Cedar Park Church
16300 112th Ave NE
Bothell, WA 98011

p: 425.488.3600
e: info@cedarpark.org

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Sundays:
9am, 10:45am, 6pm

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Three Emerging Distinctions of Cedar Park’s Cathedral Church

When you describe a church, there are all kinds of ways to go. Most frequently it is by worship style, denomination, Pastor’s name, size, programs, or spiritual dynamic. We could be described using any of those and more. In this section I want to emphasize what is different.

When I started at Cedar Park I wanted to build an ordinary Assembly of God church. By ordinary, I meant that it would have all the ministries any strong church should have. At that time, we had no choir or music program. There was no adult choir, no youth choir, and no children’s choir. All the children were in one Sunday School class. It was clear that we needed program development.

Once you get the basics you can move on up. Building a church is about doing well at the basics and keep improving. Men’s groups, women’s groups, youth programs, nurseries, children’s classes and the like are the backbone of the church. To each of you who make these areas happen you need to know that you perform an essential function without which Cedar Park could not survive.

From a leadership point of view, there are three emerging distinctions about Cedar Park. Interestingly, all are deeply rooted in the Christian tradition. Some are so old they actually seem like new ideas. First is ecclesiastical. We are a Cathedral Church. Second is theological. We have a view of righteousness that I believe is both biblical and historic but which too much of the Pentecostal and Evangelical church world ignores today. Third, we have developed an economic system that is historic but also effective for growth. I want to go into a little more depth about each of these.

Ecclesiastical Distinction—An Organizational Style so Old its New

Cedar Park has adopted an ecclesiastical style that we call the “Cathedral Church Model.” The name derives from the church organizational style that has been dominant since the fourth century. The Cathedral was the dominant church in a large city that worked with every part of the Lord’s work in that city. We define a Cathedral Church as the sum total of all the ministries that the Lord has raised up in a particular area which share common characteristics.

A Cathedral Church has a common governance structure. In our case, we have one pastoral team and one board. Even though each branch, school, department or ministry might function largely on its own, it still is subject to the same structure.

A Cathedral Church has a common financial structure. We have one checking account for everything we do. All the money from every branch, school, department or ministry flows into the same account, is handled by the same accounting department, and is reported in the same report system.

At Cedar Park the money moves easily within the system. At any given moment, any part of it might have an excess of cash or a need of cash. Obviously, if one part of the church is persistently in need of money, we will address how to make that part of the ministry more self-sufficient. Our experience is that a ministry might need support and help for some time but eventually becomes a producer. For example, we fed the school very substantial sums of money for probably15 years. Today, the school more than pays its way operationally but is in need of capital support on the major development of a new building. We fed the Counseling Network for a long time. It reached a level of self-support before we made the decision to further expand. Hopefully, it will soon reach a financial balance at the new, higher level. The Spanish and Japanese churches have been self-supporting from the beginning. The people who attend there have contributed cash to the rest of the ministries. Northshore took quite a bit to get on an even keel but is nearing financial stability. Hopefully its ministry and people will soon contribute to other aspects of the church as well. I was pleased with our recent “Branch Church Sunday” when offerings were received in Bothell, The Chapel at Cedar Park, and Cedar Park Northshore in behalf of the new works in Totem Lake and Lake Stevens. We all pooled our resources in behalf of the newest ministries.

Many churches function in this way financially. Notable among the successful ones would be the Catholics and the Mormons. In these early days when we have only a few branch churches, it might be mostly a one-way financial street. Down the road, I believe multiple branches will continue to multiply the financial strength for further development of the whole ministry.

A Cathedral Church has a common spiritual mission in a diversity of ministry. Historically, before the church became fragmented through denominations and independent churches, all ministry in a region would be under the spiritual umbrella of the Cathedral’s bishop. The ministry might take place in many different places but it all was connected in a spiritual way. Even though the reality is that all God’s work in this region is not united in spiritual purpose because of denominational fragmentation, the Cathedral Church works to return spiritual unity to the church. Over time, as more ministries develop through the initiative process, the Cathedral Church looks more and more like a full picture of the body of Christ. There is diversity of ministry because there are diversities of gifts. People are called by God to different things. They see different parts of the work. As leaders, we say if God is in it, we are for it. Leaders have the task to organize the resources and assets in an orderly way and let God’s people go to work.

If we look at any one piece of the work we might think it is isolated and disjointed. When you look at it from higher up, you see the common leadership, common structure, common financial base, and common mission. You are seeing a Cathedral Church.

