|
Peace Lutheran Church secretary Cindy Bell and construction foreman Harold Bellow discuss the location of Bell's future office
Population growth in King George County has many churches there thinking big and preparing space for new members. The tall concrete-block wall on the left will be part of the main entrance to Peace Lutheran Church at its new site.
Jerry Miller (top) and Mark Munderloh, volunteers with Laborers for Christ, construct a wall in the new Peace Lutheran Church on State Route 3 in King George. The 19,000-square-foot building will replace the Lutherans' current church.
Laborers for Christ volunteers (from left) Jerry Miller, Mark Munderloh and Jim Bouvini work as a team
Construction of the Peace Lutheran project is being done |
PAST A CORNFIELD, across from the sort of verdant stretch off State Route 3 that embodies King George County's rural character, sits a half-finished church.
It is a church the Lutherans are building themselves: driving in the nails, erecting the exterior, putting up the Sheetrock walls.
The members of Peace Lutheran Church want to expand their preschool and other space in this 19,000-square-foot building five miles west of the old one near King George Courthouse. They hope to expand their congregation as the county's population swells.
"I think Christians need to realize our need to reach the community and to have the facilities to be able to do that. And as people move into this area, we need to be ready for them," said the Rev. Terrance Naumann, pastor of Peace Lutheran.
Churches in King George are expanding their facilities at a rate that county officials say is unprecedented.
King George Supervisor Joe Grzeika said that in his 11 years on the board he has seen only a few churches come to the board for special zoning exceptions to construct or expand existing worship facilities.
"This is a first. I think we've seen six in 12 to 18 months," he said.
Two major factors are driving church expansion. King George is the ninth-fastest-growing county in the nation, with a population expected to increase 42 percent by 2030, according to Virginia Employment Commission projections.
Second, church leaders say there is a shift in demographics. Newcomers are likely to be younger adults with children, parents who may face long commutes. They are looking for churches that cater to the entire family. More churches are building recreational and youth centers to draw in young families.
What is happening in King George has already happened in Stafford and Spotsylvania counties--places whose churches grew in size and number as they changed from largely rural places to an extended part of the Washington metropolitan area.
Anticipating growthShiloh Baptist Church is one of King George's most prominent churches, and recently celebrated its 150th anniversary.
In March, it began a $1.4 million expansion expected to be completed in November. Shiloh Baptist will have a ground-level fellowship hall, a big kitchen and room for 270 people.
With a membership of 250 and regular Sunday attendance of between 170 and 200, the new building is "built with the anticipation of growth," said Luke Miller, co-chairman of the building committee.
When Miller joined the church in 1987, at age 46, he was one of the youngest members. But the church's median age has since dropped.
"We have many more young couples with children than we did 17, 19 years ago," Miller said. "So one of the things we've done is a lot more programs for youth and children; that's one of the ways we meet the needs of the growing community. Our new facility will allow us to do even more of that."
The changing social composition of Shiloh Baptist has prompted Miller to ask: "How do you reach out to everybody, and make everybody feel welcome? I think we're still working on that."
Round Hill Baptist Church has added on to accommodate entire families. The church is building a gymnasium-size fellowship hall, which will host basketball and volleyball games, fellowship meals and worship services. Its longtime pastor, the Rev. Ted James, said he is thinking about how the hall could host conferences and draw renowned speakers.
The project, which began in May, will cost $2 million and be completed by next spring.
"We don't have any space" now, James said. "I have a Sunday school class that meets in my office, and one that meets in our kitchen. We had to put our largest class in the fellowship hall because there was no other room that would hold them."
The church holds two Sunday services. The sanctuary, James said, "is maxed out."
He is careful to attribute the church's growth to the work of the Holy Spirit, and not just population growth. But he acknowledges the importance of the latter. "I would definitely say that the future influx of people is one of the reasons we're building as big as we are."
A year and a half ago, King George Church of God set out to build a 10,000-square-foot sanctuary and Sunday school classrooms. They were completed in late July.
For 15 years, said the Rev. Lance Bacon, the congregation met in a converted horse barn. When Bacon arrived as pastor in early 2004, the church had 12 members.
Bacon prayed. The property the church had purchased several years before was behind the Food Lion on State Route 3: "No easy access to it, wasn't on the main road, looked like a ridiculous place to buy property," Bacon said. People thought the church was crazy, he said.
Not anymore.
"Now, seven years later, we're just a couple miles down the road from Hopyard Farm," Bacon said, referring to a subdivision expected to bring in about 900 families. "We're going to have hundreds of homes in our radius. So I didn't know that all those homes were coming, but God did."
Staying dynamicOne axiom guides the growth of churches: Expanding the physical church expands the congregation.
As churches renovate, add on and build anew, they appear to outsiders as dynamic, exciting and ready to usher in new members, pastors say. This explains why some churches in King George that are unable to expand their physical space now are at least making plans to do so when the funds and the opportunity are available.
Two Rivers Baptist Church, whose congregation has been meeting at the Fairview Beach Volunteer Fire Department, hopes to begin construction on the first phase of its own building next spring. The 5,000-square-foot church will have about four classrooms, a nursery, a church office, a small kitchen and a combination fellowship hall and sanctuary.
The church began in 2001 by offering a traditional worship style that appealed to an older population.
Now, the church must grapple with how to reach the incoming population, inclined to like contemporary worship styles and churches with day care and youth centers.
Joe Parker, chairman of the construction committee, thinks that the church is prepared to do that, particularly by offering more contemporary music.
"If you're not thinking about trying to get more people in the church, then you're not growing. You will remain just static," Parker said.
Reaching outThe Rev. Dee Whitten witnessed the booming growth as pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church in North Stafford.
When Whitten arrived in Stafford in 1987, he was preaching to a rural congregation of 250--a crowd that swelled to over 1,200 by 2003.
In 1994, the church built a multipurpose facility. It developed more contemporary styles of worship and reached out to commuter parents and their children.
"That situation is the same as a lot of churches in King George are in now," said Whitten, now a consultant with the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. He has helped churches statewide adapt, including some in King George.
Churches that want to reach families with busy schedules "now have to look at having activities that will meet the needs of the family," said Joel Nelson, director of church development at the Fredericksburg Area Baptist Association.
"Before, you didn't have to worry about changing your style of worship," Nelson said. "You didn't have to worry about accommodating children separately from parents. Today, you have to do that in order to reach families."
Pastors insist that the effort to attract newcomers should not be a competition. Nor should the attempt to reach children and younger adults be viewed as a threat to more traditional forms of worship or churches' basic message. Still, those are issues that can spark tension.
Nelson conceded that a church's older members may experience some unease. Yet many also feel it is more important to reach out to their communities.
Tabernacle Baptist Church on State Route 3 completed a family center last September. The Rev. Larry David, who has served as pastor for 30 years, was glad the church undertook the project. But he said the church's climate has changed since he was young.
"I think times used to be you went to church and sat down and learned the Bible, and now you've got to do other things activities and things that keep the kids interested. I'm not sure I'm happy about that," David said. But, he said, "It's a matter of having things to offer folks that make them want to consider coming to where you are."
Bacon of King George Church of God stressed the importance of his church's core teachings.
"The No. 1 principle this church is founded on is teaching the word of God," he said. "You can get bogged down in plans and programs. Preach the word of God unaltered, point blank. Give them real, deep Bible teaching and let God do the rest."
To reach MAYA RAO:
Email: mrao@freelancestar.com
