In the beginning the area that became Bellevue had but one place in which its residents could share their religious services. Called the Union Sunday School, its members consisted of people from a wide array of faiths, including Free Methodists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Baptists, and Congregationalists. From this ecumenical beginning there emerged what we today know as the First Congregational Church of Bellevue, UCC. As the only church in the area in 1896 it most certainly constituted that area's "community church", a role it has sought to play ever since.

By 1901 a church building had appeared, and for the next half century this "little white church" symbolized for many people in the area their community's religious commitment. Their commitment went beyond Sunday services and included outreach activities to loggers and to Japanese farmers living in the area. As time passed more and more denominations came to the area, providing further opportunity for residents to worship.

With the building after World War II of floating bridges across Lake Washington, population on the Eastside exploded. Bellevue became a city, a new sanctuary took the place of the little white church, and before long skyscrapers appeared across the street from where that little white church had once stood. First Congregational Church of Bellevue, UCC assumed in the process an urban role. But this was -- and is -- no ordinary urban church. Here you find a people who have never lost the sense of community with which they began. Whether perceived in terms of their responsibilities to the city at whose core they sit or in terms of the warmth of feelings that prevail within and among them, this sense of community flourishes.