24/Seven is a new church in the Washington Conference. After seven to eight months of planning, praying, networking and preparation, it held its first service on Oct. 18, 2004, with an attendance of 260. Since then, its attendance has averaged between 120 and 150. The church is led by two full-time pastors, Steve Leddy and Matthew Gamble.

How did you arrive at the name, 24/Seven Ministry Center?

The basic premise behind the name is simply that instead of being seventh-day Christians, we should be Christians 24/7. In talking with many church-goers, we found that all too often people would go to church on Saturday or Sunday and believe that in so doing they were Christian. 24/Seven Ministry Center is all about being a Christian in church and out of church.

Describe the basic philosophy of your ministry: How is it the same as other church-planting projects? How is it different?

The most important similarity between 24/Seven and other church plants is that we want to do something for God’s kingdom. By and large a lot of the church plants that we know about have been started to address a need in a community or even in an already existing congregation. They want to have a culturally relevant church that articulates our beliefs as Seventh-day Adventist in a way that is life-changing and practical. That is our goal, too.

What makes us different? To begin with, instead of starting another small church that would probably be roughly the same size 50 years from now, we designed our foundation for growth. In preparation for launching 24/Seven we met with over 200 people individually or in small groups to discuss the vision of 24/Seven. From those 200, we pastors hand-picked a core team of over 80 people. We knew this core team would establish the DNA of the church and thus determine its future. And we knew we needed a sizable core team in order to implement our dream of launching our public services with a large attendance.

Another thing that distinguishes us is our plan to develop a multicampus congregation. We did not want to create another geographically defined congregation like the Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church or Memphis First Church or Loma Linda University Church. We are seeking to create a regional church with many campuses. Our vision is to establish seven campuses over the next 10 years serving people all over western Washington. Presently we have attendees from Everett in the north to Port Townsend to the southwest, a distance of over 100 miles.

Also, we launched opening day with two services. Why? Because we are all about growth, growth, growth. We want all of the seats that are there to be filled quickly. We are encouraging our attendees to recognize the fact that we are not going to grow unless they step out and invite their friends and neighbors. Our goal is to be missional in all that we do. We have radically shaped our leadership structure to allow for ministry to flourish. When someone has an idea, the answer is yes!

How much time do you think you need to give your ideas and dreams a good trial? In other words, at what point do you think it would be appropriate for an outsider to come and look at what you are doing and make a creditable analysis of whether it is working or not?

I would say that someone could come now and look at what we have accomplished over the last 10 months and see that the ideas and goals for launching a church that will make a significant difference for eternity can happen! We launched a month ago with over 260 in attendance. It was amazing. So that would be one major milestone for us. Now we are onto the next major milestone, which includes growing the first campus to over 400 and then starting another campus. At that point, it would be great for someone to come and check us out to see how we are doing. But quite frankly all along the way I would highly recommend for anyone to come and make a creditable analysis. Presently we have over 80 names on our young adult list. This being a population that is often missed in the local Adventist church, we are thrilled at what is happening with that age group.

What do you see as your greatest challenge?

Administration. If we had more administrative gifts it would be great. We are so blessed to be in the most amazing conference in the planet. The conference has provided us with two full-time salaries from day one, but we wish we could hire an administrative pastor as well. We are making it, but long nights would be reduced with an administrator.

Tell us about the first few weeks. How many people came? What kind of people came? Any interesting conversations with people who came?

24/Seven: The first week we had over 260. In the weeks since then we have averaged 120 to 150. Of the first week’s attendance we estimate that roughly 100 were unchurched or non-Adventist.

One amazing story is of a woman who attended the grand opening. Steve talked to her as she was leaving and Matthew followed up with a phone call that following week. Come to find out, she was born and raised in the Church of England. She said it was so strict that as she got older she wanted nothing to do with it. When she got our flyer in the mail, it made 24/Seven look fun and exciting. The day she walked into 24/Seven was

the first time that she had been back to church in over 26 years! Matthew asked her if she had any questions for us. She was curious about what type of Bible to buy as she did not have one. Matthew told her that not only would he recommend a translation, he would bring it to her the following Sabbath. What a pleasure it was to provide this woman a positive experience with God at Church and in his word!