Bethesda Lutheran Church (Mountlake Terrace, Wash.)

A new community was forming in 1951. Meetings of prayer and Bible Study were being held in people’s homes. The Lutheran Free Church, seeing an immediate need, sent a mission worker, Ernest Langness, to meet with the people wanting to form a church. Sunday School began that fall, and the first Christmas program was held in the Forest Crest Community Clubhouse. Two lots on 56th Avenue West were donated by a local developer, and financing was offered by the parent synod. On Christmas Day, 1952, thirty-seven worshippers gathered for the first morning worship in the unfinished sanctuary. Formal organization occurred March 1, 1953.