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".

The Evangelical Covenant Church

Though it was snowing heavily in February of 1885, representatives from Lutheran and other congregations made their way to the Swedish Tabernacle Church in Chicago to sing, pray and listen to preaching. But this was no ordinary gathering for worship. Rather, it was to be the birth of what would become the Evangelical Covenant Church. For these delegates also gathered to consider the question of whether God was calling them to join together “to work for the spread of Christ’s gospel, for true Christian congregational life, and for unity of service among the individual churches.”

This was the organizational meeting of The Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, and this is where the story of Redwood Covenant Church has its historical beginnings. For we belong to a denomination that was founded on a specific and unique set of values and principles that inspired men and women to follow Christ, doing His work, in ways and places that made it possible for our church to be born 95 years later.

One cannot, of course, assume to be able summarize that many years of history in a paragraph, so I will simply state here the foundation upon which the Covenant Church is built, to the glory of God: the supremacy of the Bible “as the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and conduct ; the necessity of conversion and a growing personal relationship with Jesus Christ; a belief in the unity of all true Christians; the independence of the local church; and the urgency of our calling to share the Good News through evangelism and missions.”

Our Humble Beginnings

Redwood Covenant Church began as a church plant by members of Marin Covenant Church under the leadership of Marin Covenant Pastor Gary Copeland. The Sonoma County Covenant Fellowship formed in October of 1979. A committed group of people, interested in launching this outreach in Sonoma County, began to meet regularly for Bible study and building relationships. Gatherings were held every other week in the clubhouse of Rancho Verde Mobile Home Park (in Rohnert Park).

The Baby is Born

In August 1980, Reverend Larry Sherman was called from Kerman, California (where he was the Youth Pastor) to be the developer pastor of our church. The decision was made to centrally locate the church in Santa Rosa, where the majority of the people in the fellowship lived, and arrangements were made to begin meeting in Monroe Hall. There were 60 people present at the first service. In 1981 “The Redwood Community Evangelical Covenant Church of Santa Rosa“ joined the Pacific Southwest Conference and the Evangelical Covenant denomination.

Our Childhood

Beginning on September 13, 1981, the congregation began to meet in the YMCA on Sunday mornings. The aerobics room, complete with mirrors and mats, became the sanctuary and Adult Sunday School took place in the weight room! To quote Margaret Davenport, one of the original group who helped pioneer this church plant...”We continued with our Growth Groups and our church not only grew in numbers, but in new programs, ideas, and classes… there was an air of excitement because of new opportunities, new places, new people; in fact we were breaking new ground and everything we did was new. We were not set in tradition, we were paving the way for a unique congregation who were moving ahead by faith.”

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. A quote from Pastor Sherman’s annual report read: “This year marks our fifth anniversary as a church. God has been so faithful as we have grown, and He will continue to be faithful in 1986. He is willing to do great things through us, through you. He wants to. We may not be many, we may not be powerful, we may not be rich; but “we can if we will” because He is willing!”

At this point in the life of the church, the church adopted a Ministry purpose statement. “After much deliberation, our threefold focus was adopted...with real enthusiasm!” Larry led the church in choosing: “LOVE THE LORD, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.”

Pastor John Strong

In November 1986, Pastor Sherman accepted a call to be the Developer Pastor of the new Covenant Church beginning in Dallas, Texas, and a search process was begun to find the church a new pastor to lead them into the future. Pastor Sherman’s last Sunday at Redwood Community Covenant Church was January 11, 1987. After months of prayer and discernment, a candidate for the position of Senior Pastor was presented to the congregation and on May 3 the congregation voted to extend a letter of call to Pastor John Strong. He began his ministry with us on July 12, 1987.

A New Home is Needed

Under Pastor Strong’s leadership, the church began again to grow at the YMCA location, until they were bursting at the seams. A town meeting was held on May 15, 1988 to discuss the possibility of locating to larger facilities and gradual steps were taken in that direction. 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.

Our Adolescence

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! 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. There was so much opportunity and so many possibilities!

Like any other adolescent, the church began to seriously tend to the question of its identity and purpose. Beginning in 1990, the leadership council met regularly for a two-year period, praying and brainstorming in order to discern what unique mission God was calling us to here in Sonoma County. Up to this point, we had been trying to be all things to all people. Focus and clarity began to come when someone finally said “Maybe we should look at what God has us doing already!” As we took the time to do just this, we realized that the Lord was working through us to reach two groups of people in particular: sincere seekers (the spiritually thirsty who did not yet have a relationship with Christ) and disenchanted disciples (Christians who had been hurt in a previous church situation, some of whom had withdrawn from church attendance and involvement for many years). 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.

A Growing Church

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. In order to be staffing to match the growth, several paid (part-time and full-time) pastoral/ministry staff were added from 1990-2001, as well as a growing number of administrative/ministry support staff, including Joanna Quintrell (1993), Scott Peterson (1994), Angie Tate (1997), Andy Cater (1997), Dennis Edwards (2000), Dan Beach (2000), and Pastor Alejandro Sotres (2001).

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.

Becoming Parents

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.

Longing For the New Mission Field

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. Even more exciting than this was what we discovered as we began to learn about this new “mission field” that we were headed for. We are strategically located between two very distinct communities in the city. To the west are the well-to-do families in new housing developments (mostly Anglo). To the east is the poorest part of town, with at least 14 ethnic groups. With joy we realized that the Lord had placed us as a bridge between the two.

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, and we used the several months before the move to prepare in every way: prepare the building, prepare our staff (get ready to implement the dreams God has given us), prepare our ministry teams for expanded ministry opportunities , and- last but not least-prepare our hearts. Excitement mounted as the building went up!

Moving In

Our first Sunday morning service in our new building on June 29, 2003 was a huge celebration. We had only 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!

The Adventure Continues, For the Glory of God!

With adequate space now to implement ministry dreams, the staff is enjoying the freedom to stretch and grow their ministries, leaders and teams. We have added many more staff, including Pastor Mark Almlie (2003) to be the Young Adult Pastor. We have begun a Saturday night post-contemporary service, led by Pastor Mark. 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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