MILL CREEK — Gold Creek Community Church took a Biblical principle and put it to work last year.
The church gave away $10,000 in $100 bills hoping to stimulate the faith of its congregation. The pastors asked the parishioners to invest the money any way they could and to contribute the profit toward the construction of a new worship center.
Gold Creek had began the construction when the recession hit, and the church lost its financing from a bank.
“We needed to be creative at that time. We couldn’t find any funding,” the Rev. Larry Ehoff said.
So they handed out the money. The idea came from the parable of talents, where a master gives money to three of his servants, and praises the two who invested it wisely.
Some people baked pies for sale. Some took the money and were never seen again. Other congregation members invested their own $100 and brought back the profit. About three months later, the pastors called on people to bring the money back. To great surprise, they got more than $50,000.
That was a start for the construction project, and it wasn’t long before the church found more funding.
The new worship center celebrated its grand opening the last weekend of September.
“I think everybody felt that they’d done a lot to see it happen,” Ehoff said.
About 3,700 people came to the celebration. In comparison, about 2,500 gather for Gold Creek’s weekend services.
The new two-story center measures about 30,000 square feet and is attached to the old building. There is a 48-foot projection screen and a 60-foot stage.
“It’s really high tech,” Ehoff said.
He hopes the center will meet the needs of a bulging congregation, which grew by about 15 percent last year. Gold Creek was recently ranked No. 79 on the Outreach Magazine’s list of 100 fastest-growing churches in America, Ehoff said.
Rev. Dan Kellogg and his wife started Gold Creek more than 10 years ago, and it has seen tremendous growth. Church members usually adopt families for the holidays and host an event for kids with real snow hauled down from the mountains. Last year the church came up with a special project, where volunteers gave out hundreds of Christmas trees for free.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
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