Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 6, June 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

SOUL FOOD:

Reaching out to their universe

By TERRY VOGEL

As we all know, Fremont residents consider their neighborhood to be the "center of the universe."

What more appropriate place then is there for Fremont Community Church to be? This 110-year-old church, formerly known as Fremont Baptist Church, is presently led by Pastor Jay Zaremba and for the past few years has been positioning itself to be a community asset to a varied and diverse population.

One of the church's main goals is to be a Christian-based counseling center for the neighborhood. It is also anxious to reverse a common trend of second-generation membership moving out of the church and out of the community. The steps the congregation is taking are not novel, but in Fremont, which is famously known for the quirky and unusual, what passes for new and different, may be ordinary and just plain fun.

The church plays host to several 12-step programs, a Broadway for Kids program, a meeting place for the Fremont Neighborhood Council and the Fremont Library's kids reading time program.

All of these relationships signal a faith-based group committed to reengaging the community. With the church's long history and the evolving community of Fremont changing every day, some of the interesting steps taken by the church involve a program started to reach out to middle school age kids called 'Friday Nite Drop-In'. This program has been operating for more than a year now. With laser tag, super soaker "wars," Foosball and table hockey standard fare for a Friday evening, what kids couldn't find fun on a Friday night?

The other part of their outreach is to offer a Sunday night contemporary service (5 p.m.) called "The Journey."

Assuming Captain Kirk will not be there, Pastor Jay, as Zaremba is known to the church's congregation, would be a great way to lead those curiously seeking a life of faith and service to the community.

Come on by and introduce yourself to the folks at Fremont Community Church a group ready to make a difference in their universe.

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Terry Vogel is community outreach director at Maple Leaf Lutheran Church in Meadowbrook. He can be reached at ml.outreach@comcast.net.