Theological Distinction—A View of Righteousness

As a college student, my call to the ministry was specifically a call to turn people to righteousness. As I studied what that meant, I discovered that righteousness has always had three components. Judaism taught this kind of righteousness and Jesus reiterated it for us in the Sermon on the Mount. The three specific components are almsgiving, fasting, and prayer. These became the three acts of penance in the Catholic approach. Islam adopted them as three of the five pillars of Islam. The three specific acts represent three relationships. Almsgiving is our relationship to those less well off. Fasting is a relationship to our own bodies. Prayer is central to acknowledging our relationship with God. I have tried to be sure that each of these elements were at the heart of my ministry. I have come to realize that these should not be unique to my call but in fact are the very heart of Christianity. I was comfortable with prayer and fasting. I have struggled with how to facilitate almsgiving and its relationship to the less well off.

Knowing how the budget has worked, I didn’t see how we as a church could do much for the poor when we were so poor as an institution. I knew that what our church could do in a normal approach was not much. Money was going to be the big problem. The question was how do you get it?

The offering plate is one answer, but you can’t go to the same well an infinite number of times. The government is another source. So far it has been a one-way street. We pay the government enormous sums of money. For the privilege of building our High School building, and saving the State of Washington over $13 million per year, we will pay various agencies of government over $750,000, mostly in sales tax. Before turning the first shovel of dirt, we had paid over $500,000 mostly in excessive government regulations and onerous processes for getting building permits. (We have the highest unemployment because we have created a governmental monster that kills business) With the deepening governmental services and budget crisis, they might start looking our way as a more efficient means of delivering services.

Trusts have been a huge blessing to the church in years gone by. Almost nothing has come in from wills but many people tell me the church is in their will. In the next thirty years, it should contribute substantially to the church. So far, minuscule amounts come from grants.

Besides the generosity of our people in giving offerings, our answer was to develop fee-for-service operations. In our total projected budget of $10.4 million for 2002-2003, only about 30% comes from the offering plate. 70% comes from fees.

We have been trying to find ways to serve those who are in need. We are committed to using the benefits of the Chapel of the Resurrection for missions and for local ministry to the poor. All our fee-for-service ministries are working to make sure that we serve all the people.

The theological foundation of Cedar Park is not unique to us. It is the center of Christianity. One of the major spiritual movements in this country is the degree to which Evangelical and Pentecostal churches have been moving toward ministry to the poor.

Our theological distinction has strongly propelled us to an economic distinction.

Economic Distinction—Incorporating Monastic Concepts

A couple of years ago I recall reading Peter Drucker who said that the non-profit sector of the economy was the most dynamic sector and he expected it would continue for some time. Everyone knows that a church is a non-profit corporation, but few consider what that means. They see incorporation as the necessary legal means of sheltering members from legal liability. In fact, we are a corporation that must interface with government at all levels including the IRS.

Cedar Park is the 19th largest non-profit corporation in Washington State. We are just behind Children’s Home Society of Washington and Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare and ahead of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Woodland Park Zoological Society.[3] Planned Parenthood is almost twice our size. Four religious non-profits are larger than us. They are World Vision, Crista Ministries, Catholic Community Services, and Tacoma Life Center. Many of Washington State’s non-profits perform particular functions that we also perform.

Personally, I do not believe para-church ministries are God’s best plan. I don’t believe God would design a system where ministry was taking place outside the context of his church. When ministry happens outside the church there are no natural brakes to keep the group from drifting from a true spiritual purpose. Groups like United Way, that used to be known as United Good Neighbor and served a spiritual purpose, have drifted so far off course that they are now actually opposing God’s work in the community through hostile policies. I would like the church to move back into these areas that others have filled and begin to restore a full-orbed ministry to this area.

When we apply the Cathedral Church Model the field of ministry gets much wider. If God is interested in it, so are we. We are a traditional church but we also look like a social service agency because God’s work has a social dimension to it. In the Old Testament Law many of the rules pertain to family order, criminal justice, social service, health, welfare, and many more. As we pursue the things that touch God’s heart, we are not looking to duplicate what other churches are doing or to make Cedar Park look like any other church. We are not asking what the government is doing. We are not asking what other non-profit corporations are doing. We are asking what we should do. Then we try to find a way to make it happen. Finances have to be a big part of that. In thinking about the financial answer, I have looked to church history and the success of the monastic movement for inspiration.

A monastery has three elements: spiritual, residential, and economic. They pray together, live together and work together. We still don’t have the living facility, but the experience of the monastery is informing our spiritual and economic concepts.

There are five financial concepts that are shaping the economic dimension of Cedar Park.

First, the work ethic of the monastic model is viable for today. That is, we can do work and provide service that helps to sustain the work of God. We are applying this concept in the Schools, Counseling Network, Mechanics Ministry, School of the Arts, Summer Day Camps, and our other “fee-for-service” ministries.

Second, when a ministry starts it needs to be funded. That is what we all work together to accomplish through our giving and collective resources.

Third, once the ministry is established, most of them should become self-sustaining.

Fourth, the resources generated by the fee-for-service ministries should do three things. The resources should establish other ministries, fund local charitable outreaches, and bless the work of foreign missions.

Fifth, a sliding scale of fees should allow those who can pay to subsidize those who cannot pay.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES