Churches in the Tacoma, Wash., area are actively engaging in community outreach in preparation for bilingual Momentum evangelistic meetings in English and Spanish this fall with José Rojas, series speaker and North American Division volunteer ministries director.
Tacoma Central Church, with 459 members, continues to strengthen and grow its congregation through small group ministries, Bible prophecy seminars and health outreach. Scott Tyman, pastor, and Nelson Miles, small group coordinator, and other church leaders recently met with the mayors of Tacoma and Lakewood to begin exploring long-term community impact activities related to healthy living and community beautification.
Mount Tahoma Church, with 404 members, and Open Bible Fellowship, with 83 members, are organizing all of their ministries, including the worship service, to have an evangelistic focus. Both congregations, led by Kevin Rogers, pastor, are engaged in health ministries, community services, personal ministry, Bible study teams, small groups and Urban Youth literature evangelism.
Following an evangelistic series with Dan Bentzinger, Washington Conference evangelist, Tacoma South Side Church is particularly focusing on discipling 31 new members, spiritually strengthening its congregation of 278 members and continuing Bible studies with people who attended the meetings.
Tacoma Hispanic Church, with 216 members, and the network of Spanish churches in western Washington are actively training lay leaders in giving Bible studies, hosting small groups and presenting an evangelistic series.
Tacoma Samoa Church, with 162 members, is tapping into the chief-tribal concept to reach the Samoan community with messages about Jesus. Additionally, Mika Devoux, pastor, uses social media on a daily basis to send short messages of encouragement and inspiration by text message to 100 recipients. About half of the congregation is under the age of 25, so generational, language-based meetings address youth in English with some Samoan, and adults in Samoan with some English.
Tacoma Russian Center, led by Ivan Bokov, pastor, continues to grow the congregation of 53 members through three small groups, a beliefs seminar and building connections in the Russian community in Tacoma. The church is participating in an eight-night outreach program in five locations between Tacoma and Everett and supporting a Russian radio program in the region. Tacoma Korean Church also uses radio evangelism.
Puyallup Adventist Church, with 769 members, is finding great success with small-group ministries and special events. Small groups cover topics such as spiritual growth, marking your Bible, and marriage, parenting and financial management seminars, which each attract 20–30 participants. Kieth Noll and Michael Demma, Puyallup pastors, also plan special community events such as a "Passion Week" series, a car show, a 9/11 remembrance ceremony, and a Revelation Bible prophecy seminar.
The Tacoma Momentum series will be held Nov. 13–20 at the Clover Park Technical College. Find more information at washingtonconference.org.
Mount Tahoma Church in Tacoma, Wash., is restructuring all church ministries, including the worship service, to be more evangelistically focused. (Heidi Martella)
