EVERETT — Come rain or shine, Pastor Erik Sanders hopes to get an answer.
For the past two years, Sanders has posed a simple question to the people at Everett Bible Baptist Church:
“If our church was to be gone tomorrow, would the community miss us?”
To find out, Sanders and his congregation are inviting their neighbors on Casino Road — and the community — to an open house. It’s scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Sept. 14 with an inspirational song service followed by a message from Sanders. Guests will be invited to stay for a barbecue provided by the church, said Sam Green, associate pastor of student ministries and outreach.
Organizers also plan to provide curious visitors with information about the neighborhood church.
Since March, Green has led a team of about a dozen people in planning the open house.
There will be bounce houses for kids and food and prizes, he said. And when guests arrive at the church, the team hopes they’ll find what the 625-member congregation says makes their church different: a friendly and ethnically diverse place where people of many nationalities — including Russian, Mexican, Haitian, Kenyan, Nigerian and Lebanese — feel welcome.
Interpreters translate sermons into Spanish and Russian.
What’s most important, Kasmar said, is that in addition to the preaching at every service, there’s a salvation message and an altar call.
The weather in September is normally good, Sanders said. That’s why the congregation chose this time of year for their open house.
Last year it rained.
Still, more than 600 people showed up.
“Oh, it was pouring, it was terrible, but hopefully the Lord will give us good weather,” said Tammy Sebers, the unofficial organizer of “pretty much everything of a social nature” for the church.
Sebers said she is planning and buying the food for the barbecue. On Thursday, she was out shopping with her mother, purchasing enough hamburgers, chips and pop to feed 600 people.
“I like to do no-choices,” she said. “I serve the food on a plate. Everyone gets a hamburger and the same choice of cookies and chips and pop” —that way the line moves along faster, she said.
Using her organizing skills, Sebers has enlisted the help of the youth and seniors at the church for the barbecue. Kasmar’s Forever Young group — which includes roughly 29 senior saints whose average age is 78 and one who is 89 — has been helping make Ziploc packets filled with napkins, condiments and silverware, to hand out to guests. Kids from the children’s groups will help serve the food.
The open house is part of the church’s overall outreach efforts, said Sanders.
“We have a lot of outreach efforts. We have a bus ministry, where we pick up kids who want to come to church. We have a children’s ministry. We have Awanas and junior church for kids. We also recently started a new program, Reformers Unanimous, for people needing support for drug addiction,” said Sanders. “We’ve seen people just walk in off the street.”
The Bible Baptist Church — which is not affiliated with other Baptist organizations — also supports 168 missionaries stationed around the world. On average, the congregations gives $311,000 a year to foreign missions, Sanders said.
The open house is a mission outreach of its own. Everyone who comes will leave with information about the church, a free gift and, organizers hope, knowing there’s a church nearby that cares.
“We would like people to come to learn about the Lord Jesus Christ and to have fun doing it, to feel welcome, to feel like a part of our family and a part of our church home,” said Kasmar.
Reporter Leita Hermanson Crossfield: 425-339-3449 or lcrossfield@heraldnet.com.
Open house
Community open house and barbecue, 11 a.m. Sept. 14 at Everett Bible Baptist Church, 805 W. Casino Road, Everett; 425-353-6200. Free food, gifts and bounce houses.
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