Representatives of the small group of people led by Wayne Kooser , Jim Stevens, Dave Davis and Roger Cox met in the spring of 1979 wanting to start a church in the Bonney Lake area.

There was an announcement placed in the Orting, Auburn, Enumclaw & Puyallup SDA church bulletins stating that there would be a meeting at Nelson Crane School for those living in the Bonney Lake area interested in starting a church. There was a very good turnout of people from all of the above churches listed. There were some with concerns that this may be an off-shoot group as there was the Ford Movement going on at this time. After all of the fears were overcome, there was a very good meeting that took place and it was decided to talk to the conference and start looking for a church where they could meet if everything was approved.

Conference leaders President Elder Glenn Aufderhar, Lenard Jaecks(Executive Sec.), Puyallup church pastor Charles Lickey and all others interested met in the fellowship room of the Puyallup church. A prospective Pastor was discussed and steps were laid out with which to begin. The Bonney lake group were given a lot of encouragement by the leaders who were present that evening and plans were made. However, at first, Pastor Lickey had the misunderstanding that this would take away members from the Puyallup church. The problem was alleviated when it became known that most of the members would come from people already living in the Bonney Lake area, and from the Orting church whose members were anxious to build a new church. They selected the name "Bonney Lake SDA Church" as the official name that very evening. They immediately decided to look for an appropriate piece of land near the city limits of Bonney Lake.

The first task was to create a building fund and get it growing to meet the first goal of purchasing land. Car washes were held, bake sales at the local shopping center, and garage sales at various places. Soon the money started to pour in and hopes were realized as they prepared for starting a brand new church from the ground up.

Arrangements were made to rent the Ehli Hill Baptist Church during the interim to raise the funds necessary to build. Renting a new church was interesting. Some churches were fearful of losing members who might leave them and join our church. Others were not interested in helping us in any way because our message differed so much from their traditions. This was very puzzling behavior for fellow Christians with a common belief in Jesus.

Charter Members:

 Pastor Pete Tadej was selected as the first pastor and served courageously during the first three years of the early church history. After a lengthy search for property that would be adequate, suitable land was found in October 1979 under "mysterious" circumstances. A member saw a "For Sale" sign on the property. When Pastor Tadej called on the owner about the price, the owner remarked that he had only recently talked about selling the land to his wife in private and had no idea how the sign got on the property. The 3 acres were purchased for $32,000 on July 5th, 1980. The mortgage burning ceremony came one very happy July 11th, 1982 at the Prairie Ridge Community Park during a congregational picnic. The plans were drawn up by the architect, Russ Hasse. Foundations were poured and the church building was started. Pastor Tadej had a design in mind from another church building he had seen. Elder Tadej and his wife had prepared the little company of believers well but now it was time to turn it over to another.

Pastor Daryl Perry and his wife Loretta came to be their leader in October, 1982. His leadership in construction was much admired and so appreciated. So off they went making plans for how large to make the church and where to put it on the land. Maybe they would someday build a school with the extra room in the back lot, somebody ventured to dream during the planning meeting.

Trees fell, brush was piled and stumps were removed quickly in early 1983 to make room for the new church building. However, there is one incident that will stick in everybody's mind that happened one day during those early clearing days:

A very large cedar tree was near the road and about to be felled. The ropes were attached to the top of the tree as usual, having been thru the routine many times before. As it was being sawed on by the chain saw operator someone motioned for more pressure from the pickup that was tied to the rope at the top of the big tree. The rope gave way and the tree just tottered there deciding whether it was going to fall inward away from danger or the other way and break the main electrical power cable that supplied all of the power to the surrounding neighborhood. Of course it would have blocked the main street for hours while it was cut up and moved to the side of the road. Hurried prayers were sent skyward and the tree settled down on it’s stump. A brave soul climbed the tree and re-attached the rope and the "Tree Incident" has been repeated many times in the halls of the church since that day.

The design that was chosen was a dark stained architectural vertical lapboard siding structure with a contrasting rustic red composition roof. When completed it would seat 300 people in the sanctuary and hold 36 pews with a main aisle way and light brown carpeting. The building became 10,000 square foot upstairs and 1100 square feet downstairs in the lower level. The lower level incorporated large daylight full height windows with a large fellowship room, a Dorcas room with a kitchen and a storage room.

The 5,200 sq. ft. sanctuary has a cathedral ceiling with a row of clerestory windows in the roof line for natural lighting during church services. The church also would contain two furnaces, one for each level. An electric furnace with a heat pump system with air conditioning capability during summer months. There were originally 4 classrooms with a mothers room, pastor's office and a foyer.

