Church branches out with services at Marysville high school

MARYSVILLE — Music and faith-filled messages rang out at Marysville Getchell High School. On Sunday morning, when most campuses are locked and quiet, worshippers in the school commons building sang, prayed and shared fellowship.

“This is our second Sunday,” Pastor Danny Butcher told nearly 40 people at the 9:30 a.m. service last weekend. “Jesus is doing great things in Marysville.”

Butcher, 31, leads the new Marysville branch campus of Bethany Christian Assembly.

The large Assemblies of God church, known to its flock as BCA, is headquartered at Everett Avenue and Cedar Street near downtown Everett. Services at Marysville Getchell, scheduled for 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays, began Sept. 18.

So far, Butcher said, the 11 a.m. gathering has drawn the larger crowd. “Between the two services, we had 240 people last week,” he said Sunday. Many had no previous association with Bethany Christian Assembly, a sign that word of the outreach in Marysville is spreading. “About 25 families came who were not connected with BCA,” Butcher said.

The Bethany Christian Assembly Marysville campus has been a year in the making.

Rachael Butcher, the pastor’s wife, said Sunday that her husband was “hired last fall to plant this campus.” Danny Butcher previously worked at New View Church in Stanwood.

The couple and their four young children recently moved to a neighborhood near Marysville Getchell High School. It’s a fast-growing area, where houses are under construction on once-rural land not far from the school. With those new homes come young families.

“The largest growing demographic is certainly young families,” said Rob Carlson, lead pastor at Bethany Christian Assembly’s main Everett campus. Carlson said the church has 25 different outreach ministries in the Everett area. Among them is a Sunday morning service at the Everett Gospel Mission Men’s Shelter and a Celebrate Recovery group Thursday evenings at the main church.

The Everett campus draws such large crowds that shuttle vans carry people from three rented parking lots to BCA’s Sunday services. “About 2,500 people attend all our services each weekend. We’ve certainly grown,” said Carlson, adding that Bethany Christian Assembly started in 1910 as a storefront mission on Everett’s Oakes Avenue. The church moved to its current Everett location in the early 1980s.

Carlson’s sermons are shown on big screens at both Marysville Getchell and the Everett site as part of the services. In Marysville, services also include Butcher leading prayer and sharing messages. Worship began Sunday with a band playing contemporary Christian music.

“We want to be a blessing in Marysville as well as other places around the county. A lot of people are wanting to get plugged into church. They’re looking for encouragement and hope,” Carlson said. The Marysville church “is off to a good start,” he said.

Before starting at the high school, Bethany Christian Assembly brought services to the Regal Marysville 14 movie theater this summer. Now, Carlson said, the church rents space from the Marysville School District. Volunteers in Marysville set up and put away chairs and other items needed to create the worship space each week. Cards were passed out Sunday asking for church helpers.

“We’re a church focused on compassion. We’re focused on helping the needy and the hurting,” Butcher said.

Noting that justice and forgiveness are cornerstones of Christianity, Butcher asked during the service for prayers for the victims of the recent Cascade Mall shootings and for the perpetrator. “We want to pray for the people who suffered, pray for the families,” he said. At the end of Sunday’s service, the pastor invited churchgoers to his Marysville home for a prayer gathering later that day.

In the Marysville Getchell gym during the worship time, kids took part in age-appropriate classes and activities.

“We’re able to minister to new families,” said Marysville’s Lisa Stevens, director of children’s ministry at the high school site. “I like doing church with people in my community.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Church has branch

at Marysville Getchell

Bethany Christian Assembly, based in Everett, now has a branch campus at Marysville Getchell High School. Services at the Marysville site are held at 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays. The school is at 8301 84th St. NE, Marysville.

There are multiple services at Bethany Christian Assembly’s main church, 2715 Everett Ave., Everett.

Information: http://bcachurch.com or www.facebook.com/BCAMarysville/