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Now showing: Church
By MELANIE AVE © St. Petersburg Times, published January 5, 2001 HIGHWOODS PRESERVE -- The Rev. Dean Reule stands facing dozens of families reclining in plush red chairs. Above him, on a large screen usually reserved for Hollywood blockbusters, are words aptly describing this church-in-a-movie-house: "Lord Jesus Any Time, Any Where, Any Place." For the past year, Reule has preached a weekly message at the 20-screen Muvico Starlight Theater, temporary home of the Cypress Point Community Church. This day, he leads about 75 parishioners through an Old Testament message, instructing them on a "prayer for 2001" and how to ask God for abundant blessings. It's been a long journey for the 39-year-old Reule. He studied for years, earning four degrees including a doctorate. But he found his contemporary ideas about worship irked two established churches, so he and his wife, Hettie, decided to start their own. The couple lived in a Pasco County motor home in the early days. Before they bought a house in Meadow Pointe, "I told my wife, "I bet I'm the only Princeton graduate living in a trailer.' ". Like pastors of other growing New Tampa churches, Reule, a South Carolina native, faces a special challenge. He must attract members to a church without a permanent home while giving regular spiritual guidance to families. Some church members said Reule is an inspiring minister who keeps the Southern Baptist congregation headed in the right direction. They say he delivers thought-provoking messages that are direct and laced with illustrations and humor. "He's a motivator," says Chip Elmblad of Meadow Pointe, who plays guitar at the church. "But even more, he's a caring and empathetic person, the kind where he encourages you to do the same thing." The son of a real estate agent, Reule attended a Florida boarding school, then enrolled at the University of North Carolina. He was exposed to the world of ideas but still he wondered: If he had all the knowledge and money the world could offer, "At the end of the day, was it going to be satisfying? Was it going to bring contentment?" "I found the answer in Christianity," he says. Soon thereafter he said he felt God was calling him into the ministry. He said it was a shock since he had always thought of ministers as the "weakest people in the world." "It really was a calling," Reule says. "It's kind of like God's little joke on me." He knew ministers could only lead their followers as far as they had gone. And too often Reule had seen ministers delivering predictable messages without depth. Reule didn't want to be like that. So he spent the next few years learning everything he could about theology and church history, earning a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, master's degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and Princeton and a doctorate from Florida State University. Despite his education, he doesn't present himself as a cloistered academic. "He speaks with a lot of experience," says Paul Baumann, who has been attending Cypress Point for two years. "He brings it forward with us, to really equip us." Some parishioners call him a gifted orator who often uses the movie theater's large screen for multi-media presentations as part of his sermons. His messages include scriptures as well as information from authors, scholars and even movies. Members like Loretta Ryals Kirkland enjoy the casual, warm atmosphere Reule promotes. "He wears dress pants and a T-shirt most of the time," says Kirkland, of Zephyrhills. "He doesn't wear a tie. He's doesn't have a big fancy pulpit. He has a little stand." The first church Reule led was a small American Baptist congregation in New Jersey that he oversaw while attending Princeton. After Princeton and Florida State, Reule moved to Lake City in 1994 and became a full-time pastor of a rural congregation. He tried to move it away from some of its traditions -- a choir to do the singing and a single service for children and adult services -- but the members didn't want innovation. Two years later, the Westside Baptist Church in Pasco County recruited him as their minister. But again, Reule said, it was clear after three months that his ideas weren't connecting with older members resistant to change. That's when Reule and his wife knew it was time to start their own church. They were interested in an area that was growing, where the churches, like the residents, would be new and open to current ideas about worship. New Tampa fit the bill. The Elfers First Baptist Church in Pasco County agreed to sponsor the Reules for two years as they began rounding up a core group willing to plant a new church. In 1997, the church organized its first service in Kirkland's home. "Dean told me at 3 we were going to have church in my house at 6," Kirkland remembers. "There were 54 people in my house." Kirkland said she knew the Reules were for real. They both had upper level degrees, yet were willing to sacrifice for the church. Mrs. Reule is the church's children's pastor. "He could be on any college campus being a professor, and so could she," Kirkland says. Reule started spreading the word, but many people were reluctant to commit to the small group of believers holding Bible studies in various homes. "It was so hard," Reule remembers. "We didn't feel we were making any progress. Finally we said, let's just start." So the Cypress Point Community Church moved to the Hunter's Green Visitor's Center in May 1998. By January 2000, the church had outgrown the 100-person center. As church officials scouted for a new meeting place, they discovered they could lease space at the newly opened Muvico multiplex. "It fit what we were doing," Reule says. "And the seating was fabulous." The church uses the theater's birthday rooms and halls for children's church. It holds simultaneous services for teens and adults in two of the theater's screening rooms. And besides, the '50s-themed theater is just fun, Reule said. He wants to help families know church is a happy place and God is relevant to their day-to-day lives. "I'm trying to show how much sense God makes," says Reule, the father of three daughters. "God knows what he's talking about it. It seems we fight a lot of skepticism." For now, holding church in a theater doesn't bother Reule. Church members have committed more than $600,000 for a site off Morris Bridge Road. But what does bother him is what he sees when he drives to Muvico on Sunday mornings for church. "There're too many people at home," he says. "That's who we want to win. Ultimately, it's God's church, not mine." - Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3473 or melanie@sptimes.
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