Bethesda church awash in gratitude on Easter anniversary

On the front of Town Plaza remains a faded outline of what used to be in this building: Columbia River Community Services. Or, as many people called it, the welfare office.

Following the housing market crash, Ben Straup sat in the office’s lobby with his wife Tisha Straup, thinking, “God, we’re in need.” Their family of five ended up with cash and a food card. The couple had worked in the mortgage industry since 1995 and would not return to selling loans.
While they didn’t know it at the time, they would instead start a church called Bethesda.

“At that time, Bethesda wasn’t even a sparkle in our eye,” said Ben Straup, 42. “But there’s a Scripture that says wherever your soles will tread, he’ll give to you. I say wherever your soles will tread, he’ll give to you even when you don’t know it.”

Coincidence, fate, a miracle — whatever it could be called — the nondenominational Christian church eventually landed in this space at 5411 E. Mill Plain Blvd. The former lobby is now where people enter the church to enjoy fellowship, prayer and coffee. Office space was turned into a sanctuary.

“I remember the day we got the email that said we got this space: I fell to my knees and cried because it was not only such an answer from the Lord … it was exoneration for a financial season we walked through where we came and sat in this lobby and waited for welfare checks,” said Tisha Straup, 41. “That was a low point for us.”

They leaned on their faith to get them through tough times.

When the Straups met Jonathan and Tiffany Tutt, they decided to do a worship night in downtown Vancouver. In December 2013 they began meeting weekly at the Tutts’ house, along with close friends and their parents.

“We didn’t have a big budget. We didn’t have anyone give us money to start it or anything,” Ben Straup said. “We just started getting together and asking the question: What does church look like? And what is God calling us to do?”

None of them went to Bible school, and they wouldn’t call themselves theologians. The Tutts owned a construction company and ran a sports therapy business. Becoming pastors was not something they originally set out to do. But all would identify as Bible-believing, Jesus-loving people who wanted to get together on a regular basis for worship.

“Bethesda wasn’t formed as a religious organization,” said Jonathan Tutt, 37. “It was formed as an organization of people who are focusing, not around a religion, but focusing around a relationship with Jesus. That’s kind of the difference to me.”

By week 10, there were 70 people in the Tutts’ home, despite telling people every week not to invite anybody else. Though the furniture was rearranged, worshippers crowded onto the stairs and perched atop the kitchen counters.

“Week after week we had more and more people show up,” said Tiffany Tutt, 36. That’s when the group realized they needed a building.

Bethesda began meeting in a red barn at English Estate Winery that could fit about 100 people. On Saturday nights, they’d set up the equipment — chairs, sound equipment and some tables in the back for kids activities — and break it down after Sunday services. This was in late winter and the sound equipment had to be hauled to the east Vancouver winery in a truck.

“Every single Sunday it would clear up on the way to and the way from (the winery). We never once, not one time, had rain hit any of our equipment in an open truck,” Jonathan Tutt said, adding that there were “a lot of miracles in that time.”

Scripture talks about Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine, and also about new wine being poured out. The way Jonathan Tutt interprets that is to mean that there’s newness to the way God impacts people’s lives today and there’s something to celebrate. It’s OK to celebrate, to laugh and have fun.

“The tendency, I think, is when life is hard, things are bad, ‘I just got to get more serious about this,’ ” Tisha Straup said. “But really, we’ve seen more breakthroughs with people, ourselves included, when we’re able to laugh and have fun.”

“Church should be more like the Jimmy Fallon show,” Ben Straup quipped.

While they were having a lot of fun building the church and learning from the people who attended, the barn wasn’t big enough to match the growth. So the Straups asked friends in real estate to find a building, something with low rent and plenty of parking. There was space at 5411 E. Mill Plain Blvd., at what’s called Town Plaza. On Easter two years ago, Bethesda moved into a 5,000-square-foot space at the back of the building that could accommodate a few hundred people.

“This was an area that’s kind of — I wouldn’t call it a bad part of town — but it’s definitely depressed. It needs a face-lift. So, we got it for a good deal,” Tisha Straup said. “Just to have our own space where the chairs are set up, where the instruments are ready to go, is a big deal.”

As senior leaders, the Straups typically deliver the message while the Tutts lead worship. They don’t necessarily follow a script, but, they say, follow what people want to do and what God calls on them to do. This connected with a growing number of people, as evidenced by the line that would wrap around the building on Sundays with people trying to get into the church, or at least get chairs to sit outside and listen.

It became clear the new space wasn’t big enough, either. So, on Easter Sunday last year, they moved to 24,000 square feet at the front of Town Plaza, a space that’s seen up to 1,000 people gather on Sunday. The group is in negotiations to expand some more.

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ, and it’s what the Christian faith hangs on, Tisha Straup said.

“We don’t feel qualified for this, but it’s his resurrection power,” she said. “I know that with him I can do all things.”

Last Sunday’s service began with song and prayer. People danced and jumped, some knelt and others lay on the ground as songs praising Jesus filled the sanctuary. As the band played, the Tutts were in front singing and dancing with everyone else.

Eventually, Tiffany and Jonathan Tutt took the stage and sat in bistro chairs on either side of a wine barrel, which serves as a pulpit and a reminder of their time at English Estate.

They talked back and forth, occasionally cracking jokes, reflecting on life’s comical ups and downs, such as planning a last-minute trip to Cancun and then nearly missing their flight.

“I have to embrace the question marks in life,” Jonathan Tutt said.

There were a lot of questions when the church was growing. What are we doing? Why do more and more people show up at our house every week? Where are we going to hold services? It’s not about perfection, the Tutts reiterated, it’s about the process and stewarding the moment.

Bethesda’s sanctuary is called the living room, ideally a place where people feel comfortable kicking off their shoes and being who they are.

“I grew up in a church culture where my parents would say on the way to church, ‘It’s time to put your face on.’ We all knew what that meant. ‘We’re going to church and we have to look and act a certain way,’ ” said Jonathan Tutt, who grew up an evangelical Christian. “Here, we believe you belong first.”

The name Bethesda came to Tisha Straup in a dream. She said she dreamed of the pool of Bethesda, a pool in Jerusalem associated with healing, and she saw lots of people wanting to get to its water.

“They knew their answer was in that water,” she said. And she knew there was some connection.

The aim is that Bethesda, the church, is a place of healing for people.

“We’re really just setting up a big playground, so that people can get together and enjoy the presence of God, enjoy relationships with other people,” Jonathan Tutt said.

As Bethesda celebrates its one-year anniversary at the front of Town Plaza and settles into its space long-term, the church looks to connect with more churches and the community at large, particularly around matters of homelessness. To start, they’re looking into installing showers.

“We’d love to someday buy this mall and turn it into a center for helping homeless,” Jonathan Tutt said. “By getting this entire building, we could really make a bigger impact.”

He believes the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are alive and well, and not just during a two-hour slice on Sundays. Church doesn’t just happen within four walls, he said.

“Religion to me is just a form of perfection that never happens,” Ben Straup said. “None of us have it 100 percent together. But can we come together knowing that we might even believe differently and worship Jesus, and through that become part of a family, so to speak? And can we make a difference in our community?”