Salt House ' s building was a gift from a dying congregation . John Lok
Salt House strives to be welcoming ; this message greets people entering the front door . John Lok
Salt House strives for multigenerational worship , a mix of young and old , where everyone is welcome . John Lok
away , Holy Spirit Lutheran , a congregation with a traditional worship but a liberal theological bent , was thriving . One day its pastor , the Rev . Mike Anderson , got a phone call from the leadership at Trinity . “ They wanted to yoke with us ,” he said ; however , “ instead of trying to keep a dying congregation going , we decided it might be better to let the congregation die and resurrect a new one .”
Trinity wanted to have some say in what happened to its assets , which consisted of the church , parsonage and surrounding open space , and $ 100,000 in the bank . Specifically , they wanted the building to house a worshiping community with a social justice outreach . Could Holy Spirit help ? The Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was enthusiastic about Holy Spirit Lutheran taking on the task of founding a new church . “ We swallowed hard and said yes ,” Anderson said . “ Now we had a $ 5- $ 6 million property we had to figure out what to do with .”
It took about eight months for members of Holy Spirit Lutheran to decide what sort of new congregation should be birthed . More than 250 ideas were floated . One was for a preschool ; another for a facility for people with disabilities . But the vision that won out was from a “ new worship experiences ” group that envisioned a place with contemporary worship to attract young adults . “ Nearly everyone at the table had a young person who didn ’ t feel at home in a church ,” said Kim Saunders , who became a founding member of Salt House . “ The conversations we had were around , ‘ What transformations does the church need to make it relevant to the future ?’ We wanted to try something new .”
Founding Salt House
Holy Spirit voted to make that vision a reality in June 2014 . The original dream was to attract disenchanted 20-somethings and youth , given that the property was across the street from Lake Washington High School . They also came up with a church name : Salt House , after how Jesus told his followers to be like salt in a world starving for the flavors of heaven .
The leadership at Holy Spirit knew that Salt House might require an extensive incubation time , so they formed a committee to oversee the mission church . The committee then hired a 30-something senior pastor , the Rev . Sara Wolbrecht , who was originally from the area . She began hosting dinner gatherings for young adults , which eventually morphed into its first Sunday service on March 29 , 2015 .
For the next three years , until Salt House attained parish status , Holy Spirit helped subsidize not only Wolbrecht ’ s salary but also administrative costs . Holy Spirit ’ s support — together with the assets transferred from the now-defunct Trinity church — proved essential in helping Salt House attain parish status in the relatively quick time of three years , said Deacon Dianne Johnson , the director for evangelical mission for the Northwest Washington Synod . “ Sara is a great pastor ,” she said , “ but it was also a confluence of good events for that property .”
Inside , the west wall was set up to look like a forest . Throw pillows were scattered on a loose arrangement of pews and chairs . Garage doors with glass panels were installed on its east side , leading to a patio where people could isolate during the pandemic , sit outside with their dogs , or soak up Seattle ’ s rare days of sunshine .
The mission evolves
The church wasn ’ t even a year old when it was approached by two Catholic parishes — Saint Louise in nearby Bellevue and Holy Family in Kirkland . Word had gotten out that Salt House ’ s building had an unfinished basement . The Catholic groups had been looking for space to fund a day center for homeless families that
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