`Emotion For God' -- About-To-Move City Church Prides Itself On Commitment To Diversity

KIRKLAND

The Rev. Wendell Smith admits it took a "step of faith" for his young church to consider buying the former Overlake Christian Church building. But for Smith, an evangelist, acting on faith is nothing new.

The City Church senior pastor says his congregation has agreed to pay $8.25 million for the property at 9051 132nd Ave. N.E., which became available in November when Overlake moved to its new building in Redmond. That's a powerful statement for a church that started five years ago with 40 people meeting Sunday mornings at the Bellevue Marriott.

The City Church, named for a passage in the Book of Isaiah, today boasts 900 members. The sanctuary of its new home seats 2,200.

Many credit the church's spiritual style and charismatic leader with its rapid growth.

"We are not your typical traditional church, that's for sure," Smith says.

Church services are heavy on music and begin with 45 minutes of participatory singing and clapping. Although technically nondenominational, worship at the church includes evangelical staples such as prophecy, faith healing and talk of members' personal relationships with God. But what really sets the church apart, Smith says, is its commitment to diversity.

Church members not only come from a broad range of ethnic backgrounds, they also vary widely in age and income level, he says. One-third of the church membership is children, and its educational programs include classes for preschoolers, senior citizens and everyone in between.

A brochure describes The City Church as a "Church for the 21st Century" and as serving "young and old, rich and poor, red & yellow, black & white." The City Church has its own Web site: www.thecity.org

"I think that they have done a very good job at reaching out to a very wide circle," says the Rev. Joe Fuiten, senior pastor at Cedar Park Assembly in Bothell. "Their kind of church represents spiritual reality and I think that's what people want. . . . When you go to a gas station you want gas; when you go to a church you want God."

The City Church was founded in 1992 as an outreach of Bible Temple in Portland. Smith says a "divine calling" inspired him to start his own ministry in the Seattle area, and a group of around 20 Bible Temple members moved to join him.

The group began holding services at the Marriott, but after a month moved to the Kelsey Creek Center office complex at 148th Avenue and Main Street in East Bellevue, its home until last year. With the church continuing to grow and Overlake looking to sell its former home, City Church leaders decided to take a chance and lease the 13 1/2-acre property with the intent to buy.

Smith says his church has more than $1 million in the bank and is working on putting together a down payment toward the sale. The purchase was given a boost last month with the announcement that Northwest Community Church in Bothell will donate $500,000 toward the purchase as a way of helping both The City Church and Overlake, which owns the property.

By all accounts, Smith, 48, one of eight church pastors, is The City Church's guiding force. He was born in Tacoma and his father was a pastor at the West Seattle Church of the Nazarene. He and his wife, Gini, an associate minister at the church, served as youth pastors and associates at Bible Temple for 20 years before founding their own ministry. They have two children, 19 and 21, who also are active in the church.

"People ask us how could your church grow so fast in five years and what I tell them is it took 25 years of training," Smith says.

The church's ministries include a second-hand clothing store and food pantry at its former East Bellevue location and a shelter for single mothers.

Church members come from as far away as Everett and Tacoma. Smith says a majority of the church's members tithe - the act of donating 10 percent of one's annual income to the church as mentioned in the Bible.

That kind of commitment is heard in the voices of members who say the church provides them with a grounding force and a sense of spiritual harmony.

Jennifer Kraker, 37, a Redmond travel agent, is a founding member of the church and attends with her husband and their two children.

"It's changed our lives," she says enthusiastically, "it's changed our marriage, it's changed the way we've raised our kids."

Kimberly Carnes, 18, of Bellevue introduced her family to the church two years ago after she first visited it six months earlier. "It wasn't like a boring church," says the University of Washington freshman, who is also a church intern. "People were willing to dance and have emotion for God."

"I tell our people `People don't come to church to get beat up, they come to get built up,' " Smith says.

The fact that church members are encouraged to proselytize has also helped membership grow. Carnes, for instance, says she's helped recruit and mentor eight new members.

"Any church that is committed to helping the lost and strong biblical teaching is going to grow," says the Rev. Dana Erickson, executive pastor at Overlake Christian Church. "People get behind that sort of thing when they see what someone wants to do."

Despite its rapid growth, Erickson and other Eastside clergy say The City Church is not viewed as a threat to their membership rolls, but rather as a welcome addition to the region's community of churches.

"We all have the same message and everybody's got a different flavor," Erickson says. "We would love to see them fill that building as many times as we did."

Says Smith, "We jokingly tell them that when they outgrow the (new) building, we'll follow them there, too."

Adam Zoll's e-mail address is: azol-new@seatimes.com