Newborn Church Christ Community Launches Services At Moran Prairie Elementary

A new church called Christ Community Church will begin Saturday services tonight at 6 p.m. at Moran Prairie Elementary School, 57th and Yale.

Christ Community is the second Evangelical Free Church to surface in Spokane and is a daughter church to First Evangelical Free Church, said Christ Community’s pastor, the Rev. Ron DiGaetano.

Both churches are members of the Evangelical Free Church of America, which has 2,000 churches worldwide.

So far, Christ Community has some 30 members.

Because the church is operating on a tight budget, it is renting space at Moran Prairie Elementary School and most likely will stay there until it gathers a stronger following.

“Hopefully, we’ll become several hundred people and be able to purchase land or a new facility,” said DiGaetano. “But that’s at least a few years off in the future, I’d imagine.”

For many years, DiGaetano, 40, dreamed about leading his own church while working as an associate pastor at a California church.

After learning that First Evangelical Free Church in Spokane was looking to expand, DiGaetano moved to Eastern Washington and became an associate pastor at First Evangelical.

After much planning and searching for a South Side location, Christ Community Church was born.

“Our general focus is toward meeting the spiritual needs of the contemporary family,” DiGaetano said. “By contemporary, I mean two working parents, single-parent family, and families that are unchurched.”

DiGaetano is also trying to appeal to anyone disenchanted by the rigidity of traditional church services. To do this, he’ll introduce contemporary music during services.

He’ll also implement some unconventional techniques to grab the interest of kids, such as using cartoon-style slides to accompany his sermons.

“I’m going to make a deliberate effort to make my sermons not to be above the heads of the children in terms of my vocabulary,” he said.

Like any Evangelical Free Church, Christ Community Church is a Christian church whose teachings and ministry depend heavily on the written gospel in the Bible.

“Our theology can best be described as biblical,” said DiGaetano. “It’s historic, and it’s in line with what the church has believed for a couple of thousand of years.”

DiGaetano is currently attempting to attract converts by mailing brochures to every household within the church’s zip code.

He will also teach classes to win over non-Christians.

“What we’re offering is an inquirer class,” he said. “It is designed as an introduction to Christianity and the Bible.”

Sunday services at Christ Community Church begin Easter Sunday, April 16.

For more information about the church, call 326-4864.