Kenmore

celebration on tap for Nov. 23

With construction crews and equipment swarming over Kenmore’s portion of Northeast Bothell Way, the message board might be kind of hard to see.

But over the years, the message or reader board in front of the Kenmore Community Church seems to have attracted its fair share of attention.

“Frogs have it easy,” the board once declared. “They can eat what bugs them.”

Another example of the words of wisdom posted for passing motorists: “The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more.”

Still, the reader board is really only part of the somewhat colorful history of the Community Church, which celebrates its 70th anniversary Nov. 23 with an extended service beginning at 10:30 a.m.

“We’re just going to celebrate,” said church Pastor Mark Rogers, who arrived in Kenmore in January 2000. “We’re going to kind of honor the past and look to the future.”

Rogers said past leaders of the church will be on hand and the public is invited. A luncheon will follow the general service.

According to Rogers, the roots of the Kenmore Community Church date back to the early 1930s when a group of families wanted to hold Sunday-school classes for their children. Once the classes were established, those involved got a little more ambitious and set their sights on organizing a new area church. They brought in a part-time pastor and took over what had been the Tip Top Inn on Bothell Way, which sat right where the reader board now proclaims its missives.

Rogers said in 1938 the church was organized as the Kenmore Chapel. The congregation hung curtains between the booths of the former restaurant and bar in order to separate those ongoing Sunday-school classes. While they might not have had a full-blown church, chapel members did have a 500-pound church bell. Rogers said it was donated the same year the chapel came into being and no one is quite sure just how old it is.

“We still ring it every Sunday morning before service starts,” he added.

With the arrival of the early 1970s, Rogers said parishioners began to think about a new home for their congregation. But he also said organizers were frugal and didn’t want to go into a lot of debt.

“Some very committed and dependable people helped get this church off the ground in those days,” he said.

By 1973, the congregation had about half a church. The lower half to be exact.

“They basically just put a roof on the basement,” Rogers said.

The inn was torn down and buried in what is now the church parking lot. The congregation entered a small lobby where the church now stands and descended into the basement where services and, of course, Sunday-school classes, were held.

“The church was known as the ‘subway church’ in those days,” Rogers said.

Three years later, the upstairs of the church was completed, and the reader board went up in 1978. In 2000, the name was changed to Kenmore Community Church.

Today, Rogers said the congregation boasts about 110 regular members. The church is affiliated with Convergence Worldwide and Convergence Northwest.

“It’s basically the Baptist General Conference doing business as Worldwide Convergence,” Rogers quipped.

As for that reader board, Rogers insists it has become the church’s calling card in more ways than one.

“I think the idea has always been that since Bothell Way is such a key street, why not provide a bit of insight, humor and blessing?” Rogers said.

Generally, the board’s sayings have a lighter side with a Bible verse on the other side.

“It has really been a good outreach for the church,” Rogers added, saying the board has attracted a significant number of visitors who eventually became church members.

For more than two decades, the sayings on the reader board were chosen by one church member, Mildred Anderson, who Rogers said had a shoe box full of available bits of wisdom. Anderson has passed away and the reader board duties have fallen to another member of the congregation, a retired school teacher who uses the Internet instead of a shoe box for inspiration. Rogers said he does have a favorite from among the probably hundreds of messages placed on the reader board.

“No God, No Peace” is the first line. “Know God, Know Peace” is the second line.

“I guess I like it because it’s a little witty and a little spiritual at the same time,” Rogers said.

• Kenmore Community Church is located at 7504 N.E. Bothell Way.