Annual Meeting Documents

Groups | Austin Bailey

2025 Lookback

General

Our groups pathway rollout and our messaging of the importance of groups is a work in progress. We are still convicted that, as groups gain traction, so will the formation of disciples at Pine Lake. In our 5-year vision of developing a discipleship culture, groups is the way in which we will accomplish this cultural shift.

Structure

We need to continue to be better about clarifying the three pathways of discipleship in groups and why they are important. Our groups discipleship pathway is:

Social Groups:

• Participate in what you love or learn a new skill!
• On and off campus, often with community members
• Eg: pick-up basketball, crocheting/knitting, hiking, and more

Growth Groups:

• Form periodically throughout the year and consist of 6-12 people
• Meet for a limited season—perhaps on specific topic or study
• Share life via meals, conversation, short studies and prayer

Life Groups:

• Long-term groups that meet September–May
• Studying and learning in-depth & growing closer to one another
• May follow prepared Bible study or discuss current sermon series

Practicing the Way

Last year we launched our Practicing the Way course, which is an 8 week spiritual formation primer for discipleship. We had 28 people go through the course and had an overwhelmingly positive experience and response from the course. We will continue to offer this course two times a year. Our 5 year vision includes 90% of Pine Lakers going through the course either in the standalone class or through their life group.

Survey

In August we invited the church to participate in a groups survey. We had 86 responses and learned a lot about how the congregation does or does not interact with groups. Based on survey results we received, we are making adjustments to how we communicate and help our people get integrated into groups.

2026 Outlook

Life Groups

Over the next 12 months we are prioritizing our life groups. We want to give our congregation the opportunity to grow as disciples through life groups. It is critical to how we find and follow Jesus, together. Our hope is to launch at least 2 new life groups in the fall and hopefully more in the new year.

Leadership Training

One of the results of the survey was the willingness for people at Pine Lake to be willing to lead, but needing training in order to fill capable and confident in leading. It is not small task to lead a life group and not having the training can be a barrier to new life groups launching. Be on the look out for our life group leader training coming in the fall.

Life Transformation Groups

In 2025-26 we will be piloting a new discipleship pathway called Life Transformation Groups. LTGs are imperative to creating a discipleship culture in our church. LTGs focus in on multiplying discipleship. What are LTGs? Here is a little more about them:

• 2-3 people who meet weekly to encourage and help each other grow closer to God.
• Gatherings last 60-75 minutes to read and reflect on the Bible.
• Groups begin with an 8-week commitment then continue for 8 more weeks as desired.

Purpose is multiplication. As you are discipled, you disciple others in the LTG way.

Mission & Outreach | Kyle Harmon

2025 Lookback

We have had a productive year serving both local and global missions. Our team has been busy working hard to keep mission, outreach, and serving integral to our congregation as we find and follow Jesus together. Kyle Harmon is the staff leader and members of the team are: Kathy Aye, Jenna Crane, Tiffanie Dieffenbach, Josh Lawrence, Tim Sneath & Beth Weaver. Both Josh and Tim served as our Leadership Team liaisons. The team focused on clarifying partnerships through memorandums of understanding, communicating our church’s missional focus in worship, and exploring new partnerships as God continues to grow our community and its connections.

There are two Global Mission Partnerships directly supported by PLCC.

• Christopher Sure: Kodera, Kenya. Our Christmas Eve Offering in 2024 went towards the work Christopher is leading at Pine Lake Academy. We communicated with Christopher through WhatsApp over the past year and continue to partner together to help PLA launch into a season of self-sustainability over the next 4 years.
• Adi & Lavi Dreanna: Oradea, Romania. In 2024 and Summer 2025, Adi and Lavi Dreanna came to visit PLCC. Adi spoke at church about the work they have been doing in Oradea especially with helping war refugees from Ukraine. Their greenhouse efforts continue to be successful and are helping with food stability during the continued war in Ukraine.
• Chase and Meg Harmon: Munich, Germany. Chase and Meg ended their ministry in Germany and moved back to the United States. We have ended our partnership with them as they move on to new ventures in Washington state.

