The Road To 25 Years

Take a WalkDownMemory Lane

Looking back helps us to dream and look to the future. This year we celebrate 25 years of ministry in the Northwest with Pastors Kevin and Sheila Gerald. Not only are we celebrating victories we have achieved along the way, we are also looking ahead to the next 25 years.

THE ROAD TO

25 YEARSQ & A with

Kevin and Sheila

14 | Champion Life Magazine

Peoples Church builds a church with wooden dome inspired by the Tacoma Dome.

1981 1982 1986Jesus of Nazareth, a major outdoor tourist attraction in the NW for over 22 years begins during the summer months. Scrooge the Musical begins in the winter at People’s Church.

Kevin and Sheila Gerald move to the Northwest to pastor Meridian Christian Ministries in Puyallup. The congregation began with 70 people.

MCM hosted Jesus of Nazareth Production on site.

Champion Life Magazine had a chance to sit down with Pastors Kevin & Sheila to talk about their first 25 years of ministry in the Pacific Northwest, how they got here, and where they see Cham-pions Centre going.

Champion Life: What brought you to the NW?

Kevin: We started coming to the Northwest

from St. Louis, MO to be part of the Jesus

of Nazareth (J.O.N) Passion Play in the early

1980s, when we were in our twenties. The

Passion Play, which was written by Sheila’s

brother Steve Munsey, became a major out-

door tourist attraction in the summer months

for over 20 years in Puyallup, WA. We would

come in the late spring to be part of rehears-

als and help out through the summer months

with the production.

Sheila: Honestly, I just came along for the ride.

The summer before we would end up moving

here, I jumped in at seven months pregnant

with Jodi. With my stomach in the way, I made

up for the production!

Champion Life: When did you become a pas-tor in the NW?

Kevin: We came to help the church that had

been partnering with the Passion Play in

Puyallup locate and name a pastor. I trav-

eled alone back and forth from St. Louis

to Puyallup for a few months preaching on

weekends for the church and working with

the church board because the church was in

significant debt. After a couple months, we re-

ally felt God calling us to stay in the Northwest

and I was voted in to become the pastor. That

was the summer of 1986.

Sheila: Kevin came out before me to help

the church, preach on Sundays and get the

Amphitheatre summer season on course. I

missed him and so did our daughter Jodi,

then, 3 and 1/2 years old. I was not even

thinking about staying when we came out

to visit. I was there to support Kevin. We are

both preacher's kids, so I was just focused on

my future with Kevin as eventually being the

lead Pastor at His father's church in Missouri.

I was ready to head back home to the easy

road where “Everyone knows my name!" I just

thought that was God's plan for our future. So

anything different than that was beyond what

I ever imagined.

After being here for a couple of months, one

day my husband out of the blue says, "I think

God has called us here." Of course, the first

thing that came out of my mouth was some-

thing like I hadn't got the update from God. I

remember he very calmly asked, "Did you pray

about this?" It was hard to admit anything

in that moment, but I can truly say that God

has you in mind and will let you know the next

move if you listen.

The

Grea

t Northwest Passion P

lay

Spring-Summer 2011 | 15

1991 1992 1998Meridian Christian Ministries grows from 70 to over 1600 in 5 years. Looking to expand the campus, but the county denies progress because of water problems.

Meridian Christian Ministries merges with the People’s Church in a unique “marriage” of two congregations to become Covenant Celebration Church.

Wisdom for Life Leadership School is established and classes begin for people looking for relevant leadership development.

THE ROAD TO

25 YEARSQ & A with

Kevin and Sheila

Champion Life: What were some of the chal-lenges that you faced in the beginning?

Kevin: One of the biggest challenges we faced

was the church was thousands of dollars in

debt with no strategy to recover until we

stepped in. The first year we were here we

took our very first “Liberty Offering”... at that

point it was call “Debt Destruction Offering” or

something like that, and we brought in around

$7000. It was enough to pay for 13 or 14 bills.

So our church of 70 people or so rallied to-

gether, paid off some bills and burned the bills

as a monument! Another challenge was obvi-

ously that we moved our family of three more

than 2500 miles away from any family or

friends. That was a huge personal challenge.

