But Jesus called for the children, saying, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these children.” Luke 18:16
The look in a child’s eyes when they see what Santa has delivered on Christmas morning is something like what we’re experiencing in our new Mountainside Sanctuary.
For the past 25 years, one of my duties every week has been to take attendance at each of our services. Moving from a sanctuary that is overflowing when 280 people attended services to a sanctuary that holds over 800 people, has been quite an adjustment. I am personally witnessing a miraculous transformation in our congregation at the 11:00 AM service. If we had the number of people we are having each Sunday at 11:00 in our Spirit Falls Sanctuary every week we would be seating people in the choir chairs and out the doors. We are growing and every week we are seeing new faces.
Sure a good number of congregants aren’t exactly on time for the start of the praise songs, but what they lack in punctuality they make up for in their enthusiasm for our music, prayers and the message. Just stand in the atrium outside the Café after the service and you can see joy and fellowship overflowing from those who attended services.
What a blessing it is for us to have such a wonderful facility in the Randy & Rod Halvorson ReCreation Center. Darren Motamedy personally told me last week that he was “deeply impacted by what God’s dream has delivered for us”. And, if he could have seen the excitement in the Sunday school classrooms, at the senior and junior high youth group and in both our Coptic and Esperanza congregations, he would have had his opinion doubly re-enforced.
When Pastor Tim’s vision for Washington Cathedral as a pace-setting meta-church (a campus housing many ministries and congregations) fully comes to pass, we may long for the days when ample seating was still available. I am seeing more and more new faces who are “sampling” our new facility and that’s a great sign we’re making progress in spreading “God’s Good News.” As our church approaches its 25th Anniversary, it will be fun to see our attendance swell from the momentum God is helping us to build.
For the past 25 years, one of my duties every week has been to take attendance at each of our services. Moving from a sanctuary that is overflowing when 280 people attended services to a sanctuary that holds over 800 people, has been quite an adjustment. I am personally witnessing a miraculous transformation in our congregation at the 11:00 AM service. If we had the number of people we are having each Sunday at 11:00 in our Spirit Falls Sanctuary every week we would be seating people in the choir chairs and out the doors. We are growing and every week we are seeing new faces.
Sure a good number of congregants aren’t exactly on time for the start of the praise songs, but what they lack in punctuality they make up for in their enthusiasm for our music, prayers and the message. Just stand in the atrium outside the Café after the service and you can see joy and fellowship overflowing from those who attended services.
What a blessing it is for us to have such a wonderful facility in the Randy & Rod Halvorson ReCreation Center. Darren Motamedy personally told me last week that he was “deeply impacted by what God’s dream has delivered for us”. And, if he could have seen the excitement in the Sunday school classrooms, at the senior and junior high youth group and in both our Coptic and Esperanza congregations, he would have had his opinion doubly re-enforced.
When Pastor Tim’s vision for Washington Cathedral as a pace-setting meta-church (a campus housing many ministries and congregations) fully comes to pass, we may long for the days when ample seating was still available. I am seeing more and more new faces who are “sampling” our new facility and that’s a great sign we’re making progress in spreading “God’s Good News.” As our church approaches its 25th Anniversary, it will be fun to see our attendance swell from the momentum God is helping us to build.
By Rich Skinner
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