School cafeterias and auditoriums provide space for churches springing up in response to booming development.
By LOGAN MABE
Published March 21, 2004
TAMPA - It's not entirely true that there is no prayer in school. Just visit Gaither High School on the right day.
Each week the auditorium of the north Hillsborough public school rings with hosannas, rock 'n' roll hymns and heartfelt homilies to God.
Monday to Friday, Gaither is home to 2,500 students. But on Sunday, the auditorium and a handful of classrooms become the heart and soul of Journey - A Christian Church.
On the auditorium stage, a seven-piece band jams through a soft-rock gospel song as Journey's 250 parishioners stand and clap along. It's a casual gathering. Men show up dressed for an after-service round of golf. Teenagers come in baggy cargo pants and T-shirts. Women eschew their Sunday best for skirts and blouses.
Setting the tone for this come-as-you-are congregation is Keith Chandler, who founded Journey five years ago: "Basically, we're saying wherever you are in your journey of faith, we welcome you."
Increasingly, that journey of faith leads thousands of Tampa Bay suburban churchgoers to a neighborhood school. In Hillsborough, 16 public schools host churches, in Pinellas seven and three more in Pasco.
It's an arrangement that benefits both the religious and scholastic communities. Fledgling churches get a regular meeting place. Schools get some welcome cash.
Journey pays $900 a week to Gaither.
"Every dollar we give goes directly to the school, which I love," Chandler said. "So we're helping support the community."
In many ways, the growth of school-based ministries is moving in lockstep with the sprawl of Tampa Bay's suburbs. Developers create mammoth communities in areas that were once served by small, rural churches. Hundred of families move in, meaning more schools are needed. And come Sunday, many of those new residents are looking for a place to pray.
Tim Wilson, pastor of South Bay Community Church, which meets at East Bay High School in southeast Hillsborough, knows the pattern well.
Wilson, who graduated from Brandon High in 1969, planted his first church in his old school in 1988. "It was like coming home," said Wilson, then the pastor of Calvary Church.
Calvary grew from the school theater to the gymnasium and eventually moved to Bloomingdale High School, where the congregation topped out at 1,500 people.
Wilson's newest church, South Bay Community Church, moved into the auditorium at East Bay High School a few weeks ago.
"It's so much fun in a school and the reason is that people don't quite know how to respond or act," Wilson said. "There's the stage, the band, the trees and the silk flowers. And they say, "Well, this is different. I could be a part of this.' There's an excitement in the air that you might not have if you were in a traditional building and knew what to expect."
School-based churches seem to thrive on their unorthodox settings.
"For people who are used to traditional stained glass windows, you remove what they've come to expect," said Journey church member Carrie Elk. "I hear people say, "Where's the robe on the pastor? Where are the kneelers?' They get what they need and it doesn't have anything to do with stained glass windows. That's not necessary to hear the word of God. They realize that's the part that really matters."
New members of Gulf Beaches Calvary Church, which meets at Madeira Beach Middle School in Pinellas County, have a similar reaction when they find the congregation meeting in the school cafeteria, said pastor Mark Copple.
"Walking into a cafeteria, they have a tendency to look at you and ask, "You are a church, right? You're not a cult?' " Copple said.
Renting public school space for religious services does not violate the separation of church and state because the gatherings are voluntary and held after school hours, school officials say. And as with any group - dance schools and community theater groups often rent out schools - the churches must meet insurance and security requirements.
Still, using schools allows new churches to start with modest budgets.
That's how Tony Byrd's Morning Star Church was born in northwest Hillsborough four years ago.
"We were basically starting from scratch - no money, no people, no facilities, nothing," Byrd said. "But at the time, my wife and I were living right down the street from Sickles High School, and it turned out to be a great option for us.
"We started in their band room with about 15 of us. In that time we've moved into the auditorium. We've grown to about 175 members."
* * *
Turning a school into a place of worship literally is a labor of love.
Like a touring theater company, volunteers swoop in early in the morning to set up stages, sound systems, projection screens, coffee-and-doughnut tables and welcome centers. Classrooms are converted to nurseries with the addition of portable cribs. Signs go up along the road.
In the two years that CrossPointe Church of the Nazarene has met at Walker Middle School in northwest Hillsborough, the set-up crew has gotten it down to a science, said pastor Harv Lyon.
"Typically we have a crew that arrives at 7:30 a.m.," Lyon said. "Walker has been generous enough to give us two storage rooms, and everything is portable - carts, rollable bins. We set up the nurseries and classrooms and use the cafeteria for our sanctuary. That's where the band sets up, and by 8:30 a.m. we're ready for sound check."
When the last service ends about noon, the crew is back at it stowing everything away. By 1 p.m., Walker is just another empty middle school.
For most start-up churches, renting a school is a quick fix until it becomes established. Pastors hope to be able to pass the collection plate enough to eventually raise money for a real home.
"We'd like to have something that's a little more permanent," said Copple, the Gulf Beaches Calvary pastor. "It's taxing to constantly be setting up and tearing down."
Lyon's CrossPointe is nearing that goal. The church is selling part of a 21-acre parcel it owns to finance a building fund. "I'm hoping that by next Easter, and this might be positive thinking, that we will celebrate our third year together by having a grand opening in a building," Lyon said.
Journey has big plans, too. Chandler, the pastor, said the church was given 18 acres on Van Dyke Road by the Suncoast Evangelizing Association. He thinks he knows what his new church will be like.
"What I'd really like to do," he says as he walks the tree-rich property, "is give it an old town feeling, with a central fountain, a Wi-Fi zone, maybe a bookstore and a Starbucks. We'd like to make it a place where people could go 24/7, not just on Sundays. We want to meet not only their spiritual needs, but their physical and emotional needs, too."
- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 269-5304 or at mabe@sptimes.com
