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Hip Victoria churches pack 'em in the pews

By Matthew Pearson, Times ColonistNovember 8, 2009Comments (15)

Andy Moore is the pastor of Adore, a congregation for thirtysomethings within Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church in Victoria.

Photograph by: Darren Stone, Times Colonist

A pastor who wears jeans, a black T-shirt and laceless Converse All-Stars.

A priest who taps away feverishly on a BlackBerry.

A reverend who podcasts his sermons.

A minister who asked parishioners to rate his performance using an online survey.

This is church?

It is in our modern era of gadgets, gizmos and Google, and it could explain how some mainline Christian denominations in Greater Victoria are bucking recent trends and actually attracting more people.

It’s not easy. According to University of Lethbridge sociologist Reginald Bibby, the number of Canadians who claimed they had no religion jumped from less than one per cent in 1961 to 16 per cent by 2001.

Using census data, Bibby found formal membership in United, Anglican and Presbyterian groups dropped by 25 per cent over the same period, even though the Canadian population increased by about 70 per cent. Meanwhile, the proportion of people identifying with the other four world faiths — Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism — increased from about one to five per cent, largely as a result of immigration.

Since then, some churches have been have been fighting to regain the hearts — and souls — of would-be parishioners.

One of those is Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church on Quadra Street, where rods of rebar are welded together to make a postmodern crucifix. On stage, a skinny kid with a mop of blond hair adjusts his amp, while nearby, young women in scarves move tables and hang curtains.

They are preparing for evening worship.

“I think people would be pleasantly surprised if they visited us and saw what’s happening here,” says Andy Moore, the 35-year-old Arizona-born associate pastor who leads a growing congregation within Glad Tidings called Adore.

Glad Tidings has three separate congregations that appeal to different demographics and draw a combined total of about 1,200 people per week.

There’s a Sunday morning service that tends to be more traditional, followed by a service geared to families.

Adore, the upstart congregation Moore leads, is aimed at thirtysomething urbanites and meets Sunday evenings. But its high-octane services are also appealing to many senior citizens. So many, in fact, that organizers have begun providing earplugs to some of them.

The aim of Adore, Moore explains, is to put the teaching of the Bible into today’s world. “The Bible is incredibly relevant,” he says. “It can’t be read entirely as an ancient book, but as a book that speaks still today.”

Part of Adore’s success, Moore says, is using technology as a way of connecting with people. The congregation has a website, a blog and a Facebook group and podcasts each sermon. “We don’t Twitter yet, but we’ve been talking about it,” he says with a laugh.

Other churches are growing too. St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Saanich is undergoing a $1.5-million renovation to create more space for the roughly 1,000 people that attend the three weekly services.

Father William Hann, who was ordained in 2004 after years of teaching in the Catholic and public school systems, says being welcoming, hospitable and kid-friendly is the key to the church’s growth.

He also cites its proximity to a school, its youth ministry and its adult faith programs. “It’s not just coming to church,” he says. “It’s growing in your faith.”

It’s also about speaking in the present.

“We’re bringing the gospel to the issues that confront us,” Hann says.

And there’s a role for technology, too. Hann says he responds to more than two dozen e-mails a day and his BlackBerry keeps him organized and accessible, especially in a time of crisis.

Meanwhile, the parish’s youth minister, Bradley Cameron, relies on Facebook, an e-mail listserve and text messaging to stay in contact with parish youth.

The 19-year-old says his church also uses modern media and scenarios set in the present to underscore its teachings.

“The message doesn’t change, but the way we reach people can and must,” he says.

Technology, says Rev. Harold Munn of the Church of St. John the Divine, allows his Anglican church to communicate with people using whatever tools are available.

The church’s website is an easy way for both current and would-be parishioners to connect with the church, listen to a podcast and hear for themselves whether it’s the place for them.

But Munn says the website also points to the character of the place. “The fact that we have a web presence indicates to some people that this is a church interested in connecting with the contemporary world as opposed to a church that just wants to keep things the way they were a hundred years ago,” he says.

Munn says St. John’s uses technology to highlight its interest in social-justice causes and express a style of Christianity for modern times.

A few blocks away, at First Metropolitan United Church on Balmoral Road, lead minister Rev. Allan Saunders says the church has turned to online registration for an upcoming conference.

The church also uses the website Survey Monkey as a quick and easy way to engage its 350 regular members on certain issues, including staff performance.

But Saunders points to something Martin Luther King, Jr. said at the height of the Cold War: “The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

Adds Saunders, “His point was we have technology, but we don’t have the wisdom about what to do with technology, and I think we face that same issue.”

mpearson@tc.canwest.com