It’s a new beginning ¿ Terrace church donates property to City Church of Seattle

It’s a new beginning

¿ Terrace church donates property to City Church of Seattle

By Oscar Halpert

Enterprise editor

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE

New Beginnings Church, is changing hands.

Senior Pastor John Small said the church closed its doors for good following Sunday services Nov. 18. The non-denominational charismatic church is just east of I-5 at 21705 58th Ave. W.

When those doors reopen next March, The City Church of Seattle will begin operating in its fifth Puget Sound area location.

Small, who started the church with his wife, Rhonda, in 1992, said it was time for the church to grow and the best way to do that was to turn it over to another church.

“We have 9 acres here and we’re not using it to its fullest,” he said. “We’ve averaged 100 to 150 people over the 16 years I’ve been here. I just felt like working with City Church, we could accomplish more than we are accomplishing.”

The City Church of Seattle, started by Pastor Wendell Smith in Kirkland in 1992, has more than 7,000 members and satellite locations in the Issaquah Highlands and Seattle’s Belltown and University District neighborhoods.

Small, who also recently ended a six-year stint as a Support 7 volunteer chaplain with Mountlake Terrace police and Snohomish County Fire District 1, said church finances were OK and that wasn’t the reason to bring New Beginnings to an end.

“I just felt God wanted us to do that, so I took it to our board and told them to pray about it,” Small said. “While they were doing that, I approached City Church with the idea of opening a satellite campus here.”

No land was sold, Small said. The church, with full support from the membership, simply dissolved its nonprofit corporation status and entered into an agreement with The City Church of Seattle.

Troy Anderson, attorney for The City Church of Seattle, said his organization wasn’t looking for a new location but the church’s board agreed to assume New Beginning’s assets as part of a transfer that gives The City Church clear title to the building and property.

He said the church has tentative plans to hold worship services at its new Mountlake Terrace location in March.

Small said he’s taking a six-month “sabbatical” during which he’ll decide what he wants to do next.

“You could call it a paid leave of absence,” he said. “At the end of the six months, I’m going to sit down with City Church and figure out my role.”

The church’s closure affected two organizations that had free use of its space: Mountlake Terrace Youth Association and the Rotary Hispanic Center.

Patricia Cordova, former Terrace mayor, said the Hispanic center she runs Tuesday and Thursday nights has moved to Terrace Park Elementary School.

The center, funded mostly by the Alderwood-Terrace Rotary Club, provides tutoring and homework assistance to a variety of non-English speaking youth and adults.

The youth association, which runs sports programs for children, will be allowed to keep an adjacent soccer field, said Mountlake Terrace Mayor Jerry Smith, who led the field’s construction in the 1990s.

Anderson said many New Beginnings Church members will become part of The City Church of Seattle, which is also considering building a 12,500-square-foot food distribution warehouse in Mountlake Terrace.

“We serve 20,000 people a week through our network of churches,” Anderson said of the food distribution program.

During his time as senior pastor, Small established New Beginnings as a center of community in the city, helping with the summer festival, Tour de Terrace, the city’s Spring Cleanup and establishing a church program for victims of domestic violence.

“He’s been a real asset to the city,” Smith said.

The Smalls, who live in Bothell, say they may be ending their time with New Beginnings but they plan to remain involved with Mountlake Terrace.

Rhonda Small, a church pastor as well, said she and her husband might end up as clergy with The City Church of Seattle.

“Our whole thing is serving God and it doesn’t matter if we serve God here or with City Church,” she said.