Wellspring Fellowship Welcomed to Share Space with Lakebay Community Church

Wellspring Fellowship held its first worship service July 8 at its new temporary location in Lakebay until its own church is constructed on land purchased in 2018.

Thanks to the open arms of Lakebay Community Church, Wellspring Fellowship is now able to offer its congregation worship services and bible study much closer to where they live.

“This was the first place we asked and Dan Whitmarsh said yes,” said Pastor Chris Henderson of Wellspring Fellowship.

Like Whitmarsh, Henderson has been part of the Key Peninsula Ministerial Association with other pastors for a long time. He said there is a strongly held belief that there is one church. 

“We meet in different buildings and sometimes we emphasize different things, but there is just one church,” Henderson said.

Sharing space is possible, at least in part, because Wellspring Fellowship is a local nondenominational Sabbath church, with an emphasis on the biblical sabbath that meets between 3:30 and 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

“We believe in sleeping in,” Henderson said. “It’s a day of rest. Nobody wants to get their kids up and get them ready.”

Henderson has been leading Wellspring Fellowship for the last 23 years. The church started out in Tacoma but began its westward march across the Narrows where most of its members lived. They met at the old Paradise Theater and at Harbor Life Church in Gig Harbor for the last 13 years.

He admits it’s a challenge for a church to move around but nearly all their growth in the last 13 years has come from people who live on the KP. Plans are underway for a permanent location in the Greentree neighborhood at 9601 137th St. NW near Lake Kathryn Village.

“We hope within the next two years to finally be out there. For now, we rent.”

The congregation is between 50 and 70, depending on whether it’s potluck, Henderson said. The Saturday service is their main thing with a contemporary worship team.

“God said, take a day off,” he said. “Our lives are too busy, way too crazy. People need to stop and spend some time with family and God. That’s our approach. Dan and the church here have been so wonderful to work with. They just want to see their building used. That’s the right heart and we can partner together.”