SNOHOMISH — Five potted plants on a table helped Pastor Russell Johnson teach a lesson about spreading God’s word.
Standing at the altar, the lead minister at The Pursuit NW looked over the pots arranged by size. The smallest held nothing more than soil. A stalk grew from the next. The other three had successively larger bunches of yellow daffodils.
Evangelism works in much the same way, Johnson explained. It doesn’t begin at the altar, or at the point where a person’s relationship with God comes into full blossom. As with tilling the soil, it’s hard work. Don’t expect plants, let alone fruit or flowers, to appear immediately.
“We feel like we’ve failed when we can’t get people here,” Johnson said, pointing to the largest pot. “Just be faithful to whatever plant is in front of you in that season.”
Johnson, 31, leads Pursuit NW, a young congregation that worships in one of the older church buildings in Snohomish. He went into the ministry full time about six years ago after leaving a career in politics. Before that, he had been an Olympia lobbyist, a campaign worker for Republican candidates and a legislative aide to former state Rep. Mike Hope, a Lake Stevens Republican.
Johnson and a small leadership team planted the seed for The Pursuit NW about two and a half years ago. They started in a barn in Snohomish, which soon became packed. In 2015, the congregation bought its church building at 126 Cedar Ave. in downtown Snohomish.
The Pursuit NW now is the home church for more than 200 people. It operates the Pursuit School of Ministry, an online campus and hopes to open campuses soon in nearby cities. On Easter Sunday, the church plans to add a second Sunday-morning service.
The church is nondenominational but is part of the Pentecostal movement. It belongs to the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies.
Craig Lang, 32, of Lynnwood, is glad to have discovered the church, where he’s taking ministry classes. He also attends a Seventh Day Adventist church in Edmonds.
“It’s very spiritual. It’s very God-loving,” Lang said. “It’s seeking more of Jesus in a deeper way, having a one-on-one personal relationship with Jesus.”
On a recent Sunday, Johnson’s passion rose throughout the service like a crescendo of faith.
He preached tolerance and love for those who are “still made in God’s image but who are different from you.”
With spring on its way, he exhorted his followers to plant seeds of faith in soil where, “There’s no flower, there’s no plant, there’s no fruit.”
“Under the surface, God is growing something spectacular,” he said.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
Easter events
The Pursuit NW is hosting an Easter street fair on April 15, the day before Easter Sunday, in front of its church on 126 Cedar Ave., Snohomish. The block will be closed to traffic from 1 to 3 p.m. for activities such as bouncy houses, face painting and games.
Starting on Easter Sunday, which falls April 16, the church plans to start Sunday services at 9 and 11 a.m., instead of a single 10:30 a.m. service.
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