Our tithe to the Covenant also supports the following Evangelical Covenant Church Global Personnel:

• Kristi Johnson: Thailand
• ECC Mission Partners: Israel-Palestine
• Melinda Anderson: Guatemala (new partner)
• The Paul Family: Haiti (new partners)

We had two global partners retire or move on to new ventures this year:

• Erika Clauson: Mexico
• Letha Kerl: Europe

We also offered an international mission trip in in the Summer of 2025 in partnership with Children of the Nations. PLCC sent an intergenerational 19-person team to the Dominican Republic for a ten-day trip, and it was a huge success. The team shared their excitement and the life-changing impact of the trip with the church.

Locally PLCC has participated in the following outreach initiatives:

• Fall Festival: We offered an opportunity for families to put together oral hygiene kits for people experiencing homelessness with the Issaquah Food Bank.
• Meal Packaging Event: In December members of the church and community came together in the gym to package 30,000+ meals for Children of the Nations (COTN) to engage in supporting food instability in Sierra Leone.
• Giving Tree: This year over 100 items were donated to Bright Bridge Foundation to support students in the Issaquah School District. Items were also collected to support Echo Glen.
• Echo Glen Valentines: Over 400 Valentines were made by PLCC attendees and delivered to incarcerated teens living at Echo Glen.
• Issaquah Food Bank “Green Bag Project”: PLCC partnered with IFB in the neighborhood food collection project. The program has been successful as we deliver an average of over 30 bags to the food bank every other month.
• Capernaum Talent Show: Capernaum Young Life participants performed for an audience of over 100 people. PLCC provided setup, A/V, refreshments and audience participation.
• Global 6K for Water, Team World Vision: This year we partnered with Creekside Covenant church in Redmond again to raise funds for clean water in the DR Congo.

2026 Outlook

As we look forward to the upcoming year, we want to continue to find new ways to bless our local community. We have spent time over the last year connecting with local organizations and look forward to new opportunities. We will continue to support the local events and global partnerships we have had over the past year. This past year we had a monthly missional highlight during the Sunday service. This is where we plan to continue highlighting both our global and local partners as well as serving opportunities. Our team started the process of entering into Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with our global partners and plan to continue that process into 2026. We are also launching the new Mission Wall outside of the sanctuary to highlight our partnerships both locally and around the globe. We want to continue partnering with all ages at PLCC to offer opportunities to be On Mission Together.

Congregational Care | Kristin Wisegarver

Compassion. Community Outreach. Care Coordination – Grounded in Prayer

What if as a church we cared in abundance?  “Full of Care” rather than “Careful.”

How has the Pine Lake Care team leaned into the idea of abundant care? We are showing the love of Jesus, as the behind-the-scenes folks that support our church family and our larger community by meeting needs for care.

Stephen Ministry

Providing Confidential 1:1 lay caring relationships,  our Stephen Ministers  walk alongside someone going through  life challenges – whether it is a health challenge, searching for a new job, or processing the grief of the “heavy stuff that life throws at us” This the team of Stephen ministers and Stephen Leaders, including our Care Team’s Betsy Hall,  provided  compassionate care for approximately 14 church and community members.  In addition, the team provided training on how to navigate anxiety.

Meal of Care

Sometimes life serves up challenges overwhelm us with worry and workloads.  Our Meals of Care team, led by Mary Jo Eck delivered hot meals directly to the doors of those who needed them.  When our community needed a flexible option, the team delivered homemade freezer meals. Over the course of the last year the Meals of Care Team has provided over 36 hot meals and approximately 30 freezer meals.

Memorials and Celebrations of Life

Our PLCC church family has had losses in the past year.  It is important for our community to be able to pause and remember our loved ones.  Our memorial team, led by Leslie Ault and her team of volunteers has conducted several celebrations of life/memorials in the past year. They showered our families with compassion by helping facilitate the service as well as the social time afterwards.  Leslie also provided valued consultation for several celebrations of life that were held out of state.

