Nyah Somers and Jack Yunge watch Terry Kyllo lead the eucharist.
JEFF HIGH
CatacombChurches I
In the Pacific Northwest, some faithful meet in homes By Rachel Pritchett
t’s a Wednesday winter evening as black as ink in Burlington, Wash., an old logging town perched above the fertile Skagit Valley. Inside the cozy home of Nate and Giordi Yunge, the children are in full, loud commotion as a handful of thirtysomething friends gather for a simple meal of beans, salad and bread.
They’re joined by Terry Kyllo, a longtime mission-developer with the Northwest Washington Synod, who starts the conversation: • “What was life-giving for you this week?” • “What was life-taking?”
Nate, an electrician, said his company has more work than it can handle, but
he’s glad he’s not unemployed. “It’s just very stressful right now,” he added. Bethany Somers, a Nazarene clergywoman without a church right now, said she had a lot of pain the day before as doctors pressed around her abdomen, trying to rotate her breech baby, due any time. She is grateful for the new life. Her husband, Beau, a home security-systems manager, feels as if life is out of control. His mom is leaving his dad. Giordi, an elementary-school teacher, and Juan Gaona, a school administrator, acknowledge his pain.
Welcome to Catacomb This is the social start to an evening of worship at one of three small groups
Pritchett is the communicator for the Southwestern Washington Synod and a newspaper reporter in Bremerton, Wash.
28 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
that make up the new Catacomb Churches, named loosely after the early Christian house churches (
catacombchurches.org) and begun by Kyllo. These worshipers are longtime friends and come from Lutheran, Episcopal and fundamen- talist backgrounds.
Like the other two groups form- ing between Everett and close to the Canadian border, they’ve turned from sitting in pews to taking on authority and responsibility of being Chris- tian leaders themselves—outside of church. They are trading the tradi- tional hierarchical model of pastor over congregant for one of “mutual- ity,” Kyllo said.
The goal is for each Catacomb church to have a mission, such as helping middle-schoolers avoid drugs or taking on a political cause. In the process, the newly empowered lead- ers invite others to join them. The groups meet two or three times a month for a meal, sharing and
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52