Kenmore Community Church Update
The following is an update from our Imprint Elder Team that was delivered at church this past Sunday:
Last October, we gave you an update that a church near us, and in our network, reached out to us for some strategic help as they plan for their future as a church. This was Kenmore Community Church. KCC is an older neighborhood church that has been faithfully ministering to the Kenmore area for so long. They reached out to us because their congregation has been shrinking through the years, their lead pastor is retiring this year after more than 28 years of ministry there, and their elders are either moving (or have moved) away from the area and are wanting to retire from leadership in the church.
In what seems to be God’s plan working out, that first conversation led to many more conversations between the Imprint Elder Team and the Kenmore Community Church Elder Team. And as we mentioned before, a few of you were able to go over there this last Fall to help lead their Sunday morning Worship Gathering. Tom McGregor is actually preaching over there this morning to serve them, too!
In the midst of all this happening and the ongoing conversations, their Elders were also reading a book called Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. And they approached us with the idea of figuring out a way to merge with Imprint Church. Honestly, we weren’t initially excited about this because we felt we already had our hands full with 2 locations, but we always want to be open to what the Lord might have for us. So, our Elders prayed and talked a lot about this, and because a couple of us had some experience in this, we told them we were open to the idea, if they would be open to the idea of them becoming another location of Imprint Church. This is one of the merger ideas in this book. Their Elders really liked this option, and they presented it to their congregation several weeks ago.
To be clear, up to the point of talking to them we were not thinking about planting another Imprint Church location. But the model of church multiplication that we have seen work well is what we have done when we planted Imprint Bothell, and then replanted both Imprint Woodinville and Imprint Bothell after COVID. If we were going to merge with them, we thought the best way to do this was to do what we were already doing. This is why we’ve decided to move forward with them.
Currently, their church governance is a congregationally-run model. This means they vote on leadership decisions the church makes. So the KCC Elder Team had the Imprint Elder Team join their entire church membership a few weeks ago for a 2-hour meeting. It was pretty much an Introducing Imprint Church meeting, and then a Q&R from their church family to see if they wanted to become an Imprint Church. And now after all this, in 2 weeks, on January 26, 2025, the Kenmore Community Church congregation will be voting to see if they want to give all their assets to Imprint Church and formally join the Imprint Church family of churches.
We have not told you details on this up until now out of respect of their Elders and their own process for communication and decision-making . But now the news is public. Some of you already have heard about this. It’s exciting. It’s also a pretty big deal. When we relaunched our locations in 2023 it was awesome, but it’s also been difficult in many ways. And we imagine having another Imprint location will be equally awesome, and probably equally difficult. We have already interviewed and consulted other church leaders and leadership teams on multi-location (more than 2!) ministry.
We think we should do hard things. If our goal is to make and multiply grateful and generous disciples through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the best way we’ve seen more disciples made is through church planting efforts, then this makes total sense. If our goal is be comfortable, not to take gospel risks, and just make our current 2 locations more awesome, then this is ridiculous. But we want to plant and grow medium-sized churches for the fame of Jesus. This means we don’t (and won’t) have all the amenities that other churches our size have. But it means that the family of God will expand and every one of us will have to be involved in whatever location you choose to be a part of.
But… before we talk more details (we’re SURE you have questions), we would just ask you to pray for KCC as they prepare for January 26, 2025. The vote could be a yes or a no; we have no control over that. And we mean it when we say that we are NOT contending for a certain outcome. We simply want what the Lord wants here. Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18). So may the Lord’s will be done here, no matter what. And then we promise we will communicate so much more after their vote — especially if their vote is a yes.
In what seems to be God’s plan working out, that first conversation led to many more conversations between the Imprint Elder Team and the Kenmore Community Church Elder Team. And as we mentioned before, a few of you were able to go over there this last Fall to help lead their Sunday morning Worship Gathering. Tom McGregor is actually preaching over there this morning to serve them, too!
In the midst of all this happening and the ongoing conversations, their Elders were also reading a book called Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. And they approached us with the idea of figuring out a way to merge with Imprint Church. Honestly, we weren’t initially excited about this because we felt we already had our hands full with 2 locations, but we always want to be open to what the Lord might have for us. So, our Elders prayed and talked a lot about this, and because a couple of us had some experience in this, we told them we were open to the idea, if they would be open to the idea of them becoming another location of Imprint Church. This is one of the merger ideas in this book. Their Elders really liked this option, and they presented it to their congregation several weeks ago.
To be clear, up to the point of talking to them we were not thinking about planting another Imprint Church location. But the model of church multiplication that we have seen work well is what we have done when we planted Imprint Bothell, and then replanted both Imprint Woodinville and Imprint Bothell after COVID. If we were going to merge with them, we thought the best way to do this was to do what we were already doing. This is why we’ve decided to move forward with them.
Currently, their church governance is a congregationally-run model. This means they vote on leadership decisions the church makes. So the KCC Elder Team had the Imprint Elder Team join their entire church membership a few weeks ago for a 2-hour meeting. It was pretty much an Introducing Imprint Church meeting, and then a Q&R from their church family to see if they wanted to become an Imprint Church. And now after all this, in 2 weeks, on January 26, 2025, the Kenmore Community Church congregation will be voting to see if they want to give all their assets to Imprint Church and formally join the Imprint Church family of churches.
We have not told you details on this up until now out of respect of their Elders and their own process for communication and decision-making . But now the news is public. Some of you already have heard about this. It’s exciting. It’s also a pretty big deal. When we relaunched our locations in 2023 it was awesome, but it’s also been difficult in many ways. And we imagine having another Imprint location will be equally awesome, and probably equally difficult. We have already interviewed and consulted other church leaders and leadership teams on multi-location (more than 2!) ministry.
We think we should do hard things. If our goal is to make and multiply grateful and generous disciples through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the best way we’ve seen more disciples made is through church planting efforts, then this makes total sense. If our goal is be comfortable, not to take gospel risks, and just make our current 2 locations more awesome, then this is ridiculous. But we want to plant and grow medium-sized churches for the fame of Jesus. This means we don’t (and won’t) have all the amenities that other churches our size have. But it means that the family of God will expand and every one of us will have to be involved in whatever location you choose to be a part of.
But… before we talk more details (we’re SURE you have questions), we would just ask you to pray for KCC as they prepare for January 26, 2025. The vote could be a yes or a no; we have no control over that. And we mean it when we say that we are NOT contending for a certain outcome. We simply want what the Lord wants here. Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18). So may the Lord’s will be done here, no matter what. And then we promise we will communicate so much more after their vote — especially if their vote is a yes.
Posted in The Weekly