Community Care Outreach

When the community comes to us, our Community Care Lead, Christine Strohm, becomes the compassionate listening ear of Jesus. She prays with those with needs and actively listens to discern how to best connect them with resources in our community. These community members faced housing insecurity, lack of transportation, food insecurity as well as other care needs. Each person seeking help was treated with dignity as we partnered with them to “hold hope in Christ” with the right resources in our community as well as providing timely financial assistance as appropriate.

Encouragement. Card of Care and Visitation

Our Cards of Care Team led by Barb Clayton, faithfully writes cards to PLCC church family members with prayer requests and those who can’t connect with us in person due to illness, age, or other barriers.  The team has written over 230 cards over the past 12 months.  Together with Visitation by Care Team members, we have worked to brighten the days of those recovering from illness or are homebound, whether through a visit and chat or a small encouragement.  Prayer Requests have been facilitated by Sharon Jones and our His Hands Group has provided hand-knit or crocheted prayer shawls and afgans to celebrate completion of confirmation or comfort someone facing a challenge.

Community Care In-reach

Gary Brock and his team of handy helpers have bridged a gap for our Pine Lake church family who have needed help at home—whether expertise about car maintenance or home repair.   In addition, this team led the effort to check in on our senior church family members during challenging weather events such as the bomb cyclone.

So how can you lean in to caring in abundance?

Consider showing how you can be full of care rather than careful.  Watch for opportunities to serve with the Care Team.  — “Volun-taste” one of our care opportunities.

Our “Care-tasting” will include learning about caring, and small ways to share in one-time care opportunities.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” PSALM 34

With Hope in Christ,
Kristin Wisegarver, for the Care Team

Children & Families Ministry | Becca Worl

A Year of Growth and Grace

This past year has been one of beautiful growth for Pine Lake Kids. Each Sunday, between 13-20 children fill our Little’s Lounge, Preschool, and K–5 spaces with laughter, questions, and a genuine hunger to know Jesus. Praise God also, five children were baptized this year! A strong team of dedicated volunteers (too many to mention!) has risen beautifully to meet this growth, serving week by week with love and intentionality.  Arising from this growth, a team of four leaders has stepped forward to share in guiding Pine Lake Kids – Jennifer Tolo, Bridget Sieh, and Kim Witherbee.  Together they are helping to cast vision, shape mission, brainstorm ways to resource parents and plan events—while most importantly, covering our students, parents, and teachers in prayer by name.  THANK YOU to our team of roughly 20 volunteers that provide this crucial ministry to our PLCC families.

Teaching and Discipleship

On Sundays, we continue to ground our teaching on in The Jesus Storybook Bible, for Preschool-5th grade, which has drawn kids (and leaders!) more deeply into God’s big story of redemption. “Discipleship Sunday” has also continued to be a big hit. On these special Sundays, children remain in the worship service and are invited into a more dialogue-oriented experience—learning alongside their families and other adults, engaging in the teaching, and participating fully in the life of the congregation. Club 45, led by Katherine and Brent Kendall is a youth group for 4th and 5th graders offered on Tuesday Together evenings. This year our students took a deep dive into the “Apostles Creed,” learning and growing in community, and exploring who God is and what He has done for us through Christ.

Family Events

Our family-oriented events were a tremendous success this year! Sports Camp welcomed 75 kids and 25 leaders, with 22 making first-time commitments to follow Jesus. Community spaces came alive during Fall Fest, Christmas celebrations, the Egg Hunt, Monday Playgroup, Mother’s Day Tea, and other family gatherings—drawing not only Pine Lake Kids but also many Sammamish families. These moments of joy and connection were made possible through the faithful leadership of Kim Witherbee and the tireless efforts of incredible volunteer teams!

Creating Spaces

Another exciting milestone this year is the renovation of our K–5 room into a creative, inspiring environment for worship, storytelling, and exploration. God provided the resources for this project, the vision (Lin Garretson!) and the gifts of many talented volunteers (thank you, Rob Worl, Faith Bridges, Marcelle Vaughn, Doug Crow).

