Last Sunday, Redmond Presbyterian Church (RPC) welcomed back past church members as well as three of its former pastors in a special celebration event.

The event was in honor of the church’s 50th anniversary and RPC has been and will be holding special events throughout the months of April and May.

RPC first opened its doors in April 1965, when the City of Redmond’s population was only about 5,000.

The church’s current senior pastor, Rev. Larry Grounds, said things are a lot different nowadays. He said Redmond’s population is now about 55,000, with that number doubling during the day as workers make their way into town, leaving after they are off work.

During the early 1970s, RPC struggled to survive but then, Microsoft Corp. opened.

“That changed this place,” Grounds said about the tech giant’s impact on the local community as well as his church.

He said RPC’s membership is currently between 200 and 250, counting both members of the church as well as individuals who are not officially part of the church.

Grounds has been with RPC for 10 and a half years and is RPC’s fifth senior pastor. On Sunday, three out of his four predecessors were able to attend the celebration. Rev. J. Graley Taylor, the church’s founding pastor, died in June 2014.

At 64, Grounds has been in ministry for 37 years. He is originally from San Diego, but he and his wife moved up to the Pacific Northwest when she was offered a job as a professor at Seattle Pacific University. The couple initially lived in Shoreline but moved to Redmond when Grounds became the pastor at RPC.

A WIDE AGE RANGE

Grounds said members of his congregation come from diverse social backgrounds and age ranges. He said they have young families and couples, a strong senior contingent — many of whom are residents of the nearby Emerald Heights retirement community — and people in the middle of those age ranges.

This being said, Grounds admits the church currently does not have as much ethnic diversity as they would like.

With the church’s wide age range, Grounds said they offer two worship services — one featuring more traditional music and one featuring more contemporary music.

While the two services offer something for everyone, longtime RPC member Pat Prophet said the disadvantage of this is that you don’t get to see everyone from the church on a regular basis.

Prophet, who attends the traditional service, has been with RPC since 1978. She and her husband — an army chaplain — discovered RPC when they were living in Kirkland and looking for a Presbyterian church. She said their neighbors were members of RPC and so they decided to attend with them.

“I’ve been going there ever since,” she said.

Prophet, who now lives in Redmond, said she stuck with the church because she never had a reason to change and also likes that it is close to where she lives.

A FRIENDLY AND WELCOMING MEMBERSHIP

During the many years that she has been with RPC, Prophet has made many good memories — from the people she has met, to seeing the new classroom building being built about 10 years ago — but there is one particular memory that stands out for her.

“My daughter was married there,” she said.

Like Prophet, Elaine Price also joined RPC in 1978, though she began attending services in 1977. And having been with the church for so many years, she too has made many memories at RPC.

She said she has stuck with the church because it is more than just a building — the people are friendly, inviting and accepting. In particular, Price said she always enjoyed being part of the church’s former women’s association and always had fun on church retreats, during yard sales, bazaars and other events they organized.

For Carole and Ed Rich, RPC’s welcoming and friendly members are the reason they have been with the church since 1988. They said they enjoy the family environment and appreciate the support people provide for others when they need it — such as when their son was injured in an accident.

INCLUSIVE BUT NOT ALWAYS AGREEING

Grounds said it is their philosophy to be inclusive — even if that means a membership that doesn’t always see eye to eye with each other.

One of those areas in which RPC has taken an agree-to-disagree attitude is same-sex marriage.

Grounds said the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which RPC is part of, gives local churches and pastors the right to decide how to approach the issue. At RPC, he said, they have an open policy not to pre-judge people.

Grounds said when it comes to marrying couples, he bases his decision on whether the two people are ready for marriage as well as their faithfulness to Jesus. He said their sexuality has nothing to do with it.

With this open policy, Grounds said this means they do not turn away anyone from the church, so this means there are people on both sides of the argument within the RPC membership. He said their policy on same-sex marriage has also led to people — on either side of the issue — leaving the church.

Grounds said he has heard strong arguments on both sides of the debate and those views — and others — are among his church’s membership.

“It’s OK to disagree,” he said. “It’s OK to struggle.”