The Super-Church: a Little Something for Everyone : Congregations: Orange County is home to several large facilities serving social as well as spiritual needs.

Marla Toomire used to attend Sunday services at a neighborhood Baptist church, a short drive from her home in Huntington Beach.

But after six years, she and her husband, Jim, got tired of “dry sermons” that had no relevance to their lives. Disillusioned, they began to shop for a new place to worship.

Their search led to South Coast Community Church--a sprawling congregation in Irvine where instead of hymnbooks, the lyrics to spirituals are projected on a giant video screen.

“My first impression was: ‘God, this is different. I don’t know if I like it,’ ” Toomire said, describing her initial visit five years ago. “But after we went a couple of times we got so much out of it we kept going back.”

The Toomires are among a significant group of people in the county who attend “super-churches”--huge, mostly unaffiliated congregations with flourishing memberships and attendance in the thousands.

The Times Orange County Poll found that three in 10 churchgoers here belong to a congregation with 2,000 members or more. Some of these are large Catholic and mainline Protestant churches. However, many--such as South Coast Community where Sunday attendance averages about 10,000 people--are independent of any supervisory church group.

Most of the super-churches are evangelical in nature, appealing to the large segment of the population that adheres to basic Christian beliefs about God and the Bible, but is also seeking alternatives to traditional religion.

Orange County is home to more than half a dozen such super-churches that span the Bible-based theological spectrum. Their beliefs range from the fundamentalist teachings of the Rev. Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa to the positive-thinking philosophy of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller at Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove to the emphasis the Rev. John Wimber places on spiritual faith-healing at Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in Anaheim.

The exception is the Rev. Roger W. Teel’s Church of Religious Science in Huntington Beach, which draws from other religions, as well as Christianity, combining spiritual teachings with principles of science and philosophy.

Each of these super-churches has found fertile ground in Orange County.

According to the poll, which was conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates, 74% of Orange County residents believe Jesus was God or the son of God. One in three people consider themselves “born-again” Christians.

Super-churches “reach out to two kinds of people,” said John Roth, a professor of philosophy at Claremont McKenna College who tracks religious trends, “those who already have that evangelical bent in Christian tradition, but also to a lot of people who have not been particularly engaged in religious life before.”

The super-church phenomenon is occurring all over the country; it is partly that baby-boomers tend to choose larger, rapidly growing churches, experts say.

Orange County is one of the places where the super-church movement has been most pronounced, according to Lyle Schaller, an Illinois church consultant who is writing a book on the topic.

“Younger people have a much lower level of institutional loyalty than previous generations,” Schaller said. “A large number of people who are going to the newly established large churches on the West Coast are coming from mainline denominations.”

“The biggest single issue is quality: quality of preaching, the teaching ministry, the nursery, the restrooms,” Schaller said. “Typically, bigger churches have a better operation because they have the resources to do it.”

There are other factors that help make the super-church a kind of regional shopping center for churchgoers.

For one, Orange County is part of the Southern California freeway culture. Consequently, many residents think nothing of taking the freeway to get to church, just as they might drive to a shopping mall or commute to work.

The growth of the super-church has often come at the expense of the mainline denominations and smaller churches, according to experts on contemporary religion. Some attribute the trend to the traditional denominations’ failure to keep up with a changing society, combined with effective use of modern marketing techniques by many super-churches. These include the use of radio and television, newspaper ads and direct mail, among other things.

Frank Cate, 56, of Tustin discovered Schuller through the minister’s weekly television program, “Hour of Power.”

He had attended a succession of churches--Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and congregational--before he joined Crystal Cathedral five years ago.

“Denomination is not terribly important to me,” said Cate, a property tax consultant. “The church is more important than the denomination.”

What he found at Crystal Cathedral was dozens of smaller congregations rolled into one, all of them worshiping together on Sunday, yet also gathering during the week in smaller groups to interact on a more personal level.

“You get the best of both worlds,” Cate said. “There are small groups that you can identify with, but with the amenities that a large church offers.”

Crystal Cathedral, a 13-story, internationally known architectural monument, has plenty to offer. A recent Sunday program listed more than 40 activities going on between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Schuller, who unabashedly espouses the use of modern-day marketing techniques to attract followers, prides himself on having something for everyone; those who do not want to come into the sanctuary can view the service from their parked cars on a jumbo video screen.