Looking ahead

Kim Witherbee is/will be providing more oversight, direction and leadership to PLK ministries, and we are a great team! I am grateful for her knowledgeable breadth, pastoral heart and willing spirit. She will be leading a lot of our Pine Lake Kids events we hope to implement.

All of this serves one purpose: planting seeds of faith so our children can grow deeply rooted in Christ’s love. Thank you, God, for all that you are doing in loving and drawing each young person and their families here at Pine Lake, closer to your heart.

Youth Ministry | Becca Worl

Transformation and Engagement

God has been moving in extraordinary ways through Pine Lake Youth this year—bringing three students to baptism, sparking new decisions to follow Christ, and drawing even more young people into the life of our community. Since August, our Tuesday gatherings have consistently drawn between 25–38 students, while Sunday mornings average 10–18. In total, 54 middle and high school students (grades 6–12) are actively participating in the vibrant life of Pine Lake Covenant Church.

Student Leadership in the Church

Beyond numbers, we’ve witnessed fresh energy, new friendships, and a growing desire among our students to be deeply engaged, and active in leadership roles—not just in youth group—but also in the life of Pine Lake Church. Students are now serving regularly in worship, AV, communion, children’s ministry, and even on the espresso team! Our entire staff, and especially Pastor Austin is to also thank for this, who cast the vision and lead the way for PLCC to be truly multigenerational.

A special thanks goes to Pastor Kyle, who has played a key role in inviting and training kids into service in worship and AV. Together we led Good Vibes, our Tuesday night worship band, where he mentored students and equipped them to the point of leading on their own. His investment has been vital in helping students step confidently into ministry leadership.

Events and Discipleship Movement

This year, every event—from invite nights and holiday gatherings, to retreats and service projects—was alive with so much energy! But what excites us most is not just the turnout, it’s the transformation. Students are stepping into a deeper relationship with God and boldly inviting their friends—disciples are making disciples! We believe this is just the beginning of a multiplying movement God is raising up among Pine Lake Youth—especially as we team up with Teddy Gainer and CTB basketball for further connection and community intersections.

Gibson Ek Bible Study

Pine Lake Youth is home to 9 students from Gibson Ek, whose unique Wednesday schedule opened the door for a weekly Bible study. For 33 weeks, we gathered on Wednesday afternoons for a deep dive into the Gospel of Luke. These students not only loved to study Scripture, but they became teachers of the Word to one another, growing in their own faith and stepping into the call to disciple others – (in other words – this was REALLY COOL)

Discipleship & Confirmation (DC Groups)

On Sundays this year, 19 students participated in our DC Groups (Discipleship/Confirmation). Designed as a three-tiered program, DC Groups created space for every student to engage—whether as a participant, a mentor, or a confirmation student. Older students who had previously completed confirmation walked alongside younger ones as mentors—dedicating to encouraging them in their reading (which was a lot!) and prayer. We loved Larry Larsen’s partnership, and the added voices of guest speakers: Ralph Aye, and Gary Brock). The journey culminated in a powerful retreat for our confirmands and an inspiring Sunday morning where students presented “The Story” of God to our congregation.

Summer Mission and Transformation

This Summer was marked by powerful opportunities for transformation! Eight middle schoolers, and three student leaders served at Campbell Farms on the Yakama Reservation, stepping into hands-on mission and learning. Meanwhile, eight students invested months of preparation—through training, fundraising, and prayer—to join our multigenerational mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Their dedication and the fruit of these experiences testify to God’s work in raising up a generation passionate about seeing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth! (See Missions and Outreach report for full details.) Other summer discipleship opportunities included another round of Rhythms (a challenging discipleship-spiritual-practice journey) and Bible studies, and plenty of invite-events.

