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One of the concerns we had about moving to Washington was whether we could find a suitable church since we did not know anyone in the area. To our surprise, we found a community in a state of revival with many growing churches.
Gilbert had visited Richland Baptist Church, on the way to work from his hotel, and found it a solid Bible-teaching church and was impressed by their Easter musical, "Written in Red". The second visit was to West Side (Presbyterian) Church, where friends of Bay Area friends were members. The two churches had many similarities in size, worship style and attendees. The third church considered was Calvary Chapel in the east part of Kennewick, whose sermons Gilbert heard to on the radio on the way to work. He was surprised it was a local church and decided to visit. Calvary Chapel also had several hundred for Sunday services, but in a former store building, and had a more contemporary worship style and seemed to be more focused on evangelism and new believers. Although the messages were longer than he was used to, Gilbert did not have any problem staying awake since pastor Steve Whinery spoke with authority and had good anecdotes. They had frequent outdoor services in Columbia Park during the summer, but one of the most memorable was the Easter Sunrise Service there where Gilbert's feet got so cold he could feel the chill all day even after a trip to the jacuzzi. There were a few other church visits as well, a small storefront church within walking distance of the apartment, and also a nearby Catholic church. When Winnie and Josiah took a train ride to visit in February, we were intent on visiting a small Covenant church in Pasco, since we had been attending Berkeley Covenant Church in California. After calling on the phone and getting directions, we drove Sunday morning and saw a sign "New Covenant Church". There were a couple of buildings and a man standing by a door facing the gravel parking lot. The congregation was about half black and perhaps a quarter Hispanic. It turned out to be a completely different church than the Covenant Church of the Tri-Cities, which met next door in the Episcopal Church. The music was quite powerful, with just a keyboard player (the pastor) and a choir of about five or six. Josiah slept through the entire musical part and woke up during the sermon asking for a snack. We did catch the pastor and one of the elders of the other Covenant church after their service. Another acquaintance had suggested Bethel Church in Richland, which met for services in a nearby middle school auditorium (a Baptist church, but like West Side, they did not use the denomination in their name). The amplification of the music was a bit loud to Gilbert but the messages were also clear and powerful. It, along with Calvary and West Side, were the finalists for a church home. Living in west Kennewick, they were about equal distance. Calvary did not have an established set of weeknight home groups that we hoped to join to overcome the larger size of church than we were accustomed to, so we narrowed the list to two. Although Bethel was about twice the size and had a disadvantage of shuttling between the church building for child care and the school for worship services, Gilbert thought he learned more from the teaching there and we began attending regularly in July and joined a Tuesday night group in Kennewick. Josiah also had to get accustomed to not sitting with his parents in church and going out for a snack or playtime. Each of the three churches had a child care program targeted by age and discouraged children from sitting in service. Josiah was resistant to being left with the children but eventually got used to it, always accompanied by his dog puppet Davey. Tuesdays have become a full day with Gilbert attending a men's group beginning at 5:30 AM before work, Winnie going to a women's group with Josiah at 9:00 AM, then still having the evening study. Bethel Church will begin the new year in a new facility in south Richland which will seat over 1000 and is expecting to continue growing (current attendance is about 1100 between two services). When pastor Dave Bechtel first joined the church in the 1980s, attendance was between 100 and 200. Several other churches, including a Korean church, have been building or expanding in the area. West Side had moved to the larger adjacent building formerly housing a Nazarene church that had moved to a new and larger facility. Bethel is hoping another small church will want to buy their current building. Calvary Chapel of the Tri-Cities, which started from scratch when Steve Whinery moved to the area about ten years ago, has several hundred in each service and is considering moving to a new building. Local buses often sport Christian messages sponsored by Word of Faith Center. Church links: http://www.tri-citylinks.com/community/ (churches and other organizations) http://bethel-church.org/ (Bethel Church) http://www.thmp.com/calvary/ (Calvary Chapel of Tri-Cities) http://www.owt.com/rbcsbc/ (Richland Baptist Church) |