Another story from the early days happened during the framing of the sanctuary part of the main building. Its plans called for a cathedral ceiling with large exposed wooden beams. They were being hoisted into place and all seemed set for the addition of the plywood sheeting to be applied. The special truck mounted crane was driven into position and began hoisting a large pallet of plywood sheets up off of the bed of the truck and swung it around to lower them onto the roof. The load was too much and the crane teetered down on top of the beams dislodging several of the beams who in turn went crashing down onto the concrete floor below. Fortunately nobody was hurt and the beams were salvageable and soon back in place.

Maranatha provided some students from southern California to help get our church off to a good start that first summer of 1984. Mr. Warren Dale organized a bus load of 28 eager young people and traveled by a private bus up to our church. They made quite a bit of progress in the few weeks that they were helping before they returned to Loma Linda, California. The helpers each were given room and hot meals at private homes of local church friends and members. New friendships were established by the time their brief stay was over with fond memories to take home.

The members enjoyed their very first church service in the new building June 3, 1985. Fortunately the weather was warm, for it was a while before they could get rid of those cold hard metal chairs that filled the sanctuary. It wasn’t long before they purchased the new pews and they were very happy with their brand new church. The first baptism was in the nearly completed building May 1985. They felt fortunate to be the first to be baptized in the new pool and so Pastor Daryl Perry performed the ceremony amid the unpainted walls, cold metal chairs and concrete floor. Pastor Perry and his wife Loretta had performed many great things with God’s help and now they too would be called to another adventure in their ministry.

Pastor Mike Aufderhar and his wife Brenda, arrived to start their new Pastoral career in January 1988. He was fresh out of college and this was his first church as Head Pastor. Budgets needed to be wrestled with, board meetings to lead, and evangelistic drives to plan that kept them all very busy. The church was greatly blessed with success and were able to pay off the mortgage early. The dedication ceremony was June 1988.

The church congregation was treated to a very special ceremony of Ordination to Conference Elder, July 25, 1992. The ceremony was officiated by Executive Secretary Dennis Carlson. Presentation of the candidate, Pastor Mike, was done by Conference Ministerial Secretary, Dave Weigley. Conference President Lenard Jaecks ordained him with a special prayer. Pastor Mike’s beaming parents shared their personal family stories with the church and his father Elder Glenn Aufderhar, Adventist Medial Center President, welcomed his son to the duties of a higher ministerial service. The ceremony came to a close with Benediction by Elder Mike’s father-in-Law, Mr. Harold Burden.

Pastor Mike and Brenda served the church well with their strong Adventist values that they brought to the ministry. Community people began to notice and the congregation began to see many new families attending services. However, the church soon fell short of room with more people than classrooms available. So an addition was planned for the church.

In 1992 the church added a new 2,800 square foot wing. This brought the church 6 new classrooms that were badly needed due to the growth that had occurred in church attendance. As of this writing the church has 8 classrooms, a library room, Elders room, Dorcas room with washer and dryer facilities, large fellowship hall, private Pastors study and separate business offices with computer and copier office equipment. Other amenities were added such as more bathrooms and another natural gas furnace. The parking lot was paved with asphalt the summer of 1996. The members became aware that they had created a real church for service to our Lord God and his Son and The Holy Ghost. Each one had given a little of themselves to provide the best service to God thru stepping out in Faith and adding hard work.

Pastor Mike & Brenda and his family ministry were very much noticed and they were called to serve in the Washington Conference as conference leadership. They moved on and gave the reins to Pastor Dan Knauft in March, 1993.

The addition was well along the way in planning and was being constructed at his arrival. The church was ripe for the possibilities that the satellite series "Net 95" brought with Elder Mark Finley. The church was urged to participate and the Lord made funds available to purchase the necessary equipment to monitor and received the Christian messages from the sky. Pastor Dan began an organized program of visiting new attendees at their homes and putting invitations to "Visit Us Again" into the mail. While these are not new forms of ministry the message here is that the new addition was being utilized rapidly. Pastor Dan’s personal friendship style began to swell the membership.

Pastor Dan Knauft and his family carried on with some of the favorite events that have become tradition in these parts. The Candle-Light Communion ceremony at Christmas time is a favorite. The Live animal Nativity Scene is another very popular tradition.

Chronological History of Lay Church Leaders

Photographs of past and present members

Dan Knauft - former pastor

Barney Shortridge - head elder

Judy Shortridge - head deaconess

Paul Morgan & Dean Barnes