MOUNTLAKE TERRACE— Fifty years of worship is just one cause for celebration at Mountlake Terrace Christian Church.
On Sunday, the congregation will welcome anyone who has ever been associated with the church. An anniversary program will focus on the church’s past, present and future.
“We’re calling back everyone we can get to come and share in this celebration,” said Dan Burris, a retired interim minister of the church. “We’ve got people coming from Idaho, southern Oregon, Montana, Tennessee … from far and near.”
The congregation hasn’t always met at its current location at 5304 232nd St. SW in Mountlake Terrace. The church was the vision of a few church members at the Greenwood Christian Church in Seattle who wanted to evangelize a new section of the Puget Sound area.
Mountlake Terrace was chosen as the place to start and several families began meeting in the nearby American Legion Hall.
At that time in July 1959, a decision was made to start a morning Bible school.
Margaret Thue remembers those days well. She took care of 14 4- and 5-year-olds in a classroom set up in the Legion Hall’s bar.
“I had to cover up a picture of a scantily clad woman,” Thue said. “The children from the area were unchurched. They would literally climb the walls.”
In 1961, the congregation experienced a growth spurt after purchasing a small house at 230th Street SW and 58th Avenue W. The church’s first minister, Harold Willingham, resigned in the summer of 1962.
Meetings continued at the house until 1966, when church members decided to purchase a former Lutheran church building at 238th Street SW and 56th Avenue W. The congregation agreed to share the building with a Lutheran school until May 1968, when the building was paid off.
Then the Mountlake Terrace Christian Church family started to grow again.
In 1975, church leadership voted to purchase property owned by St. Marks United Methodist Church. The first Sunday in the church’s current location was Jan. 30, 1977.
One thing that has remained the same since the beginning is the goal to be a “missionary-minded church” Esther Burris said.
“We have supported missions since the very beginning,” she said. “We started with giving 10 percent of our offerings. We now are giving 20 percent of our operating (funds) to missions.”
The church supports nine mission works today, with missionaries in Boise, Idaho, Johnson City, Tenn., Laos, the Phillipines, Guinea and Zimbabwe.
The support for mission work will continue, minister Teed Nail said, but so will the church’s work on a community level.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is to become more community-minded right now,” he said. “We’re working with Pathways for Women on a volunteer basis, we support the Concern for Neighbors Food Bank and were involved in this year’s Tour de Terrace.”
The church will also join four other churches to organize a community Thanksgiving service, he added.
Church members look forward to building on their storied history, Dan Burris said.
“We want to continue to do what we are doing, reach out to the community and continue our mission of reaching the world and sharing in our mission’s outreach program,” he said. “And we just want to provide a place where families can be a part of the overall work of a Christian church.”
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491, adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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