Pines Baptist Church Gears New Service To Young Adults

Pines Baptist Church has begun offering a new worship service geared toward young adults.

The new service, every Saturday at 7 p.m., is definitely not your normal worship service, says organizer Lee Davis.

It all started with a Bible study class that was growing out of its space, says Davis. He came up with the idea of expanding and converting the class into a worship service. The service now includes a live band, audio/visual presentations and discussion.

“People can actually participate and not just sit there and have stuff done to them,” says Lee. “It’s all about experience. It’s very sensory. It’s very tangible. People really do seem to respond to that.”

The service bears the name “The Back Door,” both a reference to how participants enter the church and to a nonstandard approach to meeting God, he says.

The people who run the service are having a good time doing it.

“If nobody ever came we’d do it anyway,” says Lee. “The methodology if different but the message is always the same.”

The church is at 714 S. Pines. For more information, call the church office at 928-7880.

Pastor leaves church for classroom

Pastor Ken Carlson of Zion Lutheran Church has retired to start a second career in education.

He started his new position as a teacher’s aide in three special education classrooms at Chase Middle School last week.

“It’s been going very well,” says Carlson. “I’m enjoying it.”

Carlson, 52, has spent 25 years of his life as a pastor, the last 12 at Zion Lutheran in the Valley.

He is planning to enroll in either Whitworth College or Eastern Washington University later this year to get his master’s degree in teaching. When he completes the 15-month program he hopes to teach elementary students.

“I enjoy kids and I enjoy seeing them learn,” says Carlson. “It just seems to fit together really well.”

Switching careers is something that has been on his mind despite the fact that his work at Zion Lutheran was a positive experience. Part of the reason for the change was that his schedule as a pastor denied him much time with Kristie, his wife of 29 years.

“I wanted to have more time that we could be together,” he says. “I decided to make a transition. I think I can be used by God wherever I am.”