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.

From the guide to the Bethesda Lutheran Church, Mountlake Terrace, Washington, Records, 1953-2012, (Pacific Lutheran University)