Eastvale Latest Inland Community with Young Churches Growing
Pastor Ed Moreno helped build his flock in Eastvale's McCune Park by staging family nights with movies, magicians and big bands. To grow his fledgling church, Pastor Mark Lee and his team passed out 6,500 water bottles and fly swatters on a street corner, washed 95 cars for free and hauled away junk from 16 households. Pastor Sam Tanner sent out 15,000 mailers and rang doorbells. He hosted a living nativity outreach last December -- in the rain. As the farmers continue to leave Eastvale, another form of planting has taken root in this thriving unincorporated area in northwest Riverside County, and pastors have taken aggressive measures to step up to the pulpit. Eastvale is the latest Inland community that's ripe for and rife with church planting, from Moreno Valley to the Temecula Valley, from Redlands to Rancho Cucamonga. The imperative to spread the Gospel is based on New Testament principles in the Book of Acts. Theologians say the message of Christ to "sow the word" serves as a blueprint for modern missionaries. Just about every evangelical denomination, including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, the Evangelical Free Church, the Acts 29 Network and the Foursquare Church, has a church-planting and development arm that provides leadership, training and funding. In the past five years, six churches have sprouted in Eastvale to cultivate congregations from the community's 35,000 residents. When Moreno, pastor of New Day Christian Church, scouted Eastvale in 2002, he said cows outnumbered the 1,800 homes; there was one park -- McCune -- and no houses of worship. David McGlocklin is pastor of Faces of Grace in Eastvale, an affiliate of the United Methodist Church. "We have a mission here," McGlocklin said. "After talking to people, I've found most were driving to Orange or Los Angeles counties to go to church, or not worshipping at all." Starter Homes of Worship But for many pastors of fledgling churches, it's tough starting from scratch. Preachers say it's expensive to lease space -- typically schools, theater auditoriums or office space -- although it's much more expensive to buy land. Then there's the cumbersome business of hauling around an RV with the accouterments of their portable churches, including hundreds of seats, projectors, sound systems, signs, utensils, refreshments and a coffee urn. "You almost feel like a church nomad," said Lee, pastor of Vantage Point Church, an affiliate of the Evangelical Free Church. Tanner, pastor of Life Church, which has 100 members, said he settled on Sky Country Elementary School in Mira Loma after another church beat him out for an Eastvale school. Tanner pays $1,000 a month for the room, but he will lease two auditoriums for $3,000 a month starting in February at the Edwards Theater at Eastvale Gateway shopping center. "I've stopped looking for land," Tanner said. "There aren't many parcels available and developers want $500,000 an acre. I wouldn't be able to afford it." New Day Christian Church broke ground last month for its building site on almost 5 acres on Hamner Avenue in Eastvale. Moreno, the pastor, said the land cost $2.5 million, with money coming from the development arm of the mother church, Eastside Christian Church of Fullerton. For the past four years, his flock, now 350 members, has met in a 6,500-square-foot business office in Norco that Moreno rents for $11,000 a month. Intrigued by a flier, Sandy and Gary Brooks joined New Day Church two years ago. They'd moved to Eastvale in 2000 from Chino Hills but didn't feel the need to join a church until their faith was tested. "I don't know how we would have made it without some guidance," said Gary Brooks, 54, an electrical engineer. "Pastor Ed's sermons touched on some crises we were going through. And we've made some wonderful friends in the church." Two megachurches, Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and South Hills Church in Corona, an Assembly of God affiliate, have set up satellites, also known as "video venues," in Eastvale elementary schools that reach almost 500 people between them. Typically, there are DVDs of the main campus service, Bible teachings, a live band, a youth ministry and on-site preachers. "It's a small-church feel with big-church resources," said Brad Ormonde, Harvest's pastor in Eastvale. Capturing an Audience Savvy church leaders know their religion's destiny depends on reaching a diverse, unchurched population through marketing campaigns, a group of "transplants," financial help from the mother church, and young pastors, often a husband and wife, who are willing to take risks, said Charles Arn. He's an authority on evangelism and president of the Glendale-based American Society for Church Growth. He said the best estimates show that 1,500 churches are launched annually, their survival dependent on their first five years. "If they can't support themselves," Arn said, "it's time to pull the plug." In the September issue of Christianity Today, Richard Harris, vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, said, "North America is the only continent in the world where the church is not growing." He said established Southern Baptist Convention churches report 3.4 baptisms per 100 resident members, whereas new churches average 11.7. Arn said, "The mission of churches today is survival." Indeed, some of the Inland church plants that opened in storefronts or postal annexes 15 or 20 years ago are thriving megachurches with more than 2,500 worshippers. One of the largest and fastest-growing in Southern California is The Rock Church and World Outreach Center, the dream of its founding pastors, Jim and Deborah Cobrae. The seedling grew from 12 minions who met in an Econo Lodge in San Bernardino to a ministry with more than 18,000 adherents and a facility on a 23-acre campus. A year ago they spawned an offshoot in Palm Desert, which now has 80 members, said church administrator Fred Adams. The Rock donates 30 tons of food a month to the hungry and transports students to the church's after-school homework program. The secret: "If you meet a physical need, like Jesus did, people will allow you to meet their spiritual need," Adams said. The Little Ones Grow Many church planters work with a "launch team" and "transplants" from their mother church, and are shepherded by a full-time coach. One such mentor, David Page, of Simi Valley, has helped Lee grow his Vantage Point Church flock. Today's philosophy, Page said, is to start big with 75 to 100 worshippers by engaging a warm, educated, family-oriented pastor such as Lee. He, his wife and their three young children moved from La Habra to Eastvale in May. "My senior pastor in Diamond Bar had a vision about planting a church in a new area for years," Lee said. "It felt like God was leading us in that direction." Lee said he believed he received confirmation when his "preview" service on Sept. 23 at River Heights Intermediate School drew 223 people. The follow-up last month attracted 200 congregants, and Lee said he is shooting for 300 worshippers this Sunday. Vantage Point's sneak peaks are careful strategies leading up to Lee's grand launch service on Feb. 10. If he can pull in crowds, the next step will be scouting land to build on. And if the plan fizzles? "Then I go back to the mother church and beg for a job," Lee said.
