A Family on 104th Avenue SE
Bellevue Church of Christ sits just south of downtown Bellevue on 104th Avenue SE, in the same neighborhood where a hardy group of thirty believers began meeting in 1956. The congregation has continued to gather on that site ever since, building and rebuilding the physical spaces that have housed it for almost seventy years.
The original members designed and constructed a striking A-frame building in 1959, opening it up to a growing family on the Seattle Eastside. By 1980 the church had outgrown that first structure, and a second building was added to provide a new auditorium, classrooms, a kitchen, and offices. The A-frame continued to serve as overflow space for classes, youth activities, and large fellowship gatherings, but by the 2010s its age had caught up with it and the difficult decision was made to replace it.
In April 2015, John Parente cut the ribbon to open the completed new addition. The expanded campus centers on a large fellowship hall and multi-purpose room, with a commercial kitchen, an enlarged and updated entry and lounge area, and a Worship and Education Center that had been brought up to current city codes and incorporated with the new facility into a single structure. The result is one connected building where Sunday school classrooms, the auditorium, and a busy fellowship lobby all flow together under one roof.
From those thirty original families in 1956, BCOC - as the congregation often calls itself - has grown into a multigenerational community that the church describes as "a delightful mix of races, cultures, ages, and backgrounds." A strong tradition of supporting missions in Africa, Eastern Europe, China, Mexico, Japan, and Ecuador has shaped the church's identity, and the congregation continues to support ministries in the local Puget Sound area and around the world.
What a Sunday Looks Like
On Sunday mornings, the rhythm begins at 9:00 AM with Bible classes for all ages. Adult classes meet in the Worship and Education Center, with parallel classes for children and youth. Coffee, and usually breakfast pastries, are available in the lobby area, and many people arrive early to grab a bite and a caffeine boost before class.
Worship begins at 10:15 AM and runs for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. There are no assigned seats, so people sit wherever they like when they walk into the auditorium. Greeters meet visitors at the door and point them in the right direction, and the lobby table holds both a printed order of worship and individually packaged communion elements. Using these sealed kits keeps the spread of germs to a minimum during the Lord's Supper.
What visitors wear ranges from casual to more formal. The church's own guidance is that "we are more interested in your heart than what you're wearing." A nursery is available at the back of the auditorium for parents who need a place to take their children, and it has a large viewing window and a speaker so that parents can still see and hear the service while their little ones move and play.
After the formal service, members typically linger to visit with one another. Once a month, on the first Sunday, the entire church shares a potluck lunch right after worship. Guests are welcome to join in, and there is always plenty of food.
A Cappella Singing and the Lord's Table
BCOC worships with a cappella singing, which means the only music is the voices of the congregation itself - no band, no piano, and no organ. A song leader starts the songs and keeps everyone together, and the words and music notation are projected on the screen at the front of the auditorium so that visitors can follow along. The music draws from both traditional hymns and contemporary worship and praise songs, and visitors are warmly encouraged to join in even if they do not consider themselves singers.
The order of worship includes several elements that flow from one to the next:
- Church family announcements
- A call to worship led by one of the elders
- Prayer
- Congregational singing
- The Lord's Supper
- A sermon based on Scripture
Different members of the church family serve in different parts of the service. One person may make announcements, another will lead a prayer, another will read Scripture, and another will preach. The Lord's Supper, also called communion or the Eucharist, is shared every Sunday. The bread represents Jesus' body on the cross, and the cup of juice - fruit of the vine - represents the blood he shed for the forgiveness of sins.
One distinctive feature of BCOC's worship is the visible presence of both men and women serving in front of the assembly. After years of Bible study and prayerful reflection on women's roles in public gatherings, the elders concluded that including women in various capacities of public assembly - leading prayer, leading singing, reading Scripture, and making announcements - is part of being true to the fullness of Scripture, while also embracing unity and peace. Visitors will see both men and women up front, young and old, new Christians and longtime believers, and people of all different races and ethnicities.