“The secret of success is to find a need and fill it--not to sell your prejudices into narrow doctrine to someone who is not going to accept it,” Schuller said. “You better have what they want on the shelves. . . . It’s just like at South Coast Plaza and MainPlace. If you don’t have what they want, they won’t shop there.”

Schuller, who founded his Reformed Church of America at a drive-in theater in Orange 37 years ago, now boasts more than 10,000 attendees on Sundays. He attributes much of the Crystal Cathedral’s success to his positive-thinking philosophy.

“They’ve got to come out of that church feeling good,” Schuller said. “If they don’t get a good feeling coming out of church then they are not going back.”

Schuller’s message has made a faithful follower out of 56-year-old Harold Ezell, former Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner for the western region.

“Being a preacher’s kid, I’ve been around lots of churches, and in many of them you feel worse when you come out than when you went in,” said Ezell, who has attended Crystal Cathedral for three years. “You’ll never feel that way when you go to Crystal Cathedral. It is not only a God-centered, Christ-centered message, but it also lifts you up.”

Others such as Smith of Calvary Chapel choose a more fundamentalist-based theology to appeal to congregants, but many of the other attractions remain the same.

“Jesus said: ‘Upon this rock I will build my church,’ and we’ve just taken his word for it,” Smith said. “You can’t say it’s the programs or successful marketing techniques. It’s the work that God is doing, and we just marvel ourselves.”

Smith founded Calvary Chapel 26 years ago with just two dozen members. Many of his followers were teen-agers, hippies and beach people, all new converts. Consequently, Calvary came to be known as the “original hippie church.”

It has since grown to 11,000 members and has spawned 500 Calvary Chapels around the world, including one formed recently in Moscow. Each chapel is autonomous but shares Calvary Chapel’s basic evangelical belief and low-key approach to liturgy.

Smith believes some people find comfort in the anonymity afforded by a larger congregation.

“They can participate and don’t feel pressured to be more involved than what they want to be,” he said. “In small churches, quite often, you are so anxious to get people involved in church programs and, sometimes, they don’t want to be pressed into that kind of commitment.”

Margaret Van Der Bogart, 30, is an active member of Smith’s church. She attends services every Sunday and a women’s Bible study Tuesday nights.

“It’s really special for me . . . a new mom, because there are women of all different ages and backgrounds,” said Van Der Bogart, who has a 4-month-old daughter. “I appreciate the big fellowship because there are so many of these kinds of opportunities.”

Van Der Bogart, who was raised Catholic, said she never went to church regularly until she began attending Calvary 13 years ago. She was drawn to the nondenominational church for the message, often focusing on world events, as well as the laid-back atmosphere.

“At Catholic Church, you always had to wear a dress, but here you can come in nice slacks--some people come in with jeans,” she said. “It takes the emphasis off of what you look like and puts it on what you’re there for.”

At a recent Monday evening Bible study, popular among younger parishioners, Calvary Church members jammed the pews of the cavernous sanctuary that seats nearly 2,000 people. On stage, a musical combo, complete with guitarists and keyboardist, played a contemporary-sounding rendition of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.”

Ushers constantly motioned people closer together to make room for late arrivals. Large sliding glass doors opened onto a courtyard where dozens of other church members sat outside listening to the service.

Charlie Banks, 23, sat in a corner of the courtyard, studying his Bible and occasionally looking up to watch the service.

“A lot of teen-agers are burned out on church, but this is a little bit more down to earth. It’s a lot easier for people to relate to,” said Banks, who works at a Huntington Beach sporting goods store.

Meanwhile, in the absence of an extended family, many newcomers to Orange County are looking to the church as a way of fulfilling their social as well as spiritual needs; such satisfaction apparently may be more readily achieved in a congregation of 2,000 than one of 200. In this dual role, super-churches are like many smaller, full-service churches that are geared to particular faiths or ethnic communities.

“When people move from one part of the country and leave their roots behind, there is a craving for connectivity,” said Carl George, director of the Charles E. Fuller Institute in Pasadena, which monitors church growth. “So what you find is that people who do find church an acceptable place might use it very heavily. It might be a country club and religious group all wrapped up into one.”

Bud Morris, 53, said he was pretty much a loner before he started attending the Church of Religious Science in Huntington Beach six years ago.

“Now, I have a lot of friends, people there that think and feel the same way I do,” said Morris, a software engineer at McDonnell Douglas. “It’s a wonderful way to meet people.”

