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The Steel Lake Presbyterian Church formed when Federal Way was only known as a school district and will now close its doors at the end of the year.
Federal Way’s oldest church is officially dissolving at the end of 2026, after nearly 80 years of service.
On Sunday, Nov. 1, Steel Lake Presbyterian Church held its Service of Celebration, a special church service that became like a reunion, where members past and current came together for prayers, hymns, special thanks to community mission partners, bagpipes, a short documentary of the church’s history and more, all led by the church’s Transitional Pastor Eyde Kinsbrook.
“We want to thank you for being here to celebrate what the spirit of Christ has been doing in and through Steel Lake, and to celebrate what the spirit will do with the faith, wisdom, mercy, and love forged in this church community over the last 80 years, “said Pastor Kinsbrook.
The church’s history actually begins in 1928, when William and Carrie Laing of what eventually became Federal Way decided to start a Sunday school in the Steel Lake Grange Hall, which was located east of Military Road. After their young daughter died, the Laings moved to Rainier Beach, but still traveled back the the Grange Hall to teach every Sunday, rain, snow or shine. The hall burned down in 1938 (the same year that Federal Way High School opened) and the Sunday school moved to the one-room Steel Lake schoolhouse on 28th Avenue South and South 312th Street. Over the next decade, the Sunday school expanded to a vacation Bible school and local youth kept things going. Adults became more and more involved and on March 7, 1948, the Steel Lake Presbyterian Church was born, with 23 adults accepted into its membership; by the end of May, membership totaled 43 members from 17 families.
According to “Buildings of Masonry and Wood, Men and Women of STEEL: The First 50 Years of the Steel Lake Presbyterian Church (1948-1998)”, the church’s first 50 years can be divided into the Startup Years (1948-1953), The Hurd Years (1953-1975), The Starkey Years (1975-1991), the Transitions Years (1992-1994) and beyond. On Palm Sunday 1952, the first service was held in the church’s new building at 829 S 308th St. where Reverend William Radcliffe gave the initial sermon. Over the decades, the church went through many changes, with expansions that led to several members re-mortgaging their homes as collateral to pay for the church and gradual drops in attendance. Eventually, it was decided that the church building would be sold.
The old Steel Lake building is now home to the First Ukrainian Baptist Church, and Steel Lake Presbyterian Church had moved into the Calvary Lutheran Church on 320th or, as Pastor Kinsbrook calls it, the “Viking-looking building.” This was where the Service of Celebration took place.
Sage Brotherton, 18, attended the Service of Celebration with her boyfriend Michael Meyering, 20, to support her grandmother, Cheryl Volheim, a member of Steel Lake Presbyterian, and a founding member of the Federal Way Senior Commission. “She’s been going to this church since she moved to Federal Way, which was like forty years ago,” said Brotherton. “As a kid, I went to some events with her, and it was really nice.”
Volheim was featured in the small documentary that was played during the service, where she talked about how she had moved to Federal Way in 1980 and then became involved after she was asked to join the choir after her and her husband’s first visit to the church. “It takes one person reaching out, welcoming you, and inviting you,” she said in the doc. “For us, it was family and so it became the greater family.”
Volheim told the Mirror that that the church family will be what she misses most. “When my husband died, it was amazing the way the family, the whole congregation, surrounded myself and my family was amazing, and I felt for the first time the true warmth of this church,” she said. Volheim also talked about her next steps. “I’m looking at the United Church of Christ, which my mother was raised in, which is very close in teaching and inclusiveness, the whole shebang that I’m looking for and we’ll see how it goes,” said Volheim.
Another attendee of the service was Arts Foundation Federal Way Board Director Allan Smith, 76, who told the Mirror that he was born into a Presbyterian family and, while he was not a regular at Steel Lake’s Sunday sermons, he was active as a volunteer in the church’s soup kitchen. “The church has been here a long time and it’s sad [that it’s closing] but it’s not unusual at this time,” he said, adding that it is important for people to continue building community.
The service was filled with good humor, a warm atmosphere and a reminder: “For everything there is as season” from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Pastor Kinsbrook spoke about Steel Lake’s ties to the community and the city, took time to thank the church’s community mission partners, acknowledged the church’s long history with the Scouts and offering words of hope even as Steel Lake Presbyterian comes to an end.
“For a moment, turn your gaze to the beginning. Turn to the One who spoke the world into existence with moving breath. The spirit moved through the centuries to a community named after a school district. The spirit planted a faith community on the tailgate of a station wagon in Federal Way,” she said. “Turn to the love that moves like brilliant autumn leaves animated by the spirit. Signaling new perspectives, new visions, new iterations of faithful following.”
The service ended with a blessing, followed by a bagpipes postlude of “Amazing Grace” and the hymn “Go With Us Lord.
As the attendees made their way to a special reception on the other side of the building, many were returning to the service after many years of being away, delighted to see faces and hear names they maybe had not thought of in eons. “It’s like a family reunion, feels like a wedding to me. Some of you may want to meet some people that you have not yet met. We hope that you will stay enjoy some refreshments in a time of remembering looking back, but also looking forward,” said Pastor Kinsbrook. “[…]Blessed, are you Steel Lake, for you are curious about those from other cultures and life experiences. May you continue to become self-aware and practice divine welcome, and all you do.”