Leadership Team and Support

Our leadership team has also grown in strength, with nine faithful volunteers serving side by side: Darren, Faith, Melissa, Teddy, Rob, Amy, Alex, Sara, and Isabelle Lor. Teamwork makes dreamwork! I am also deeply grateful to so many who have generously said “yes” to helping with Tuesday night dinners—these teenagers are hungry! 😊

Looking Ahead

This will be a year of transition as we send off a large group of seniors while welcoming a new wave of incoming students. We’re prayerfully exploring a multigenerational mission trip with the PacNWC and Covenant Merge Ministries for summer 2026. We will continue to prioritize retreats and camps and resourcing our parents and leaders with learning and training opportunities.

As we step into 2025-2026, we do so with gratitude for what God has done and anticipation for what He will continue to do through Pine Lake Youth! Let’s goooooo!!!

 – Pastor Becca Worl

Worship Arts / A/V / Hospitality / Tech | Kyle Harmon

2025 Lookback

This past year, Worship at Pine Lake Covenant was characterized by engaging deeper with the Holy Spirit, Discipleship Sundays, expanding our worship ministries, building community, finding new worshipers to join our team in leading the congregation, building up new worship leaders, and youth engagement in worship.

• Continued Worship Community Nights, team building events, and festival worship experiences.
• Discipleship Sundays implemented new worship liturgies and elements to help guide our community in discipleship through worship.
• First ever Worship Through Music Sunday in Advent with a full music service, strings, horns, and festival worship.
• Migrated to new rehearsal software and continued saving over 1000 team hours without weekly rehearsal all while improving musical quality.
• 7 new volunteers in worship, 5 new volunteers in AV, 6 new volunteers in hospitality, and new hospitality team leaders.
• Tech Team continued implementing new database management systems campus-wide (planning center), as well as many important projects for security and optimization.
• 3 more worship leaders for Sunday mornings – trained on worship leading, speaking, using software and planning.

Again, significant attention was also allocated to building the youth worship experience with Pine Lake Youth. As we believe, the children and youth of Pine Lake Covenant are not just the “Next Generation.” They are the church now, and our services, volunteers, and programs on Sundays should reflect that reality. This has had an impact by connecting relationships and experiences on Tuesday to what we do on Sunday mornings. The intention behind this is to integrate Pine Lake Youth into Sunday mornings by bGooduilding bridges musically, spiritually and relationally. 

• New youth musicians at “Good Vibes”
• Lushi Hoopman – worship intern for ‘25-26
• First combined church worship nights with Covenant churches
• Greater engagement in worship and singing from youth
• 5 members of Sunday worship team from PLY
• 2 members of A/V team from PLY

2026 Outlook

Looking forward to 2026, we want to continue building on the success of pouring into the team and the ministry. Discipleship will be the focus of our worship community nights, inviting volunteers to actively disciple and pour into one another’s worshiping experiences. Musical quality will be elevated through the purchase of a new keyboard. Worship through Music will again be celebrated this Advent with strings, horns and festival worship. The expansion of the creative arts team in worship is going to be explored this year. A worship internship has been planned with Lushi Hoopman for the year to lead in PLY. 

In Hospitality, advances will be made in training the church on our new hospitality process. There will be a clear standard operating procedure that the church will own collectively. This will be trained and led by the hospitality team.

For 2025, the budget was largely rebuilt and planned in 2023, so there are not significant changes. This also includes added subscriptions from all church, which were managed well within the worship budget. The vision for these changes includes:

• Expanding the Christmas and Easter festival worship programs.
• Expanding the intern program in future years.
• Making a few key A/V purchases for the Sanctuary (this is included in the 3-year plan).
• Livestream equipment decreasing as setup is working well, and we do not wish to expand the ministry. We want to encourage people to join us in person, and our online experience is sufficient for people who need another option.
• More budgeting allocated to youth equipment for worship as the youth worship expands. This may include a small lighting project, and other equipment purchases to grow with the growing needs of PLY.
• Creative Arts and Visiting Speaker budgets have been increased to account for the change in the preaching team and to encourage more creative arts in our worship this year.
• Expanded Hospitality ministry including more hospitality volunteers, positions, and vision for creating a culture of hospitality.

