Charter Sunday was November 22, 1981.  We still have active members left from the 198 members, children included, who signed the original Charter. Our Organization Day was April 18, 1982 and completion of our first every member response was May 16, 1982 at which time our congregation became self-supporting.  On June 27, 1982 the congregation voted to purchase the parsonage located in the Holly Knoll area from the LCA.  The Rev. Thomas A. Dudley was installed on October 24, 1982 as the first pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church.  The congregation voted to purchase the Church site from the LCA.

 BUILDING

The congregation voted to enter a building campaign December 5, 1982, and the building fund campaign commenced March 1, 1983.  Architects and builders were interviewed.  The Church chose to work with a staff architect of the LCA.  He met with committees to help design what our congregation wanted in a church building.  A major consideration was to keep the look of a “traditional” church.  For example, we wanted a steeple with a bell tower.  However, the LCA would not help with financing if we built an attached bell tower due to maintenance problems they had with previous churches.  The compromise was to build a detached bell tower.  The bell was found and purchased from a former Lutheran congregation in Virginia.  The only minor source of disagreement in the congregation concerned whether or not to have cushioned pews.  The LCA wanted us to have a multipurpose room for fellowship and worship.  The congregation sent a delegation of a few members to meet with the LCA to convince them that we could afford to build both a fellowship hall and a sanctuary for worship.  We did not want to continue to set up chairs as we were doing in the Grange.  With the design developed for us using the LCA staff architect, the church employed a design/build firm out of Pittsburgh, PA, Neehouse Builders, to do the working drawings and construction. They were a company specializing in church construction.  The congregation had a clean up day on the church lot purchased by the LCA in 1967.  We quickly realized that this location due to the water drainage may not be the best location for a church and might require expensive construction.  Some members knew of a woman, May Gouldman, who had a large parcel of land on Georgetown Pike closer to Springvale Road.  In 1982, May sold the Church 5 acres of land next to her house.  She said she always wanted to live beside a church.

 Ground breaking for the church was in 1984.  The construction went fairly smoothly except for a problem with the largest steel beam on the front of the sanctuary. When the brick masons started to build on it adding the weight of materials started it to move.  The structural engineers were called immediately and corrective action was taken. And the walls went up!  The rest of the construction went well up until near the end of construction when the contractor declared bankruptcy.  The church was making payments on completed work so we did not lose money.  To complete our church we acted as general contractor and either subcontracted or performed the work ourselves with member volunteers.  The new Church building was dedicated in 1985.

We realized positive growth after we moved into the new building.  We also did not have enough quiet classrooms.  Five Sunday school classes met in the fellowship hall, a room with very poor acoustics.  We realized immediately the need for additional classroom space.

The church purchased another 5 acres from May Gouldman in 1987.  It was connected to the existing church property.  A lot of different ideas were expressed on how to develop this property; however we were not quick to act on them.

In 1991 some members of the church with young children saw a need for a partial day child care program to provide social interaction with a Christian atmosphere.  What was born out of this is our Mother’s Day Out (MDO) program which started on November 5, 1991.  The program serves our church members as well as others in the community.  The MDO program is self-sufficient and has been under the direction of Carol Mossier, a member of our congregation, since its inception.  MDO is operated in the church building.  Carol is looking forward to retirement this year and we are currently seeking a new director.

 CONFLICT

There was talk in the early 1990’s to start a building program to better provide for the needs of our growing church.  However, our focus had to turn to finding a replacement for our spiritual leader, Pastor Dudley.  After ten years Pastor Dudley left suddenly without clear explanation.  It was very difficult dealing with this loss. 

The synod assigned a retired Navy Chapalin, Carl Auel, as our interim pastor.  Pastor Auel made a memorable impression on the congregation from his interpretation of the benediction to his singing of “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” with the children.  To the congregation, he was the rock we needed at the time.  Pastor Auel was well liked by the congregation and many wanted him to stay on as our pastor.  He led us for several months while the call committee worked to find a new pastor.

We called Pastor David Westphal in 1992.  Pastor Westphal came to Christ the King from a small congregation in rural Pennsylvania.  He and his family were warmly welcomed by our congregation, but for many reasons we were not a match for each other and Pastor Westphal resigned in 1993 after only a few months at Christ the King.

The Synod then assigned Pastor Bill Ridenhour as our interim pastor.  Pastor Ridenhour was a retired Lutheran Pastor who had served another congregation in northern Virginia for many years.  Pastor Ridenhour kept us on track during the search for another new pastor.

During this period the congregation decided to sell the parsonage the Dudley’s occupied and build a new parsonage on the church property.  We felt it would be more convenient for the pastor to be closer to the church.  Financially this also was the correct thing to do.  We were fortunate that a builder was developing the property next to ours. This gave us the opportunity to build a parsonage associated with a neighborhood and create some isolation from the church building.  This afforded the pastor and his family some privacy.  The planning and construction of the parsonage took about a year since we were going thru the call process again.  The parsonage was dedicated in November 1993.

 RENEWAL AND GROWTH