Our History

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

These verses in Ephesians captured our hearts in 1989. As we began our ministry our desire was to be a loving church. We wanted to receive God’s love and share His love with others. These verses in Philippians affirm God’s faithfulness and our dependence on Him!

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

In 1989 a young family from North Bend approached Newport Covenant Church with the idea of planting a new church in the Snoqualmie Valley. Their primary motivation was to have a local church home where they could easily invite their many unchurched friends to attend. Newport’s senior pastor, John Bergman, became excited about this and soon the leadership at Newport was affirming the vision to plant a new church. This would need to be a creative effort; Newport did not have any people who lived in the Snoqualmie Valley. In January of 1989, 50+ people at Newport made a prayer commitment to pray every day in 1989 for the beginning of a new Covenant Church in the Snoqualmie Valley.

One of Newport’s assistant pastors, John Jenks, became the founding pastor for this new church. Beginning with this one couple and their best friends, they began to pray and commit this vision to God. John asked these 2 couples to write out a list of people who were not involved in a local church who they would invite if we started a new church. After coming up with about 12 individuals/families, John asked them to pray for these friends and then ask them, “If we started a new church would you be interested in knowing about it?” This led to the development of a core group of people becoming excited about Cascade Covenant Church. After about 9 months we had a core group of 15-20 people. We held our first Sunday morning worship service on October 29, 1989. It was exciting to see new people come when we took this step of faith. During our first year at CCC our worship service usually included 60-70 people. 

In 1990 Pastor John Jenks and his family moved to North Bend. In the fall of 1990 he concluded his ministry at Newport and became a full-time pastor at CCC. During the first year of our public worship services there were 4-5 couples from Newport who came to CCC as “Short-Term Missionaries.” These families gave us a great deal of encouragement, service and support as we gradually involved more people from our community in the first years of our ministry. CCC received generous financial support from Newport and our larger Covenant family in the first 3 years of our ministry. In 1992 CCC became financially self-supporting which was an important step of growth for us.

There have been many points of excitement as well as some difficult challenges over the years. Through all this we have been thankful for God’s faithfulness! We continue to try and cultivate the heart of outreach and love that was so central to the initial motivation that brought CCC to life. We are incredibly grateful for our partners in ministry who have supported us. Newport Covenant and our larger Covenant family have been terrific. Pine Lake Covenant Church in Issaquah also gave us some wonderful support in our first year of ministry. It was especially exciting for us at CCC to “partner” with Newport Covenant Church in 1998 and help plant another new church, Creekside Covenant, in Redmond. CCC has shared prayers, people and financial support with this exciting new church. 

Another important part of our history came in 1997 when we made a commitment to purchase a 5-acre piece of land in North Bend. This came after a 7-year land search. After several years of prayers, planning, hard work and waiting for the arrival of the needed permits, we began construction in February, 2001. We then moved into our new facility in March, 2002. We enjoyed a wonderful grand opening celebration on April 21 2002. We are thankful for the positive growth at CCC in recent years. In the fall of 2002 we moved to a 2-worship service schedule.

With a vision of "Expanding to Serve", we began construction of a 5400 square foot addition to our current facility in April of 2005. We moved into this addition in October of 2005. In 2007 a typical Sunday morning at CCC involves 400-425+ people gathering together. In a typical week we have 100+ different Middle School or High School students participating in some aspect of our youth ministry.

This is a brief summary of our history. At CCC we say, “We don’t believe in miracles, we depend on them.” We believe the very presence of our church is a miracle. We  sincerely praise God for the many people who have participated with us as we have endeavored to “Live a Life of Love.” The real story of CCC is in the 1000’s of people who would say that in some way, “God has touched my life through the people and ministry of CCC.” To this we say, “Praise God from whom al blessings flow"! May God continue to bless people and multiply His ministry through CCC in wonderful ways in the days ahead!