The Faith That Shapes BCOC
Bellevue Church of Christ identifies with the American Restoration Movement of the early nineteenth century, which was led by reformers such as Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone. These preachers called for unity among all believers, the rejection of denominational division, and an abandonment of religious practices and teachings not found in the Bible. Thomas Campbell's famous phrase - "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; and where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent" - became the rallying cry of the movement.
Following in that tradition, BCOC has no organizational authority or structure beyond the elders of its own local congregation. Each local church is self-governing, and trust is placed in Jesus' death on the cross for salvation. Baptism is by immersion, for the forgiveness of sins, and worship services center on the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper and a cappella music.
The church describes itself as nondenominational. "Our world has a somewhat confused idea about what the church is," the congregation's own writing explains. "The church that Jesus died to bring into existence is simply the family of God. It has nothing to do with facilities, or certain ministries, or programs of work. It is an undenominational group of believers who recognize that God has added us to His family by virtue of what Jesus did on the cross."
BCOC's stated goal is "to do life together and grow as a community of believers who have a passion for helping the world around us."
Life Groups Filling the Week
Beyond Sunday morning, the heartbeat of BCOC is its small groups, also called Life Groups. The church describes them as a way to "go beyond 'hello/how are you' interactions" and build reciprocating relationships with people of different genders, generations, and life stages.
Several Life Groups meet on different nights of the week. An open group hosted by Bruce and Kim Pleasant meets over Zoom on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 PM. A prayer meeting led by Howard Kuang gathers in Room 14 of the Bellevue building on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 PM. On Wednesday mornings at 7:30 AM, a Men's Breakfast Group meets at Li'l Jon's Restaurant on 148th Avenue SE. On Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM, the church offers several groups: an open group at the church building, a group hosted by Stephen and Sheila Lockwood in their Bothell home, and a DivorceCare group in Room 18 of the church building. A Women's Bible Study led by Rebecca Turner meets over Zoom on Thursday evenings at 6:30 PM, September through May, with women joining from the United States, Canada, and Ecuador. Recreational groups include Ping Pong on Thursday evenings at 6:00 PM at the church and a Basketball group on Fridays or Saturdays at varying times.
Sunday mornings also include adult Bible study at 9:00 AM, taught in a series format. Recent and ongoing series include "What the World Needs Now," a four-part study on love, rudeness, selfishness, and anger taught by Dean B., and "God's Chosen People from Genesis to Matthew," a six-lesson walk through the Old Testament tracing the theme of the promised Messiah. Personal Bible studies are also offered by appointment, meeting in person, by phone, or online, in a friendly and casual atmosphere where any question is welcome.
Children, Youth, and the Generations in Between
Bellevue Church of Christ runs ministries that intentionally span every age and stage. The Children's Ministry exists "to join God in equipping families and the faith community to welcome all children so that they will see others with God's eyes." Activities include an annual Vacation Bible School, weekly Children's Worship during the Sunday assembly, and a summer camp at Delano Bay Christian Camp, about fourteen or fifteen miles south of Purdy, Washington, on the Key Peninsula.
The Youth Ministry serves the teenagers of the church and their friends with Bible studies, counseling, service opportunities, retreats, mission trips, and a calendar of activities that often happens in the Teen Center. The youth also attend summer camp at Delano Bay. The signature weekly gathering is "Spirit and Truth," held on Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.
The Young Adult Ministry is for people in their twenties and gathers on Sunday evenings from 4:30 to 5:45 PM in the Fellowship Cafe room at the downstairs entrance, with outside activities that have included hikes, snow tubing, white-water rafting, game nights, and group meals. The College Ministry is for anyone ages 18 to 25 and meets on Sunday mornings and evenings for Bible study.
Senior Saints welcomes anyone over sixty, with out-of-town trips, in-town outings, potluck fellowships, and game days at the church building, as well as service opportunities designed for the group. The Men's Ministry and Women's Ministry round out the family, with retreats, Bible classes, fellowship events, and showers for weddings and new babies. The Women's Ministry in particular gathers women from the United States, Canada, and Ecuador for its Thursday night online study.
Counseling, Divorce Care, and Listening Well
Rebecca Turner serves BCOC as its Christian counselor and also leads the Women's Ministry. She is available for individual and family counseling and serves as a deacon in both the counseling and women's ministry areas.
