Less-Formal `Mega-Churches' Are Arriving In Spokane Area -- Thousands-Per-Sunday Growth Trend A `Byproduct Of Suburbia'

SPOKANE - The mega-church, considered by scholars to be a new form of American religion, has arrived in the Inland Northwest.

Churches with huge, cohesive congregations seem to coincide with substantial population growth, says Scott Thumma, a sociologist of religion at Emory University in Atlanta.

That's the case in Spokane County and Idaho's Kootenai County, where the population increased 10 percent in the past five years.

"We Americans have always thought we could reinvent ourselves from scratch," said Nancy Ammerman, a professor of religion and sociology at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.

"This is religion, reinvented American style. It's the idea that you don't have go out and ask anybody, you just start your own church."

Every Sunday, more than 10,000 people fill a half-dozen multipurpose rooms and auditoriums in the Inland Northwest to praise God.

Religion, American-style

Five years ago, two-thirds of these people didn't attended worship services regularly.

"For Spokane, large church has been redefined," said Ken Ortiz, head pastor at Calvary Chapel, which routinely draws 3,000 people to weekend services, making it the city's largest church.

"It used to be a church of 600 to 700 people was big. Now I'd say that's pretty medium."

First Presbyterian Church in Spokane draws more than 1,400 worshipers every weekend, up from 800 in 1990.

At Spokane's Life Center Foursquare Church, attendance

skyrocketed from 300 people to 1,800 in the past five years.

New Life Community Church in Rathdrum, Idaho, started with a handful of couples meeting for Bible study in a private home in 1990. Now, about 1,800 people attend services each weekend.

Harvest Christian Fellowship and Faith Bible Church, both on Spokane's north side, routinely draw 800 people each.

These mega-churches are part of a trend that's been developing in the United States for the past 20 years.

What newcomers notice most about these churches is the lack of formality and solemn ritual. Casual clothes are fine. The music is contemporary. Worship is upbeat, lively.

The mega-church is "a true phenomenon, not just a unique occurrence in a few locations," Thumma said.

Mega-churches first emerged in the South and California in the 1970s.

The biggest include Willow Creek, outside of Chicago, with 25,000 worshipers and Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif., with more than 15,000.

Like malls and warehouse supermarkets, they are byproducts of suburbia, Thumma said.

While large churches, particularly Catholic parishes, have always been a part of American religion, these newer, Protestant churches take a different approach to worship, education and even life.

In addition to modern music and nontraditional services, most mega-churches are theologically and politically conservative, Thumma said.

They seem to strike a chord with baby boomers and their children. On average, members are about 35 years old, compared with an average age in the 50s or 60s for most traditional congregations, Ammerman said.

"In a metro environment that many people find to be overly secular and sometimes alienating, these institutions provide a kind of shelter," Ammerman said.

In Idaho, New Life Community moved into its 17,000-square-foot facility on the Rathdrum Prairie in spring 1994. Already, the church is remodeling, adding 19,000 more square feet to accommodate more worshipers and more classrooms.

No-frills worship

The New Life congregation is typical of large churches: it is young, casual and embraces a no-frills style of religion.

"I've always believed in Jesus Christ, but I've never understood religion," said Michelle Thompson, 28, a Coeur d'Alene mother of three who has attended New Life for four years.

"I wanted to find out if it was for real, or if it was just a bunch of old people who hung out ridiculing young people."

The bigger the church, the more special services they can offer.

In Spokane, Calvary and Harvest Christian offer college-level Bible courses. Harvest also runs the Masters Commission, an intensive one-year leadership program for high school graduates.

Mega-churches also sponsor special clubs and classes for women, for mothers, for single mothers, for business people, career women, people over 50, parents of toddlers, parents of teenagers, the divorced and the widowed. Many of them even offer personal financial planning.

"What we try to do is be age and life sensitive," Ortiz said.