Resonate a Church for the Masses

In the most unchurched region of the nation the most unchurched group of people
are flocking to a church, but why?
Resonate Church, a church geared toward college students in Moscow and Pullman,
has a congregation, predominately student-filled, of more than 1,400 people. Resonates
belief is that exploring God is better in community, and the churchs community has
expanded rapidly since the church began in 2005 with five people.
With most churches you have to believe and then you belong, but with us you
belong and then you can believe, said Matthew Young Resonates Transformational
Community Pastor.
To build community the church has primarily two efforts Thrive and villages.
Thrive is a four week program that introduces the church to incoming students each fall
with a magic show, concert, movie, and seminar about common college problems. Villages
are small group meeting where congregation members meet up on a weeknight, share a
meal, and discuss Sundays sermon.
Village is the heartbeat of Resonate because it creates an existential community,
said village leader Russell Walgamott.
Walgamott leads one of the 20 freshmen villages and has an internship handling
freshmen within the church. In addition, he attends one of the 55 Villages offered weekly.
Villages are categorized by Greek, freshmen, family, or regular and each typically sees 10-
12 group members weekly.
The churchs lead pastor Keith Wieser and his wife Paige Wieser moved from Texas
to Washington in 2005 to plant a church in the Northwest. The Wiesers were soon joined
by friends and fellow southern pastors, Josh Martin and Drew Worsham, and in 2006 held
their first service in a Pullman Starbucks. Within nine months, the congregation grew to 50
people.
Young attributes a large portion of the success of the church to having little
competition from other churches targeting college students and to the ambiance Resonate
tries to create.
On Sunday, we have a loud band and turn the lights down and the music up, said
Young. We do this on purpose. Its a place kids want to be.
Because of the nontraditional ambiance and massive congregation Resonate has its
skeptics.
Sijia Pang, 22, said her encounters with the church were like nothing she had ever
witnessed. Pang was raised in Singapore at a Christian high school where she grew up with
Muslims and visited a Buddhist temple.
At Resonate, everyone waves their hands in the air and throws back their head,
Pang said. Its all for show.
After feeling peer pressured into attending multiple church services and village
meetings by friends, Pang equates Resonate to a Sorority, and Thrive to a Sororitys Rush
ceremony.
Its creepishly happy, said Pang. It gives people a place to belong because people
feel lost in college.
Young accepts skeptics responses to the church, and its exceptionally large
following.
If they think it isnt traditional then good! said Young. Were not trying to just be
different, we want to be what nobody has experienced before.
Rachel Millet, a junior at the University of Idaho, said there are more problems to
Resonate than their ambiance. Millet grew up in the Catholic Church and was astounded at
the ease and volume of college students being baptized at the church.
You make a video of why you love God and why he is in your life. Thats it, said
Millet. The church is dumbed down to reach the masses.
In five years Resonate has celebrated over 200 baptisms. The church celebrated 45
baptisms in December and had an overflow of 20 that will be baptized in February.
We make it a big party, said Young. It is meant to be exciting and showy. It is a
celebration after all.
There is more to Resonate than dimly lit Sunday services and baptisms. Resonate is
active within the community and country doing projects and mission trips.
Rachel Walker, Resonates Transformational Community Catalyst, works with the
Syringa community a trailer park in borderline poverty on the outskirts of Moscow. In a
recent cold snap, Syringas pipes burst leaving them without clean water. Within five hours
Resonate gathered up water filters, heaters, and jackets and brought them to Syringa.
We want our Resonate community to be strong enough that when people need help
they can look to our church, said Walker. Come for food, warmth, or for help with your
bills.
In order to fund projects like this, rent for the churchs four locations, and Thrive,
Resonate relies on donations from its congregation, support raising, funding from the
North American Missions Board (NAMB) and the Northwest Baptist Convention (NWBC).
Resonate provides a budget to its congregation annually. The church collected
$70,561 between weekly Tithes and donations and the money was distributed to rent and
general supplies.
None of the money collected by the church is given to the pastors. Instead, between
the five pastors side jobs as photographers, magicians, and public speaking and support
raising (monthly donations for food and rent) they earned a cumulative $157,940 for 2013-
2014.
We have nothing to hide, said Chad McMillan the executive pastor.
Resonate meets in Pullman and Moscow, on and off campus, Sunday evenings and
supplemental sermons are available on Resonate Churchs app and website.




















Sources:

Matthew Young: 503-577-6599
Sijia Pang: 208-596-3606
Rachel Millet: 509-850-6102
Rachel Walker: 573-359-7275
Chad McMillan: 253-683-1721
Russel Walgamott: 208-874-7508