Sheila: It was a challenge for me as a woman

feeling a loss of security financially; plus, as

a young mom with no family support to help

me, and as a young leader, I felt very alone.

Financially we walked by faith. We didn't have

a church supporting us as a planting church.

There wasn’t even money to afford a moving

truck to move our belongings from our home

in the Midwest to the Northwest (or even to

bring our cars)! That really limited me from

having my familiar surroundings and getting

around to do things. Kevin had challenges in

getting the church back on track and up on its

feet. I really challenged myself to not com-

plain and to keep his spirit lifted. Many times

I would make it a big deal doing small things

with all three of us as a family.

Champion Life: What were some of the steps you took to grow the church and get to a place of security?

Kevin: We made a plan, we had some bold

conversations with lenders, and we continued

to manage Jesus of Nazareth production and

saw thousands of people pray a life changing

prayer of salvation at the end of each show.

For the next five years we saw our church

attendance grow from 70 people in to more

than 1500 people in a very unchurched part of

our nation. We encouraged our church fam-

ily to invite and bring people to church with

them. Word of mouth is a powerful tool of

church growth.

Sheila: Although I knew that I married an

amazing man, I just have to say I really saw

Kevin walk in a higher level of confidence and

wisdom when we moved to the Northwest.

Champion Life: After five years of growth, what happened?


1999 2001 2002Project 2000 is launched to raise funds to expand the children’s and youth departments in a major capital campaign. Several million dollars are raised over a couple of years.

Champions Centre addition has grand opening in the fall with beautiful classrooms, play zone, youth auditorium, game zones, offices, bookstore and more.

The Coffee Shop opens daily proudly serving Starbucks Coffee.

First Women’s Conference.

Covenant Celebration Church changes its name to Champions Centre.

First Team Church Conference.

Kevin: We were looking to expand the cam-

pus, but the county continued to deny any

structural expansion because of water prob-

lems. So, we were faced with the decision of

what to do and where to go. I have to admit,

I wondered if it was some kind of a sign that

I was supposed to move back to where my

dad was a pastor, but I was committed to

the Northwest and we really felt like God had

called us to this region. So we were in a bit of

a holding pattern.

Sheila: I remember one night, Kevin was

talking to me and saying that maybe this

was a sign for us to go back home to the

Midwest. Doors seemed to be closing with

the county to further build. He knew what

God had put inside him and the next phase

for growth was put on hold. After about 30

days of prayers other doors began to open. It

was a move—but it was just eight miles down

the road.

Champion Life: So, you feel like you were taking laps around a mountain, and then there was an opportunity that opened up, what was it?

Kevin: In 1991, a few months after we had

given up on expanding our Puyallup campus,

we were contacted by People’s Church in Ta-

coma. They were in some financial difficulty

and since we had a track record of financial

turnaround—and because I believe we had

positioned ourselves in a way that always

honored Pastor Owen Shackett and his min-

istry at People’s Church—they approached

me about merging the churches together

and making Sheila and I the senior pastors.

Champion Life: Was it an easy decision?

Kevin: I don’t know that it was easy. But,

after a lot of prayer and counsel we took

on the challenge of merging two different

churches and began the process of bringing

another impossible financial situation to a

worth your time.

Relationship Conference

Feb 9-10

Women’s Conference

May 19-20

Summer Conferencefor EVERYONE

Aug 1-3

Men’s Conference

Oct 6-7

www.championscentre.com/conferences

Pastor Owen & Betty Shackett,

Founders of Peoples Church


2005 2006 2007Champions Centre records their first worship CD, Because of You.

Champion Life Magazine is launched.

First ever— Men’s Conference is launched.

Champions Foundation begins.

A second location is added at an elementary school in Bellevue, WA and plans begin to look for a permanent location.

THE ROAD TO

25 YEARSQ & A with

Kevin and Sheila

strategic plan of success and faith. It took a lot

of faith in that transition.

