Leading the way

Jessica Garrison

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series examining the role of

religion in the lives of Newport-Mesa’s youth.

NEWPORT-MESA -- Newport Harbor High School student body president Brad

Craig gets pumped up about four things: football, guitars, pep-rally

antics and Jesus Christ.

“The campus needs Christianity,” said Brad, who plans to use his position

to promote a more “Christian atmosphere” around school.

Brad’s faith is hardly stereotypical of student body presidents at large

American public high schools -- but religious experts say that around the

country, this may be changing.

Brad may be an example of a new kind of high school student: one who is

able to blend piety with parties.

“There’s a real spiritual awakening among our youth ... all across the

country,” said Chad Nykamp, spokesman for the Family Research Council, a

Washington, D.C.-based pro-religious organization. “I’ve heard a number

of leaders say it’s their prayer that this is the beginning of another

Great Religious Awakening in America.”

Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation

of Church and State, agreed there has been an increase in young people

turning to religion, although he stopped short of terming it a Great

Awakening.

“It’s a growing phenomenon around the country,” said Lynn. “Some of it is

spontaneous, and some of it is organized by local religious

organizations.”

Students in Newport-Mesa may be at the forefront of this trend, according

to local religious leaders and national experts.

All four high schools in the district boast strong Christian clubs, and

the Newport-Mesa community, like much of the rest of Orange County, has a

relatively high degree of community involvement in churches.

Another factor, said local youth pastors and students, is the strong

outreach network of local churches and the fact that, on some campuses

such as Newport Harbor, being religious isn’t stigmatized as “uncool” as

much as it used to be.

Across the district, local youth pastors and church officials said their

youth ministries are growing by leaps and bounds -- and many new members

have joined the flock on their own, without their parents.

“Absolutely it’s been growing,” said Mike Brown, the youth secretary at

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. “The junior high group

has doubled over the last five years. The kids are coming with their

families, and they bring their friends.”

Bryan Lucas, youth pastor at Grace Fellowship Church, said that about

half of the 70 students in his high school youth group come to church on

their own.

At first he was amazed that students were coming without their parents,

he said, but he now he believes he can point to some reasons that explain

it.

“There’s a searching and a wondering going on” in the community, Lucas

said, and many young people, for a variety of reasons, are turning to

Christianity when in years past they may have looked for answers

somewhere else.

“A lot of what I’m seeing in this community is that kids are from these

affluent families, and they’re seeing their parents, who have pursued

financial success and who have all this money, and who aren’t happy,” he

said.

In addition, many students, under tremendous pressure from parents and

teachers to achieve in athletics and in academics, find in the church, a

relaxed place where they can feel accepted, he said.

“If you come from a wealthy, well-known family and you fail, you can feel

like you bring the whole family down with you,” he said.

There may be other reasons as well.

“A lot of the guys come here because the girls are here, and then they

stay,” said Randy Gwin, a 1991 graduate of Corona del Mar High School who

helps Lucas run the youth group.

Mike Pulido, a junior at Newport Harbor High School, came to Grace

Fellowship Church on his own, after deciding that he “really wanted to

find God.”

“My friends from the church were really cool,” he said, gesturing to a

group of giggling, cookie-munching teens who sat around him.

Along with Bible study and worship, the youth group also offers a host of

activities. Every Friday, for example, Lucas takes a group of kids down

to San Onofre to surf.

Youth ministers at many local churches, including both St. Andrew’s and

Grace Fellowship Church, sometimes venture onto campus during lunch to

work with students.

Such actions are entirely popular.

“Wrong. Wrong. Wrong,” said Lynn of Americans United for Separation of

Church and State. Though in the 1980s he helped draft federal legislation

to allow students to pray at school, he said allowing religious leaders

onto public school campuses is unconstitutional.

But many youth ministers, including Mark Howerton, director of student

ministries at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, said that it makes sense

to connect with students where they live their lives -- at school. Rock

Harbor, an outgrowth of Mariners Church, specializes in reaching out to

young people and boasts punk rock icon John Maurer among its flock.

“Myself and my friends, we go to school campuses a lot and kind of hang

out with students during lunchtime, love on them, and buy them lunch, and

that kind of increases the excitement,” Howerton said. “Our students are

so big on seeking a spiritual experience and they are starting to bring

their friends. We’re looking for some gnarly growth once school starts.

I do think that today’s youth are ready. They want to encounter God in a

real way.”

Exactly, said students -- although being openly religious still sometimes

causes friends to look at them differently.

“People consider you a goody-two-shoes,” said Marissa Nix, a junior at

Newport Harbor High School.

FYI: Numbers of youths at church is rising* St. Andrew’s: 150-175

active members who are always there ... and another 100 who come and go.

* Newport-Mesa Christian Center: about 200

* Grace Fellowship Church: about 70 active members