OUR STORY

A BRIEF HISTORY:

March 17, 2007 marked the beginning of a long journey that would eventually lead to the birth of Sideris Church here in Seattle. While working as a CPA for Deloitte, the founding Pastor of Sideris, David Evanger, received a phone call that would change everything. On the other end of the line was his father who could barely manage to deliver the shattering news: "Kim is dead."

Kim was David's older sister, 26 years old at the time. She had been hit by a passing semi-truck while cycling with her husband Patrick. Kim was killed instantly.

If you spoke to those who knew Kim, they’d use words like magnetic, supremely talented, charismatic, energetic, kind and funny. Why would God remove someone like Kim from this earth so soon? How could this be part of God’s good plan?

The accident occurred on St. Patrick’s day and David was out with friends at a St. Patrick’s day parade. When he received the news he ran into the back alley of a sports bar screaming out to God, “NO, NO, NO!” — wailing in denial, shock, anger, on the edge of utter despair.

The moments that followed these 25 minutes of weeping David describes as the unfamiliar and supernatural intervention of God. In utter exhaustion David shuffled to the ground and sat with his back up against a chain-link fence. Suddenly, that hysteria and mind-bending confusion was wiped away in a moment and replaced with serenity as his vision turned to white. Dismay was replaced with clarity and peace, of the quality that David had never before experienced in the previous fifteen years of life as a Christian.

In this holy moment the Spirit of God delivered a message from his sister Kim. She asked David to take this message to her friends and co-workers who did not know much about her faith in Jesus Christ. Kim said: “Tell them that they must consider the condition of their hearts, what they believed about God, and most importantly, to CONSIDER Jesus.”

Kim went on to say: “Tell them… ‘Don’t wait to start considering.’”

This peculiar word “consider” was the center the whole message that David shared this at Kim’s memorial service with the 1,000+ in attendance (view full video from her memorial here). For those in attendance it was hard to deny that this message that this message was attended by unusual power.

In the years since her memorial, God continued to compel David and others to share this simple yet profound invitation to consider Jesus. This lead to the organization of two benefit concerts aptly named The Consider Concerts and a growing city-wide movement The Consider Project.

This simple message is also the heartbeat and driving force that guides the Sideris Church. In fact, the word Sideris was first discovered the night before Kim’s memorial as David was searching for synonyms for the word consider. He discovered that the Latin roots which form consider — “com” and “sideris” — literally translate to “with” … “heavenly body.” The divine nature and biblical parallels of this little phrase continue to guide our church and our mission. (Read more here)

We would love to have you join us in this considering movement we are working to stir up in Seattle. Our dream is that every human being in our city and beyond might have a genuine encounter with Jesus and experience the warm embrace of the one true God. This will only happen when others embrace their God-given capacity, right and privilege to consider the most transcendent truths of this life. Are you with us?