Evergreen Community Church began in the fall of 1994 when Pastor Mark Morrison felt a stirring from the Spirit to launch a new community of believers in the greater Bothell area. Though a plant from Westgate Chapel in Edmonds, Washington, which at that time was loosely associated with the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies (FOCA), Evergreen took on its own distinctive feel as the Lord began to build a new and unique body of believers. Evergreen developed a community church characterized by Biblical teaching, contemporary worship and great family ministry programs. The congregation became a mix of the faithful from a variety of denominational backgrounds that blended into a unique family centered on Jesus through relationships and the teaching of the word.
The Lord had been preparing Mark for this new assignment through many years of faithful service both as a Youth Pastor and a Pastor of Family Life Ministries. The Evergreen plant launched with services in a rented school district facility with a core of about 250 believers. With all the characteristics of a startup, the word spread quickly about the church that was “all about relationships” and new members joined steadily. To accommodate the growing number of attendees, a lease was secured in the North Creek business park in a 10,500 square foot facility. In 1998, Paul Walterman joined Mark as Associate Pastor. Paul came to Evergreen from ministry at Promise Keepers. The two pastors were a great combination that enabled steady growth at Evergreen.
For its first ten years, Evergreen grew in attendance at an annual rate of about 6% a year. During that time, the leased space became increasingly inadequate to host the ministries of the growing congregation. A capital campaign commenced with the assistance of an outside consulting firm. The “Time to Build” campaign was soon in full swing. A family in the congregation sold their nearby acreage and Evergreen was on the move. Members and outside contractors brought their personal and professional talents together and the great endeavor of raising a new facility began. The Evergreen family moved into a beautiful 19,000 square foot church building situated on 7.5 acres in the spring of 2005. The move was a smooth transition as the new facility was located within 1 mile, allowing an uninterrupted impact on the community. The current site is designed with preliminary city approval for expansion to a total facility of 72,000 square feet.
Though the new building provided much more space for growth amongst its members, staff and programs, the next three years proved challenging. First, the church attendance leveled off from its traditional annual gains. Then, Mark, the founding pastor, was experiencing signs of fatigue and required a sabbatical to rebuild his strength for the journey ahead. At the same time, the leadership and congregation began an “Envision Evergreen” process. It involved a series of congregational meetings seeking the Lord for Evergreen’s future purposes. Through the resulting scripture studies, church evaluation, and prayer, God revealed a clear mission; to Reach Up, Reach In and Reach Out. During this period our beloved founding senior pastor, Mark, felt God guiding him to his next kingdom assignment.
The board turned to Paul and Joanie Walterman to fill the role of interim senior pastor while a search could be conducted for a long term senior. Four months into his new role, Paul suggested to the board that he had the vision and drive for the next season of the church as the head pastor. The board accepted his leadership and Paul has served in this role for nearly two years. Paul’s giftings are strongly pastoral and exhortational in nature. Paul is in his mid sixties and also heads a ministry he and Joanie founded called “Fresh Heart Ministries”.
The Evergreen board continually evaluates the long term needs of the church and has decided to renew the pastoral search, in harmony with Pastor Paul. Evergreen is now at the juncture of searching for that individual who can lead this congregation for the next decade to reach our surrounding community and fulfill our missional goals of Reach Up, Reach Out, and Reach In.