CORPUS CHRISTI native Leslie Cole is hoping to help Baptists get in on the ground level of a new 10,000-home subdivision in Redmond, Wash., home to thousands of Microsoft employees. The Fellowship of the Ridge is a church he's starting in the planned community of Redmond Ridge.

Texan opens new windows in Microsoft's home
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___REDMOND, Wash.--Corpus Christi native Leslie Cole is a missionary to Microsoft.
___He's not employed by the software giant, nor does he work on their sprawling campus north of Seattle in the once-obscure community of Redmond, Wash.
___Cole is a Baptist pastor leading an effort to start a church in a new 10,000-home subdivision to be populated largely by Microsoft employees and their families. The church, Fellowship of the Ridge, intends to serve the Redmond Ridge subdivision just now springing up on a hill overlooking the picturesque Green River Valley.
___To say this area is booming would be a vast understatement. Microsoft and all the smaller companies that feed into Microsoft are hiring employees as fast as they can find them. New homes are sprouting faster than the Washington apples grown nearby.
___Baptists have a unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the Redmond Ridge development, and Cole is determined to seize the opportunity.
___He is uniquely equipped for such a challenge, having previously started Riverwood Community Church in Corpus Christi, Northwest Park Church in San Antonio and a third church in North Dakota.
___Further, a passion for missions and church-starting was genetically embedded into the lifestyle of Cole and his wife, Tisa, at Annaville Baptist Church near Corpus Christi. Cole's first pastor there was JV Thomas, who later became a driving force behind church-starting efforts with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. His second pastor, and the one who baptized him, was Harvey Kneisel, later a foreign missionary and minister of missions at First Baptist Church of Houston.
___Cole is a graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He twice has worked with the BGCT to start churches in Texas.
___After returning to their hometown to start Riverwood Community Church, the Coles felt God was calling them to move back out of the Bible Belt. "We really wanted to go back on the edge," he explained.
___Currently, the Redmond Ridge congregation meets in a Sunday morning Bible study with about eight families. Their goal is to begin weekly church services in September.
___Between now and then, they are doing surveys, building databases of prospects and establishing relationships.
___One of the most important relationships is with the subdivision's homeowners' association, which for now is run by the developer. Cole recently was invited to attend a meeting with the first 25 families moving into the planned community. Among those 25 families he discovered seven nationalities.
___At Christmas, they went caroling and were well-received. So much so that the homeowners' association asked the church to plan an Easter activity as well.
___There's much work to be done between now and the formal launch of the congregation. And the Coles are eager for Texas Baptists to help.
___The Washington church already gets assistance from Parkway Baptist Church in Victoria, Puget Sound Baptist Association, Meadowbrook Community Church in Redmond and the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board.
___Through the Texas-Northwest partnership, Texas Baptist churches or individuals might consider helping in these ways:
___ Financial. Fellowship of the Ridge still needs partner churches to provide regular financial support until the congregation is established and self-supporting.
___ Getting on the inside. A unique concern of the Coles and other leaders of Puget Sound Baptist Association is to find a way for the Coles to move into the Redmond Ridge subdivision. They believe the outreach efforts will be far more successful if the pastor can minister from inside the community rather than from outside. However, basic three-bedroom homes in the development begin at $267,000--hardly affordable on a church starter's salary. The church is seeking partners to help make a down payment on a home for the pastor.
___ Volunteer labor. Cole also is seeking Texas churches, youth groups or families to assist this summer with sports camps, Vacation Bible Schools and other outdoor activities. There's also lots of surveying to be done.
___ Set-up costs. Before the church launches in September, it needs to purchase about $60,000 worth of audio and video equipment and other supplies to run a portable church out of a rented building.
___To partner with Fellowship of the Ridge, contact the Texas Partnerships Resource Center at (214) 828-5183 or contact Cole directly by calling (425) 376-0266.
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The Baptist Standard