The church also hosts a DivorceCare group, a special place of encouragement, information, and sharing for people working through separation or divorce. The group uses the DivorceCare curriculum and is led by someone who has personally experienced separation and divorce. The Wednesday evening group meets in Room 18 of the Bellevue building.
FriendSpeak is another way BCOC welcomes international neighbors. The program pairs adult English-language learners with trained native English-speaking conversation partners, who meet weekly for about an hour to practice conversational English using a free workbook that includes excerpts from the book of Luke. There is no cost to participants, and volunteers join both to help and to build friendships with members of the international community in the Puget Sound area.
From Bellevue to Ecuador and Japan
BCOC has been a Great Commission church since its earliest days, and the missionary work that grew out of the congregation has shaped its identity in profound ways.
Camp Bellevue is the church's flagship mission project, located about an hour northeast of Quito, Ecuador, in the town of Tabacundo near the city of Cayambe in the Andes mountains. The property was purchased in 1994, the first building was begun in 1997, and the camp has since grown to include multiple cabins, a shower house, an assembly hall, a medical facility, an administrator's house, a playground and sports courts, a firepit, and a baptistry. With capacity for groups of up to 200, the camp hosts a year-round after-school program for about 100 under-resourced neighborhood children, overnight summer Bible camps and a basketball camp, VBS-style day camps, and English camps sponsored by Let's Start Talking "Young Friends" teams. Short-term mission groups from North America also use the camp as a base for service, VBS programs, medical and dental clinics, and construction projects. Rusty and Laura Campbell serve as the current onsite administrators under the direction of the Mission Committee and elders of BCOC.
In Japan, BCOC partners with Dawn Birkner, a missionary who has been leading church plants in previously unchurched rural areas of Japan since 2001. She founded the Rural Japan Church Planting Network to connect those ministering in rural Japan and to raise awareness of the 1,800 unchurched areas of the country. BCOC supports her work and encourages its members to pray, go, and give.
Closer to home, the church actively supports a number of international efforts:
- Let's Start Talking (LST), a program that sends English-speaking Christians abroad to teach conversational English through Bible reading
- World Bible School, a free online Bible study that matches learners with volunteer study helpers
- FriendSpeak, the local conversational English program for adult learners
Shepherds, Deacons, and Ministers
Bellevue Church of Christ is shepherded by three elders: Tom Turner, Scott Corwin, and David Hames. The elders lead the congregation and have responsibility for the doctrinal and pastoral direction of the church.
Dave Shaner serves as the church's preacher. He and his wife, Kathy, came to Bellevue after Dave's twenty-six years of preaching in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He is a graduate of Harding University and holds a Master's degree from the Harding Graduate School of Religion. He has led tours of Israel, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, and has taught in Preacher Schools in Madras, India, and Barnaul, Siberia. Howard Kuang serves as the Evangelism Minister, working with new and existing members to share the gospel in Bellevue and beyond. Rebecca Turner serves as the church's Christian counselor and also leads the Women's Ministry.
Several deacons and ministry leaders round out the leadership team. Melissa Lydon oversees the Fellowship Ministry, Terry Copeland leads the Men's Ministry, and Stephen Lockwood directs the World Missions ministry. Together, these shepherds, ministers, and ministry leaders keep the congregation running and on mission.
Giving to BCOC
Members and visitors who wish to support the work of Bellevue Church of Christ can give in several ways. There is a black Generosity Box at the back of the auditorium in front of the A/V booth where checks and cash can be placed during Sunday services, and contributions can also be mailed to the church office. Online giving is available through PayPal, using either a link or a QR code found in the printed order of worship. Those who use Zelle can direct their gifts to office@bellevuechurchofchrist.org, and bank bill-pay services can be set up through a personal account. Visitors and guests are not expected to give; the offering is a regular part of the service for members.
BCOC's own prayer for its givers echoes 2 Corinthians 9:10: "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness." From the rebuilt fellowship hall on 104th Avenue SE to the mountain camps of Ecuador and the rural villages of Japan, the harvest that Bellevue Church of Christ is part of is a worldwide one.