Overlake Christian Church - Redmond, WA - Megachurches on Waymarking.com

From the Wikipedia entry:

Overlake Christian Church began in Kirkland, Washington, in 1969 with a handful of former attendees of Bellevue Christian Church. James Earl Ladd, then president of Puget Sound College of the Bible in the nearby city of Mountlake Terrace, agreed to serve as a temporary, part-time pastor/preacher until a replacement could be found. A pastor from Enid, Oklahoma, Bob Moorehead, was invited and became Overlake's Senior Pastor in January 1970. During the nearly thirty years of Moorehead's tenure, weekly attendance at the Kirkland church campus grew from less than a hundred to more than 6,000. He resigned in 1998 amid allegations of sexual impropriety, mostly related to the 1970s, that he had touched or fondled male members of the congregation. The elders of the church exonerated Moorehead in the results of their initial investigation, but a year after he resigned they withdrew their support, saying they had discovered new evidence that showed he "did violate the scriptural standards of trust, self-control, purity and godly character required for the office of elder and pastor." As a conservative Christian, condemnation of homosexuality had been a major theme of his preaching.

In 1997, the church moved to a new 250,000 square foot building on 27 acres, along Willows Road NE in Redmond, Washington. After Moorehead's departure in June 1998, the senior pastor's role was filled by Rick Kingham, a former Vice President of Promise Keepers, who led the congregation until February 2007, and Mike Howerton, who was the church's lead pastor from that year until March 2020. Neely McQueen and Patrick Swanson became the church's first lead pastors under a co-lead tandem in November 2020, the former becoming the first female to serve as a lead pastor in Overlake.

In addition to the Bob Moorehead scandal, the church was again under public investigation in 2007, when $175,000 taken up as an offering from church members and visitors for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was instead used to pay church expenses, including salaries for pastors. Bob Senatore, then chairman of the board of elders, shamelessly stated that the church has borrowed from restricted funds before, and that there was nothing wrong with that. A Seattle accountant threatened to turn the matter over to the Attorney General.

Overlake Christian Church has founded eight other churches in the area, the largest having more than 3,800 Sunday attendees.

Denomination: Non-denominational Senior Pastor: Neely McQueen and Patrick Swanson Average Weekly Attendance: 3000 Service Times: 10 a.m. Sunday Online at https://www.occ.org/live/ Web Site: [Web Link] Phone Number: 425-702-0303 Address: 9900 Willows Road NE Redmond, WA US 98052

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