Growth Forces Santa Clarita Churches Into Odd Venues

Flanked by basketball hoops and seated on folding chairs assembled near center court, the 200 members of the Santa Clarita Presbyterian Church sang: “We are the church. You are the church. We are the church together.”

The lyrics were appropriate. Unable to afford land for a church in the burgeoning Santa Clarita Valley, the Presbyterians held their first service in the Saugus High School gymnasium. It was a church of people, not stained glass and vaulted ceilings.

Meanwhile, across town at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, hundreds of worshipers packed the pews and aisles, making an ordinary September service look like Christmas morning. “It’s like demolition derby here after Mass,” said the Rev. Robert Rankin.

The Santa Clarita Valley’s explosive growth, well-known for clogging streets and crowding schools, is forcing established churches to expand to tend their growing flocks. Rankin jokingly calls his parish “Our Lady of Perpetual Building.” And rising land prices are driving new churches into unlikely venues--schools, homes, office buildings, a park, a day-care center. Even an abandoned roller rink.

Improvisational Work

These small, mostly conservative churches are popping up across the valley like new housing tracts. Their pastors tell of improvisational church work--Bible studies in living rooms, baptisms in swimming pools or in Lake Castaic. Many small churches haul hymnals and pulpits around town in trucks and trailers, setting up and tearing down their temporary altars every Sunday.

“If anybody hits that truck, there goes the church,” said Pastor Mike Cleland of the Church of the Valley, whose 65 members worship in a YMCA recreation room filled with weight machines.

But whether their congregations are large or small, many ministers fear that churches in the Santa Clarita Valley could be forced to become renters.

“It’s been a problem, and I don’t know how to address it,” said Pastor Ken Teel of the Lily of the Valley Christian Center, another renter at Saugus High School. “Trying to run a church without a building is like trying to run a restaurant without tables.”

“I’ve never lived in a community quite like this,” said Pastor Craig Miller, whose Faith Community Church met in the Hart High School cafeteria until moving last month into an office building formerly occupied by Vineyard Christian Fellowship. When the Vineyard pulled up stakes and purchased the roller rink, Miller said, three competing pastors rushed to inspect the Vineyard’s old home the same day.

Vacant Land

Miller and other clergymen said vacant land suitable for churches in Santa Clarita can cost more than $300,000 an acre, a hefty sum when many churches need at least three acres for sanctuaries, offices and parking. Lily of the Valley paid a relatively cheap $115,000 for three acres a year ago, but its pastor called the property, where the church plans to build a sanctuary, “a rare gem out there.”

Clinton C. Ternstrom, who represents the valley on the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, said churches are facing a tremendous problem. The county does not zone for churches, but Ternstrom said the commission tries to be lenient when reviewing proposals to build churches in the valley. “I wish we could do more,” he said.

Comprehensive figures for the valley are unavailable, but at least seven of an estimated 65 churches rent space in office buildings or parks. One office complex in Saugus is home to the New Apostolic Church, Temple Beth Ami and Faith Community Church.

Whenever the center advertises that office space suitable for churches is available, “We get up to 15 calls in a period of a week,” the building manager said.

School Campuses

Another seven churches serving more than 450 people rent space at five campuses in the William S. Hart Union High School District. (By comparison, 10 campuses are rented to religious groups each weekend in the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District.) Until Faith Community Fellowship left Hart High recently, all six Hart district campuses had been rented by churches for three years.

“We couldn’t get a high school or junior high because they were all full,” said Pastor Cal Leuning of the 18-month-old Oak Hills Neighborhood Church, which rents the recreation room at Santa Clarita Park.

The rental fees vary, depending on the services or equipment required, but churches typically pay the school district $100 to $200 a week, pastors said. While Hart High may be vacant now, “if you give it a couple of months, Hart will be occupied too,” predicted Pastor Jeff Steele of the Cornerstone Bible Church, which has met in a junior high auditorium for three years.

Worshiping in a school or office building, the pastors say, presents challenges not discussed in seminary.

Miller recalls the time the Hart High pep squad came bounding into the cafeteria during a service. “We wondered whether we would be part of drill team practice,” he quipped.

Pool Seekers

Boys and girls in bathing suits have wandered into Leuning’s services at Santa Clarita Park to ask if the pool is open. Lily of the Valley, which meets in the Saugus High drama room, has found itself conducting services in front of sets for plays. One set included rows of whiskey bottles. A World War II drama featured a large swastika. The church covered the offending symbol during the service.

“There are some people who just can’t get used to the idea,” Steele said. “You can put up banners, but it’s still a school and just doesn’t feel right.”

But Steele and others agree that unorthodox surroundings can enhance a service because they avoid lavish trappings, which can distract a congregation. “We believe the New Testament focuses on the people, not building,” said Pastor David Warnick of the 45-member Santa Clarita Community Church, which meets in a day-care center.

“It’s hard to get the right atmosphere,” said Nancy Steiner of Temple Beth Ami, a synagogue housed in a mustard-colored stucco office complex. But, she added, “I guess a house of God is a house of God.”

Skyrocketing Growth

Meanwhile, some of the large, established churches with buildings report skyrocketing growth. “We average about 50 new families a month,” said Rankin of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The parish grew from 2,500 families to 3,100 families over the last year.

Bill Rivera, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, called the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys “our fastest growing area.” The archdiocese covers Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has doubled its Santa Clarita membership in eight years to about 6,000, said Gary Larkin, president of the Santa Clarita Stake. The Mormons opened a new church four months ago and hope to have another church, their fifth there, completed by December.

Larkin said the growth reflects the church’s missionary work, the valley’s marching development and the departure of Mormons from the San Fernando Valley, where church membership has declined.

Grace Baptist Church in Newhall, which had 900 members five years ago, now draws 1,200 each Sunday, prompting church leaders to form a building committee. “We are facing a real crisis here with our buildings,” Associate Pastor Bob Snyder said. “If we continue to grow, we won’t have room for the people.”

The area’s lone Episcopal church, St. Stephen’s, is building a new sanctuary as well, said the Rev. Lynn Jay. The church will have to start a new mission in Santa Clarita within five years, she predicted.

As elsewhere in Southern California, thousands of Santa Clarita Valley residents never attend church. But Santa Clarita clergymen said the birth of small churches and the growth of larger denominations reflect not only the region’s rapid development, but the conservative, small-town, family-first beliefs that prevail.

“This is ‘Leave It to Beaver’ country,” said one cleric.

“Des Moines with palm trees,” said another.

The valley is filled with young baby-boomer families who are now coming back to church, often with several children in tow, clergymen said. How will churches serve these people, they ask, if land prices continue to outpace donations in the collection plate? And worse, what is the cumulative impact of having pastors literally racing each other to find a home for their congregations?

“I guess the question is: Is there a place for churches in the community?” Steele said.