Sheila: I was happy that we weren’t moving

out of state, I had just begun to feel more con-

nected in this area—so when we felt like we

were in a holding pattern and wondering what

was next I didn’t want to pick up and move far

away. At the same time, I knew the pressure

and stress that taking a church out of financial

debt brought on Kevin and knew it was going

to be a challenge. The first day we were senior

pastors we had to let more than 15 staff go

between both of our churches!

Champion Life: Church merges hadn’t really been talked about, were there things in the transition that stood out?

Kevin: It was tough, right after we merged

we had a natural influx of the two churches

coming together as well as new people walk-

ing through the doors for the first time, but

we also had plenty of people walking out the

door because the church they had known was

changing—and a lot of people are resistant to

change. We had a lot of transition going on in

our teams, in our budgets, in our membership.

I had to fly to Wisconsin to meet with a board

of lenders and boldly negotiate a miracle—we

got close to $1 million dollars written off of

the People’s Church debt and laid out our

plan of action. There were difficult times, but

our team worked hard and God always came

through. God always provided.

Champion Life: How did your faith keep you steady through those first few years of transi-tion?

Sheila: I think us both being PK’s (preacher’s

kids) helped out a lot because we knew God

would provide. We believed that He wouldn’t

call us to something and then let us down.

There were plenty of days and nights when

I could see the pressures of church weigh-

ing Kevin down, but I did my best to keep

our home life fun and light. I tried to keep a

positive attitude with Jodi, because it was

important to us that she grew up loving the

house of God and not despising it. I “faithed it

‘til I made it” plenty of days.

Champion Life: What are some things that stand out in the past few years of Champions Centre?

Champion Life

Magazine is now

available online

championscentre.com

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worth your time.


Feb 9-10


May 19-20


Aug 1-3

Men’s Conference

Oct 6-7


The second CD recording, Nothing Compares, is produced.

Building begins in Bellevue of the new Champions Centre location.

Champions Forever Home opens in Johannesburg, South Africa for orphans of the AIDS epidemic.


2008 2009 2011First Relationship Conference.

Celebrate Recovery begins meeting on Tuesday nights in Champs Auditorium.

148th Coffee Shop is opened in Bellevue attracting local businesses and Bellevue College students.

The first ever Easter 3D is filmed marking the largest attended weekend in Champions Centre history.

WFL becomes Champions Centre College.

Celebrating 25 years of ministry, the church looks to the future with great expectations.

Kevin: Wow, the last five years we’ve started

a new campus in Bellevue, we started a new

relationship conference called MESH and we

had our first men’s conference just a couple

years ago. In 2007, we launched Champi-

ons Foundation so that we could continue

to reach our community under an umbrella

that the corporate world could back and get

behind instead of relying solely on the church.

(Sheila: And, we opened our first Champions

Forever Home in Johannesburg, South Africa

for children affected by the AIDS epidemic).

Just this year, we opened 148th Ave Coffee

Shop at our Bellevue Campus during the week

to reach out to the college students and busi-

ness community in that area.

Sheila: Church life is always busy around

Champions Centre—but we wouldn’t have it

any other way!

Champion Life: You’ve been in ministry in

the Northwest for 25 years now, what does that mean to you?

Kevin: We feel like there has been a good

foundation laid, and now we can launch into

even bigger and greater things because of the

groundwork that is there. Most pastors only

stay at a church for three years on average,

so we feel blessed and also proud that we’ve

pushed through tough times and capitalized

on good times and made it this far. But we’re

not done!

Champion Life: What is ahead?

Kevin: It would be easy to just sort of coast

through from here and live on past accom-

plishments, but we’re committed to continue

to take risks, push our faith to the limits and

believe God will do big things! It’s a privilege

to be pastoring in such a great part of the

country. We feel like the best is yet to come.

Honestly. There are things we are doing right

now that are causing us to rediscover the raw

faith that we had when we began. We know

that God has to show up to make it success-

ful. We’ll continue to step out—We see great

things ahead!

worth your time.


Feb 9-10


May 19-20


Aug 1-3

Men’s Conference

Oct 6-7


Bellevue building is dedicated, and Champions Centre is now officially one church with two locations.


Documents

The Road To 25 Years