This budget reflects stewardship of the resources God has allocated to worship and a narrowing vision for where God is calling our worshiping community to find and follow Jesus together.

2025-2026 Facilities Highlights

Looking Back

We continue to maintain and keep our campus beautiful with help from our amazing volunteers as well as hiring out. We had some major projects that needed to be taken care of over the last year. A few of the major projects were:

• New Furnace
  • Along with regular HVAC maintenance, we replaced an entire furnace unit in building B that had finally died.
• Tree Removal
  • We also cleared out a few trees that needed to be removed. Because of the bomb cyclone, we also had several trees and debris fall down that were cut and removed.
• Conference Room Repairs
  • During one of the October rainstorms, we had a massive leak spill through the window of the conference room (lower level of building A) causing damage to the walls and carpet. The room has now been cleaned up and transitioned into a Prayer Room and the cause of the leak has been dealt with.
• Installing a security camera outside the gym.

Looking Forward

In June, we created a new Facilities Team made up of 8 volunteers to help maintain and oversee facility and property related projects. The team meets 1-2 times a month and discusses finished and current projects as well as prioritizing upcoming projects. They are also working on a five-year plan for updates around the property (i.e. new roof, painting the exterior, etc.). Within the team, they have broken the property into three areas (Building A, Building B, Exterior and). Each area is overseen by two members from the team with Kim Witherbee and Kyle Harmon as the staff liaison. We also have two members that research quotes and are in the process putting together a plan (2-year plan, 5-year, 10-year).

Some projects we are planning/hoping to do this year:

• Redo the stairs on the back side of the gym.
• Update keypads throughout the campus for better security and safety.
• Install security cameras in the parking lot.
• Repaint fire lanes.

The members of the team are:

• Gary Brock (Chair and Building B)
• Glen Guse (Building B)
• John Hall (Building A)
• Doug Strohm (Building A)
• Kent Kiernan (Exterior)
• Kelsey Pedersen (Exterior)
• Matt Crane (Quotes and planning)
• Dennis Mori (Quotes and planning)

Thank you, church, for all your help in caring and creating a campus that is inviting to our community. If you have any questions or concerns related to the PLCC property, please email facilitiesteam@plcc.org.

2025 Communications Highlights

In all ministry areas, we embrace our value of finding and following Jesus together. In pursuit of that value, PLCC utilizes social media and video channels (primarily Facebook, Instagram and YouTube) to not only keep our church community connected and informed, but most importantly to share the gospel and the love of Jesus both locally and globally. Whether through regular financial contributions to PLCC, or through your viewing, sharing, and reacting to our posts, your stewardship and engagement on these platforms is vital to our mission. We thank you for your support of PLCC’s digital ministries!

Here is a brief summary—by way of data—of our social media impact over the last year:

• Reach: 18,300 accounts (Facebook/Instagram)
• Content Interactions: 2,462 (Facebook/Instagram)
• Viewing Hours: 1,200 (Facebook/YouTube)
• New Followers/Subscribers: 109 (Facebook/Instagram/YouTube)

Special thanks to Izzy Jones, who this year helped collect photo/video content and manage our social media ministry; and to Joanna Harmon, for her additional help capturing photos. In June, Ashley Bailey joined our team, helping to oversee PLCC’s social media channels.

2026 Communications Outlook

We’ve made incredible progress in live-streaming and video/social media ministries over the past couple years, but these critical areas are still carried by a small number of individuals. We would love to welcome more people into the ministry of sharing our worship services through live-stream camera operation and video/slide projection, and also the ministry of capturing and sharing the essence of our PLCC community through photos and videos. If you’d like to know more about serving in these areas, please contact our Communications Coordinator, Scott Jones. All experience levels are welcome!

Josh Lawrence / 2-Year Term

Tim Sneath / 2-Year Term

Alex Robichaux / 2-Year Term

Trish Brock / 2-Year Term

Chris Nemeth / 1-Year Term

Louise Sneath / 1-Year Term

Christine Strohm / 2-Year Term

Ross Morley / 2-Year Term