On Bigelow Gulch Road in Spokane, Spokane Christian Center is known as a family, Word-oriented church with a ministry built around worship, biblical teaching, prayer, education, and outreach. The church, Spokane Christian Academy, and Loving Hearts Early Learning Center are based at 8909 E Bigelow Gulch Rd. Since 1980, the church, school, and daycare have drawn people from varied backgrounds across the Northwest.
Sunday at Ten and Prayer Through the Week
Sunday worship begins at 10:00 AM. The wider rhythm includes Tuesday morning prayer at 9:00 AM, Wednesday evening prayer at 7:00 PM, and Saturday men's prayer at 7:00 AM. The men's gathering opens with a brief word of encouragement and moves into focused prayer, concluding promptly at 8:00 AM. A Bible, pen, and notebook are useful for taking notes.
Sunday worship is livestreamed on YouTube, and past messages are available in an online sermon archive. The church understands worship to include praise and singing, lifted hands, speaking in other tongues, and musical instruments. Its Word-oriented identity is also seen in gathering not only on Sunday but for regular prayer and study through the week.
Ignite Kids: From the Nursery Through Fifth Grade
Ignite Kids, the church's children's ministry, meets during regular Sunday services and serves children from birth through fifth grade. The classes are divided by age:
- Nursery: birth to 2 years
- iKids Jr: ages 3 to 5
- iKids: ages 6 to 12, covering kindergarten through fifth grade
Each class is designed to work with parents and teach children to serve God in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, and city. Lessons include worship, games, prizes, videos, skits, crafts, and age-appropriate messages from God's Word.
Saturday Sunday School extends the church's children's work through a bus ministry that began in April 1991 with one bus and seven children. It has grown to 11 buses, and free rides can be arranged when needed. Linda Sharkey developed the program and has written and published four children's curriculum books and teaching aids.
Two Women's Bible Studies and a Wider Fellowship
Women's Bible study meets in two settings. On Tuesdays at 10:30 AM, Ruth Roberts hosts a study at the church farmhouse, centering the Word of God with love and caring. On Saturdays at 8:30 AM, Cheryl Gade leads a casual fellowship and in-depth study of God's Word in the youth room.
The wider women's fellowship also gathers for a decorated brunch, a worship-and-teaching getaway, and a social night out with food, laughter, worship, and a guest speaker.
Senior High: Ministry for the Whole Teen
Senior High meets Fridays from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. The youth ministry seeks to minister to teenagers socially, personally, and, most importantly, spiritually. Its aim is for young people to experience life to the fullest, share that life with the world around them, and live with the love and grace of God.
Education from Early Childhood Through Fifth Grade
Spokane Christian Academy is part of the church's education work, while Loving Hearts Early Learning Center is open from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM for children 12 months through 12 years. Enrollment information is available at 509-924-4888.
Rickey G. Sharkey founded the church and academy after entering ministry in 1978 and graduating from Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa in 1979. The education work spans children from 12 months through fifth grade, with early learning and Sunday classes serving different age groups.
From the YMCA to Bigelow Gulch Road
Spokane Christian Center opened on May 4, 1980. Its first services were held at the YMCA with 150 faithful attendees, and it soon moved to a building on Boone Street near Gonzaga University. In 1984, the church purchased 30 acres at the corner of Argonne and Bigelow Gulch Road, then began building a facility for its expanding ministries. That sequence connects the church's beginnings with the Bigelow Gulch Road setting now used for worship, education, and children's ministry.
Pastoral Leadership and a Heart for the World
Rickey G. Sharkey serves as senior pastor and founder. His purpose is to reach people who have not yet come to Christ and to encourage believers to fulfill their calling in Christ. He leads by example with a focus on excellence and integrity, reaches out daily to pastors throughout the nations, trains and mentors church leaders and ministry workers, and works to build ministries beyond Spokane Christian Center.
Linda Sharkey is a senior pastor and a licensed and ordained minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her ministry combines compassion, wisdom, and humor, and she has spoken at conferences in the United States, Canada, and the Philippines.
Missionary support is another expression of the church's emphasis on reaching the world. The church also offers a printable Christmas story book for family reading and a Daniel Fast food guide for prayer and fasting times. One-time and recurring gifts can be made through a secure online giving portal.
Rooted in the Word
Spokane Christian Center's teaching is explicitly Bible-centered. It holds that the Bible is the only inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God and that one God exists eternally in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It teaches the deity of Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, resurrection, ascension, and personal, visible return; cleansing from sin through repentance and faith in Christ's blood; and the resurrection of the lost and the saved.
It also teaches baptism by immersion for believers, the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a gift accompanied by speaking in other tongues, progressive sanctification, and physical healing through prayer in faith and laying on of hands. Believers are called to assemble for worship and encouragement, pursue holiness, read the Bible, pray often, associate with other Christians, tell others about Jesus, and defend human life. The church holds all human life sacred from conception through natural death, teaches marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and emphasizes unity among believers across race, gender, and status.
These convictions shape the church's gathering, teaching, family life, education, children's ministry, and support for missionaries. Spokane Christian Center remains centered on the Word while giving expression to prayer, worship, study, service, and the education of children and teenagers.