Story of God at Work in Bellingham
Living mission-minded for the sake of delivering the gospel to the ends of the Earth is a life that is beautiful, incredibly worthwhile, and most definitely challenging. There are areas of the world that appear to be more appealing than others, making them a dream destination to some and not quite to others, yet the need for the gospel is dire regardless of how outwardly inviting those places may feel to us. But we serve a God who has eyes for the unexpected, the in-between, and even those who reject Him. He has the power and ability to reconcile people of all backgrounds to Himself; we are merely the tool He graciously uses to do so here on Earth.
In the winter of 2019, after a shift in leadership, James Clark was pulled aside and asked to lead the church plant that was being sent to the Western Washington University campus in Bellingham, Washington. This city is known for its progressive ideas, beautiful natural landscape, and history of hostility towards the Christian faith. Despite moving to this city not being his initial plan or feeling qualified by any means, James and his wife decided to go, believing in the affirmations their leaders spoke over them, deeming them just right for the position they were about to take. A whirlwind of a decision brought James, his wife, and their team of 24, to the place that would eventually become their home, slowly trickling in and settling over the months of May and June of 2019.
“ He has the power and ability to reconcile people of all backgrounds to Himself; we are merely the tool He graciously uses to do so here on Earth. ”
Intending to hold a launch service for Easter 2020, James and his team set out on campus in an effort to cast as wide of a net as possible. In the 6-7 months approaching their launch date, they created predictable patterns of campus time, fun events like King of the Hill, coffee dates, tabling, and passing out free things to students who would stop by on their walk to class. During that first week on campus, one student, Kiley, was walking on campus, thinking about how someone had recently told her to find a church within the first two weeks of being a college student. Not looking too intensely for a church, Kiley happened to stumble across a table full of excited faces, giving away hot cocoa underneath a pop-up tent marked with Resonate Church branding one afternoon. She stopped to see what the people at this table were doing, met a girl named Anna, and ended up talking to her for nearly an hour, uncovering connections and feeling genuinely cared for. This conversation led to them going on a hike and then showing up to what she would later know as Resonate’s Sunday Gathering, all the while realizing that God was moving in her heart and ordaining her steps. Something as simple as a sweet drink and good conversation can be the entryway to stepping out of loneliness and into life-changing community. Kiley would go on to continue to live missionally, desiring to reach other students, just as she had been not long ago. From disciple-maker to student leader, and eventually staff member, the ripple effect of the obedience of people like Kiley on this team planted in Bellingham would make all of the difference.
Shortly after Kiley was met and connected, alongside many other students, the unthinkable happened; a global pandemic closed the doors to many establishments, turning their experiences into virtual ones, and bringing the momentum of this team working towards their launch service to an unfortunate halt. But God, knowing exactly what was to occur, had plans to move in spite of our world feeling as though it had stopped. Sunday Gatherings and Village small groups moved to computer and TV screens, and believe it or not, people showed up despite the unconventionality! Reflecting on doing ministry during COVID, James refers to that time as “a gift” because it allowed their core team to grow and mature, as things relied on previously were stripped away, changing the culture of their leadership team and church for the better over time.
Coming out of the restrictions following the pandemic, Sunday Gatherings picked back up, as did villages, and even more so, prayer that the students would desire to fight against the isolation they had been stuck in previously. Things started off slow, with attendance being fairly low, and despite the discouragement that this was, it brought the team to prayer and rethinking strategies for reaching students. When life gets tough, it’s easy to try to fix the problem instead of submitting worries to Christ first; our instinct isn’t always to rejoice in greater dependence on Him. For many of us, prayer has become a last-ditch effort to make things better, but for the Bellingham team, it became something vital. Talking frequently with God was no longer a suggestion to get through the hard but essential to enduring faithfully. The culture and people of Resonate Bellingham were slowly sanctified through the rough, ultimately multiplying resiliency, complete dependence on the Lord, and the sense of feeling deeply known by those enduring alongside throughout their congregation.
Learning what it meant to forge through the wilderness of a hard season prepared the people of this church for what was to come, displaying God’s sovereignty before their very eyes. As things changed and grew, the staff and church members in Bellingham sent out a church to be planted in Fort Collins at Colorado State University in December of 2022. Despite the chaos of the world at the time, God was still on the move, bringing the sentiment of Isaiah 43:19 alive within their team, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland". Not only was God doing a new thing in the lives of the people in Bellingham, but also in their church after facing the loss of pivotal members who moved to bring that same hope of the “new thing” to another college campus. Although a solid amount of their staff team and church members had recently left to bring the gospel to the lives of college students in Colorado, God was faithful to show up in Bellingham. In a season of newness, God reminded the staff and students that there had never been a moment where He had forgotten them, answering prayers tangibly once more. Reviving their ministry at the beginning of the school year in 2023, within the first two weeks of school, the Lord connected them to 15 freshmen. These freshmen were seeking a church to dive into the depths with them, and they found exactly that as they were connected. They began giving their time and resources towards reaching their campus themselves. Since the moment the leadership team set foot into Bellingham to the current state of their ministry, they have seen just over 30 people be baptized, many experiencing true death to life because they decided to put their faith and trust in Jesus and for others, the seeds of the gospel have been planted into their lives for the very first time. There is victory in Jesus' name for the students of Western Washington University and the people in the city of Bellingham, for He is making a way where there once appeared to be none. God has glorified Himself through the birthing of a church that stands firm in the truth of the Bible, overcoming the culturally normative pressure to conform to the patterns of the world.
Despite the hardship of team members leaving, sending out a church plant with many of the best and most consistent team members, the ramifications of COVID, and operating in a city where the label of bigotry is tacked onto any non-affirming Jesus movements, God has made Himself known. Circumstantially, opening and maintaining a church at Western Washington University appeared and often felt impossible, yet God displayed that He is outside of our worldly circumstances and expectations. In a time of barriers and hardship, God was and is in the business of bringing people from death to life, solidifying the truth that He is always faithful, regardless of our situation, circumstance, location, or cultural barriers. He is faithful, and He will continue to prove it, just as He has in Bellingham over the last 5 years.