He has worked as a prayer counselor at the church and volunteered for numerous activities. In fact, the church has become such a cornerstone of his life that he and his wife, Elaine, moved from Santa Ana to Huntington Beach to be closer to it.

The Church of Religious Science is a Christian-based church, but its beliefs differ from mainline Christian teachings.

“We read from the Bible, but it is not a standard part of our service,” said Teel, the church’s spiritual leader.

“While we see Jesus as the bearer of truth . . . we do not seek God through Jesus,” Teel said. “We believe that God is the infinite power of life and that we can all discover that power within our own being.

“We believe we can exert creative influence on the quality of our lives through our attitudes and beliefs about ourselves,” Teel said.

From the Church of Religious Science to the Saddleback Valley Community Church in Mission Viejo, much of the super-churches’ success in attracting members comes from their sheer size. They have the ability to serve many needs.

Take the Rev. Charles Swindoll’s First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, where attendance at Sunday’s two adult worship services tops 5,000 people. There is a pastoral staff of 20, with each individual in charge of a specialized ministry.

There are ministries for children, single parents, music and Bible studies, among others. There are also recovery programs serving all stripes, from traditional marriage counseling to a Christian support group for adult children with dependent parents.

Roth of Claremont McKenna said that although the growth phenomenon of the super-churches relies on their multitude of services, it also has “to do with the sheer sense of being part of a large religious experience.”

“It’s part of the thing of wanting to back a winner,” he said. “It gives the feeling of success, and Americans like to be on the side of winners.”

Still, size does have its drawbacks.

“It’s often a liability,” said the Rev. Paul Sailhamer, senior associate pastor at First Evangelical Free Church. “We have to fight against that to try to keep it personal so that the church is not a corporation but a family.”

Congregation Size “How many people belong to your church or synagogue?” Don’t know: 6% 2,000 or more: 29% 1,000 to 1,999: 14% Less than 500: 35% 500 to 999: 16% SUPER-CHURCHES AT A GLANCE Crystal Cathedral / Garden Grove: the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Membership: 10,000 Sunday Attendance: 10,000, plus more than 1.5 million TV viewers Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa / Santa Ana: the Rev. Chuck Smith Membership: 11,000 / Sunday Attendance: 7,000 to 9,000 South Coast Community Church / Irvine: Pastor Bob Shank Membership: no official membership list / Sunday Attendance: 10,000 Church of Religious Science / Huntington Beach: the Rev. Roger W. Teel Membership: 3,000 / Sunday Attendance: 1,600 to 1700 Saddleback Valley Community Church / Mission Viejo: Pastor Rick Warren Membership: 2,500 / Sunday Attendance: 4,500 First Evangelical Free Church / Fullerton: the Rev. Charles Swindoll Membership: 4,100 / Sunday Attendance: 5,000 Source: 1991 Times Orange County Poll

A Look at the Series Sunday: Religion and beliefs--a Times Orange County poll. Monday: A look at full-service churches. Tuesday: Rejecting the religious mainstream. Wednesday: The challenge for parents. Today: The super-churches. Friday: Mixing church and state.

How the Poll Was Conducted The Times Orange County Poll, the most comprehensive poll ever taken on religious beliefs and practices in Orange County, was conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates. The telephone survey of 600 Orange County adult residents was conducted Oct. 4-7 on weekend days and weekday nights using a computer-generated random sample of telephone numbers. The margin of error is plus or minus 4%. For subgroups, such as church members, the margin would be larger.

Beliefs About the Bible, Christ THE BIBLE “Which of these statements comes closes to describing your feelings about the Bible?” Orange County “The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.”: 21% Other, don’t know: 4% “The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by men.”: 25% “The Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally, word for word.”: 50% U.S. (1990*) “The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.”: 32% Other, don’t know: 4% “The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by men.”: 15% “The Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally, word for word.”: 49% * National Option Research Center of Chicago JESUS CHRIST “What do you believe about Jesus Christ? Do you think Jesus Christ was . . . “ Orange County Another religious leader like, Mohammed or Buddha: 19% Other, don’t know: 5% Jesus Christ never lived: 2% God or the Son of God: 74% U.S. (1990**) Another religious leader like, Mohammed or Buddha: 9% Other, don’t know: 6% Jesus Christ never lived: 1% God or the Son of God: 84% ** The Gallup Poll Source: 1991 Times Orange County Poll and other polls