to $1.33M! This is truly a miracle - especially because the projections were around $750,000. God has proven that His power isn't limited by our projections:)

PEOPLE ARE STEPPING UP!
One after another, people are stepping up to help above & beyond what we expected. Whether it be new commitments, extra prayer, exciting ideas, or free labor, God is doing His work through His people. Thanks for being so available to Him.

WE ARE REACHING MORE PEOPLE!
Just in the past 2 weekends, 8 more new friends have come to know Jesus as their Savior @ Westside. Plus, on June 1st we were pleasantly surprised with 17 new believers being baptized! That's what Imagine is all about - Helping People Find & Follow Jesus.

CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS HAVE BEGUN!
You'll notice some new shingles at Westside. That's because we just had the roof replaced on our Community Center. The original roof (28 years old) was showing serious signs of wear, and needed to be replaced badly. What's so cool is that we only had to pay for the shingles, and even that price was discounted. That means we only paid a total of $6,800 for a brand-new roof on our Community Center. Thanks to God for the generosity of Rufus Aylwin & Aylwin Construction, who donated the labor for this great project. As a bonus, the Worship Center roof was replaced for no charge (apparently there were some defective shingles & Rufus is a stickler for quality!). Check out the time-lapse video to see this project in action.

Stay tuned for what's next - God is good!

Gabe

That Was Some Celebration!

2008-05-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

I hope you had as much fun as I did last weekend at our Imagine Celebration Sunday breakfast & service. The t-shirt launch was one of my favorite parts! That was definitely a day to remember. What's cool is that we had guests come & really enjoy it as well.

And what a victory we had! In case you haven't heard yet, our 3-year pledge toward Imagine is now at $1.23M!!! That is amazing! God really came through - and so did you! I know there are people still deciding what their part will be, so that number will only climb from here.

God is so good. He is proving His power & faithfulness already through our Imagine Journey. As we wait on the right source for our $1.5M loan, He is constantly reassuring me of His ability to lead us successfully into our future.

This journey is just beginning. Let's keep asking God for those good surprises & doing our part.

Gabe

The GOOD Kind of Tension

2008-04-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm sitting in my living room thinking about the whole Imagine Journey and all the milestones that have been accomplished so far. Pretty amazing - the property offer, the faith-filled response of Westside, the remarkable volunteers on the Imagine Team that have taken an idea and an opportunity and helped shape it into a movement - some seriously exciting stuff has happened so far. And the best part of our Imagine Journey has been the continued growth & life change we've been seeing as a church.

And with all that, there's still the unknowns of the future. In fact, I have a second meeting with a couple guys from a local bank tomorrow that could be very good. Knowing that our time frame is short and our resources are limited, but that our God is so BIG - that's the tension I believe God wants us to live in. Resting on His promises and waiting on His provision. We're all growing in this area of faith. My prayer right now is that each of us will be so in-tune with the Spirit of God that we'll hear His voice clearly and follow Him closely. That's the Journey of Expansion we've been waiting for!

Gabe

****UPDATE****

The meeting I had on Tuesday morning went VERY well! We don't have a commitment from the bank yet, but their proposal beat my best expectations. We'll be continuing to look at a couple options before we make a commitment, but I'm excited that God is opening doors for us. Keep praying for His perfect provision.

Makings of a Miracle

2008-03-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much for your commitment to pray for the movement of God that is already among us. I encourage you to make this a daily habit - actually an hourly habit. As Jesus said, "Without Me you can do nothing." Let's continue to pray together in a spirit of dependence and surrender.

Today Pastor Ken and I met with the guys from our bank. Our loan application was rejected. But I am not discouraged about that - not even a little. In fact, as we were sitting there hearing the news, I started getting excited. I guess it's because I know this whole deal is out of our hands & that God will have to come through in a huge way. Everything about this Imagine Journey has the makings of a miracle. Humble beginnings, insufficient resources, a God-sized calling, and an army of hungry hearts. There's no place I'd rather be!

The VP of the bank is a believer and wants to help us find an alternate source for the funding. So he promised to make some calls for us and get back to me by Friday with some names & numbers of other lenders we can contact. Of course, the clock is ticking up against our June 30th closing date.

To say that we need to pray right now is an understatement. What we need is an all-out-every-member-explosion of prayer & fasting. The enemy wants to discourage us. But our calling is clear! God wants us to take our community for Him. We can't for a minute be sidetracked from our God-given passion & purpose to help people find & follow Jesus.

I'm asking you to join me in a time of heightened prayer & fasting over the next few days as we wait on God's answer for our next step. We will be proactive, looking down every avenue possible. We will do what we can do, and trust God to do what only He can do. Please pray with me for our upcoming Easter services to lead many to Christ, and for all that needs to happen with Imagine.

On the journey together,
Gabe