Don Ross
Donald Ross currently serves as the Northwest Ministry Network Team Leader. This network is comprised of 350 churches and 1,400 ministers in Washington State and North Idaho. The Northwest Ministry Network makes planting churches a priority, launching 135 new churches in the last eight years. Previously, Don served as the lead pastor of the Creekside Church in Seattle, from 1995 to 2014. This 60-year-old church once, 2,000 in attendance, declined over fifteen years to a painful 150. Don first served as a consultant to the church and then became Lead Pastor. Over the next ten years, many of the issues that caused the decline were addressed and in 2004 the four-acre, 80,000-square-foot campus in Seattle was sold and Creekside Church relocated north seven miles to a ten-acre parcel in Mountlake Terrace, where a newly remodeled campus helped the church grow to 700 people.
Don is part of the Northwest Ministry Network and holds a B.A. in Biblical Literature from Northwest University. He graduated in 1997 with a Doctor of Ministry degree from Northwest Graduate School. His dissertation focused on leading turnaround churches, using his own church as a case study. Don is a member of the Society of Church Consultants and author of Turnaround Pastor, which detailed the journey of Creekside Church and outlines key principles needed in a church turnaround. His second book, Tale of Two Churches, focused on the purpose and power of the local church. Don and his wife Brenda live in Kenmore, where Brenda worked at Northwest University. They have three married children, Kelly, Kathy, and Tom, and seven grandchildren.