Victory Christian Center in Cambridge is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a congregation during the month of September.
To celebrate, the church will host guest speaker John Matthews at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10. Matthews has made dozens of trips to Ukraine for mission work, and he is a member of the missions staff at Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park. Much of the mission work done by Victory Christian Center congregants has been in the Eastern bloc as well.
Matthews’ presentation will be open to the public.
Victory Christian Center’s anniversary celebration will also include a dinner cruise on a boat out of Stillwater on Sept. 9 for the church’s members and a further member appreciation service on Sunday, Sept. 11, featuring a slideshow of photos from throughout the church’s history.
Victory Christian Center had its roots in a Bible study group founded by pastors Steve and Kim Gunderson in the 1980s. That Bible study group became a full-fledged church in 1991. In between, the Gundersons attended Rhema Bible Training Center in Oklahoma between 1985 and 1987, and they bought and operated a Christian fishing resort in Canada for five years.
The Gundersons finally started a church of their own in part because many of their Bible study’s members did not attend church services. They would tell the Gundersons the Bible study meetings were their church.
“(In) September of 1991 we moved into an old warehouse space,” Steve said. “We even told everybody to bring their lawn chairs.”
The church currently has 50 to 60 members.
Victory Christian Center was first located in the industrial park on the south side of Garfield Avenue in Cambridge. The church has moved locations several times during its 25 years.
In the future, Gunderson says Victory Christian Center hopes to find new ways to minister to young people, as well as find one more new, permanent location.
Victory Christian Center has always leased the buildings they have used for their congregation, but they are in the midst of a funding program for their own campus. That way the church will have a home of its own, and the Gundersons will be able to pass its reins onto other pastors to carry on their work.
“We haven’t invested 25, 30 years into this to just say, well, we’re going to quit now and go away,” Steve said.
Regarding young people, Steve said the church hopes to develop another level of ministry that will appeal to them and find new ways to keep the church relevant to their lives.
“We’re feeling a generation gap,” Steve said. “Are we going to bring rap music into our ministry teams, I don’t know.”
Steve is happy the church has been around so long. He says there was a time in his life where he wasn’t sure he would even make to his 30th birthday, much less see a venture like the church through to its 25th anniversary.
“Raising our kids seeing them come through the nursery, seeing them go to college, seeing them stay solid in their beliefs and, yeah, those things, they make a lot of difference,” Steve said. “Yeah, 25 years is pretty incredible.”
For further information on Victory Christian Center, visit www.cvictory.org or call 763-689-4407. The church is located at 807 N. Main St. in Cambridge.