Reaching Out To A Generation -- Eastside Church Opens Arms To Baby Boomers

Get this. The church looks like a movie theater. The musicians sound like they ought to be playing at a rock concert. The senior pastor, in a blue blazer, introduces himself to Sunday worshipers by saying, "My name is Doug." And Doug speaks from a black metal music stand. Tacky?

Well, successful might be more accurate.

Doug is The Rev. Doug Murren. The church is the Eastside Foursquare Church, recently tabbed by a national survey as one of the fastest-growing churches in the state. It draws a weekend attendance of up to 4,300 and has services Saturday evenings and around the clock on Sundays.

If there is a church that breaks the mold, this might be it.

No stained-glassed windows here. No long robes, no hymnals in the pews, no pews, actually. Just theater-style seats and a big video screen in front that flashes the words to praise songs and videotaped messages of church activities such as Wednesday evening healing services, upcoming musicals, volleyball games and the church golf tournament.

Maybe most noticeable is the sanctuary filled with young people.

The 11-year-old church targets so-called baby boomers, sometimes called the lost generation or the most unchurched generation in America.

Other churches around the United States also reach out to the 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. But locally, Eastside Church appears to be among the most successful.

The unorthodox trappings reflect Murren's and other church leaders' ideas of how to meet the needs of baby boomers, who may have turned on, tuned in and dropped out in the '60s. But now, with children of their own, they may be seeking greater stability.

In his book, "The Baby Boomerang, Catching Baby Boomers as They Return to Church," Murren noted that baby boomers grew up with overcrowded schools, drugs and sexual experimentation, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the Watergate and Iran-contra scandals.

They distrust authority. They want to be treated as individuals, not numbers. And they found in the 1969 Woodstock rock concert that you didn't need stained-glass windows or tall citadels to have a " `religious experience' of unimaginable proportions," Murren said.

Murren said he suspects many baby boomers think church ought to be what they remember Woodstock being: spontaneous, informal, celebratory.

Services at Eastside aren't exactly Woodstock, but they aren't mainline, either.

From the first pulsating chords of the praise songs, generated by a combination of drums, amplified guitars, piano and keyboard synthesizer, to the uplifted arms and swaying bodies of the congregation, this Pentecostal church that believes in direct inspiration from God is definitely an upbeat kind of place.

"Pentecostal churches are an adaption of many elements of black churches. I think Americans are starving for a worship service that accommodates our emotions," said Murren, who at 41 is part of the baby-boom generation.

But Eastside's service represents more than music amplified to the max.

The sermons deal with practical concerns from a Christian perspective: from how to deal with child-rearing to getting through mid-life transitions to keeping dreams alive. The guiding principle for sermons, said associate pastor Mike Meeks, is that "If they can't use it Monday, don't say it Sunday."

The overriding comment from those who attend Eastside Church is that it is just plain friendly. Though the church is keying on reaching those around 45 and younger, there are many older adults who contribute to the church's mix as well.

Murren said Americans are crying out for relationships, as evidenced by such popular television fare as "The Cosby Show," "Family Ties" and "Cheers," the bar in Boston where "everyone knows your name."

Mike Chudzik, who has been coming to Eastside since February, said he and his wife "meet people faster here than at any other church" they've visited.

Phyllis Chudzik added, "Our secular community is so fractured around here. When you come to Eastside, you get the sense that people recognize you and you feel part of a community." The Chudziks, both 39, commute from Edmonds to Eastside Church, which is in an unincorporated part of King County between Kirkland and Bothell.

The Church Growth Research Center at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., earlier this year counted Eastside Church among Washington state's fastest-growing churches, with a gain in attendance of about 600, including children, from 1989 to 1990.

Other big gainers included Overlake Christian Church in Kirkland, Casey Treat's Christian Faith Center in south Seattle, and the First Assembly of God Church in Tacoma.

Actual membership at Eastside totals only about 1,400, said Murren. "We've never pushed membership very hard," he said.

He said baby boomers aren't joiners, maybe feeling that by joining they give up some of their freedoms. But they are participants. Churches should attract and hold boomers with quality activities, rather than hitting them up about membership, he said.

Boomers feel drawn to a church that addresses the concerns of single adults and families built on remarriages. Churches also need to be prepared to minister to people with AIDS, victims of sexual abuse, and those who have abused drugs or alcohol, said Murren.

Murren said it was important for churches to offer multiple worship times, and not only on Sundays, given the demands on baby boomers' lives these days. That gesture indicates the church wants to serve worshipers, rather than the other way around, he said.

Despite its flexible approach to worship, Eastside Church does not take an anything-goes approach to the Bible. While it embraces people who are gay or have had abortions, it takes the standard evangelical position that the Bible does not endorse homosexual acts. The church also opposes abortion.

Its name, Foursquare, combines the idea of balance and the church's four belief statements: that Jesus Christ is the savior, the healer, the coming king, and the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, Murren said.

Murren said Eastside Church doesn't reject tradition. For example, it includes a traditional hymn at each service because Murren believes that's a way to tap into the living heritage of the Christian church.

But he added that the church can't be bound by traditionalism if it wants to tap into the millions of baby boomers who he says may be burned out on experimentation and ready to turn to the church to help stabilize their lives. --------------------------------------------------------------- To learn more

Eastside Foursquare Church is at 14520 100th Ave. N.E., Bothell. For service times or other information, call 488-2500.