Covenant News

Redwood (CA) to Worship in New Building Sunday

SANTA ROSA, CA (June 25, 2003) - Redwood Covenant Church will be worshiping in its new building for the first time on Sunday (June 29) after moving into the $8.5 million facility last Saturday.

About 180 people helped in the process of moving furniture and other items from Redwood's former facility into the new building, said a church staff member Tuesday. The church will officially dedicate its new building on September 14. Glenn R. Palmberg, president of the Evangelical Covenant Church, will preach at those Sunday worship services.

Redwood Covenant Church began building its 43,000-square-foot facility last August, one month before the lease on the church's former facility expired, said the church's business manager Dennis Edwards. The new facility includes a worship center that will seat 750, along with a commercial-grade kitchen and children's and youth wings. Del Starrett, a parishioner at the church, was the primary architect for the project, which was undertaken after a fall retreat nearly two years ago.

In September 2000, Redwood Covenant pastor John Strong asked parishioners how they envisioned the church moving in the future. In the following months, leadership was faced with a myriad of questions as Strong and associate pastors Scott Peterson, Angie Tate and others shared where they believe God was taking the church. Eventually the Redwood Covenant leadership made changes in their overall structure and the church's staff took a prayer and fasting retreat in January 2001 to better discern the church's future. The building project was one of the key matters of discussion, although the church also added a pastor, Alejandro Sotres, to minister to a growing Hispanic population in and around Santa Rosa.

National Covenant Properties assisted in the financing for Redwood Covenant, which has an average worship attendance of 750. For more information about the church and its building project, call Edwards at 707-528-8463 or email him at dennis@redwoodcovenant.org. A more detailed story of how Redwood Covenant began its building project will be posted later this summer in this Covenant news report.

Printable version of this page.