Redwood Covenant Church's History

Summary

This text was taken and edited from the paper written by Pastor Joanna Quintrell, entitled "The First 25 Years (1979-2004): A History of Redwood Covenant Church, Santa Rosa, Ca".

Redwood Covenant Church began as a church plant by members of Marin Covenant Church. "The Sonoma County Covenant Fellowship" formed in October of 1979 and met in a mobile home park for prayer, Bible Study and building relationships. In August, 1980, Reverend Larry Sherman was called to be the developer Pastor of the church. The church meetings moved to Monroe Hall in Santa Rosa, with 60 people attending the first service. In 1981 “The Redwood Community Evangelical Covenant Church of Santa Rosa“ joined the Pacific Southwest Conference and the Evangelical Covenant denomination.

Beginning on September 13, 1981, the congregation began to meet in the YMCA on Sunday mornings. In July of 1984, the name of the church was shortened to Redwood Covenant Church. At the end of that year, the Sunday morning attendance was 126. At this point in the life of the church, the church adopted a Ministry purpose statement: “LOVE THE LORD, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.”

In November 1986, Pastor Sherman accepted a call to be the Developer Pastor of another church, and a search process was begun to find the church a new pastor. Pastor John Strong began his ministry with us on July 12, 1987. Under Pastor Strong’s leadership, the church began again to grow at the YMCA location, until they were bursting at the seams. The decision was made to leave the YMCA and move into rented warehouse space. We prayerfully considered the three elements of faith, risk and prudence and, believing that God was leading us to take this huge step, voted to move ahead. Sunday, October 8th, 1988 was the first one at 1020 Center Drive.

Once we moved to our new location, growth on every level began to happen. We now had the space for many more newcomers, and they did come! In 1991, we adopted the following Mission statement: Our mission is to help sincere seekers and disenchanted disciples become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. By the end of 1992, the average attendance between two services was 262. And we finally had rooms in which to have midweek ministries and house growing children’s and adult education ministries on Sunday mornings.

The 90’s were a time of continuing and increasing growth, both in numbers attending and people serving in ministries. In the Covenant Yearbook of 1997, Redwood Covenant church appears for the first time on the list of the 25 largest churches in the denomination, with a reported attendance average of 673. It became clear that we were again outgrowing our facility. Thus began a renewed search for a place to finally build our own church home, which was a tremendous challenge in Sonoma County, one of the most expensive areas in the country to live in...and build in!

Although a piece of land was found and purchased, the long and drawn-out process of getting through the red tape delayed our being able to build and move. As a result, our growth plateaued for about three years. As crowded as we were at 1020 Center Drive, we never ceased to be grateful for the many ways that God was pouring out His Spirit. Dozens of people were coming to Christ and being baptized each year. Ministries continued to thrive and multiply. And yes, there were many growing pains and many lessons learned along the way as we continued to press forward on the path God had set out for us.

One highlight from the decade of the 90’s was the joy of becoming a parent! As we worked in collaboration with the Pacific Southwest Conference, we began to partner with Steve and Pam Cray, who were going through the process of becoming church planters in our area. Steve joined our staff for one year in 1997, building a core group who eventually began Shiloh Hills Covenant Church in Windsor.

It was difficult and expensive to buy a suitable piece of land within the city limits, but through a series of miracles the Lord led us to a spot that would take us from being one of the most “hidden” churches in the city, to one of the most visible churches in the county. After many years’ delay, construction finally got under way in 2002. It was time to get ready to move! The staff could finally begin dreaming again! Our first Sunday morning service in our new building on June 29, 2003 was a huge celebration. We had one service with 1000 people attending, including every baby, child and teen in our church family! Again, a joyous time of celebration at the faithfulness of our God!

With adequate space now to implement ministry dreams, the staff is enjoying the freedom to stretch and grow their ministries, leaders and teams. Now we are experiencing different kinds of growing pains, and we are working hard to maintain and deepen our teamwork and collaboration as the kingdom of God expands even further.

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