Just shy of its 25th anniversary, Mountain Vineyard Christian Fellowship is ready to build its permanent church home.

Members of the church staff, board, the congregation and the community showed up on Aug. 29 to celebrate the groundbreaking.

It was a significant moment for the church, explained Pastor Roy Conwell, who helped found the church in 1985.

“We’ve been a church for a long time without a building,” Conwell said. “In fact, we’ve outlasted all the statistics for churches without a building.”

So, what’s taken so long?

“I’ve been thinking a lot about why it’s taken us so long,” Conwell said. “Part of the issue is developing what you would call a raw piece of land… where there’s no utilities. We had changing personalities and changing regulations from month to month, it seemed.”

The church started out with 35 members and over the years has met a number of places, initially at First Presbyterian in Kent, later a storefront in the Kent Hill Plaza shopping center on 104th Avenue Southeast and Kent Kangley Road, then at Horizon Elementary and since 1999 at Cedar Heights Middle School in Covington.

Karen Evans, a member of the church’s board of directors and part time staffer, explained that in the early 1990s they bought a piece of property near Elk Run Golf Course in Maple Valley.

“We were going to try and build, but, didn’t have enough money,” Evans said. “Then this property became available in 1995. I remember driving by and there was a sign that said, ‘Perfect for a church or community center,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, Lord, this would be perfect for our church.’”

But, Evans wondered, who would buy the first piece of property that the church purchased for the price they paid.

Seemingly out of the blue, they received an offer on the parcel in Maple Valley for twice what they paid for it, and in 1996 the church bought the land it owns now on Kent Kangley Road. It is near 192nd Avenue Southeast in what is a pocket of unincorporated King County between Maple Valley and downtown Covington.

At the time, Conwell explained, it was owned by a man who was planning to develop it by building homes on it. But, he felt called to sell the property to Mountain Vineyard, and sold it to the church.

There was a separate one acre piece next to the original eight or so acres Mountain Vineyard bought in 1996 near Kent Kangley that had a house on it.

Eventually the church bought that and it has been used for Mountain Vineyards offices.

By 2000, the church paid off the property and owns the entire 10 acres free and clear, and has intended to build a church home on it ever since. During the past decade Mountain Vineyard has spent close to $500,000 on work by architects, civil engineers, conditional use permits applications and fees, planning for utilities such as water and septic and more.

“Ten years ago we actually went in and started paying some serious cash to build,” Conwell said. “We saved for 20 years. We’ve spent some serious money to get where we’re at. We paid an engineer $1,700 a month for several years to get our use permit through the county plus fees to the county.”

For five years after paying off the property, the church developed a master plan for it then began seeking permits, getting a condition use permit in 2006 while they began the design and engineering for phase one, which is a 10,175 square foot worship center that will initially be home to a chapel and classrooms. Eventually it will be the youth and children’s ministry building.

Conwell describes himself as the “adventurer pioneer kind of guy and that’s fine for starting a church” but at 59 he knows Mountain Vineyard has to look to the future.

“The building is important so that we can give it to the next generation,” he said. “We want it to be a firmer foundation. We are building a building as an act of service to the next generation and to the community.”

Nally Boyle, kids outreach coordinator for Mountain Vineyard, explained that having a home will allow the church to better serve the community.

“I would like to see the church turn into a place the community can come to Monday through Saturday. It’s not just for Sunday morning,” Boyle said. “Even though we don’t have a building, that hasn’t stopped us from working with the community.”

But having a building would allow the church to provide even more for programs it offers to students at Cedar Valley Elementary School such as one-on-one tutoring, the week long kids camp and kindergarten camp offered in the summer.

“Once we have a building, one of the bonuses will be we’ll get to have a tutoring room where it will just be for tutoring,” Boyle said.

Right now, Evans said, they have a single room worship building that is a multi-use facility next to the church offices. Whenever any group uses the room, they have to go in, set up, then when done with it take everything down and pack out all of the supplies they had to bring in.

Michelle Evans, no relation to Karen Evans, serves as the youth director at Mountain Vineyard.

She is looking forward to what the new building will do in empowering young people in the church.

“It gives them a home,” Michelle Evans said. “They’re excited to have somewhere to invite their friends. I have this dream of having a coffee house on the property.”

She envisions computers, comfortable places to sit, and tutors available to help with school work and church staff or volunteers to talk with them about the Gospel and faith if they’re interested.

This new building can be “somewhere, when we go out to schools and the streets, for them to come back to… full of people, full of kids and their families,” Michelle Evans said.

For Tami Sleeman, office coordinator, there is potential for more events to be hosted by Mountain Vineyard in the future such as regional conferences or retreats and there are parties from across the country interested in the possibilities.

Another important thing it can become, Sleeman said, is a gathering point.

“The community center aspect of it is really, really big,” she said. “It’s very near and dear to my heart to serve the community. We’re one of the few King County sites, in the event of a disaster, that they can bring a large truck with a large amount of food. Most churches in the area don’t have the area they require. We actually will … in that regard there’s a lot of potential.”

One thing Conwell said he does not want the building to become is a place “that Christians can go and hide from the world.”

“We want to build it so it can be a place of service,” he said.

The church needs to raise more money to pay for the project and is looking to its members to help cover the cost of nearly $2 million.

Conwell said they will have to try a creative approach to financing construction because the banks where they have saved their money can’t extend them a loan in the current economy.

Now that they have a conditional use permit, there will be work on site permits for putting in infrastructure, and Conwell said, “we’re going to spend more money underground than on the building.”

They will also need to get a building permit and finally line up financing which, Conwell added, is going to take a little time.

Still, the plan is to get the building up and running by next summer.

There is a great deal of excitement surrounding the start of construction which is looming now and where it will lead to the end product.

“We’re going to have a wonderful facility,” Conwell said. “It’s going to have lots of potential.”