Renewal of faith

<p>Like an oversized mansion in Santa Rosa's stately McDonald neighborhood, First Presbyterian Church sits on a block of Pacific Avenue, its well-manicured hedges and European-style dual gables evoking thoughts of tradition and history.</p><p>A simple wooden sign just a few feet above a bed of soft green grass bears the name of this 150-year-old congregation, one of the oldest in Santa Rosa.</p><p>This is the religious center for some 525 churchgoers who have formed a community of faith that has defied national trends. Even as membership among mainline Protestant denominations dwindles, the size of First Presbyterian's membership has doubled in the past 13 years.</p><p>The reasons why have less to do with First Presbyterian as a religious institution than what is actually going on inside the church building.</p><p>The renewal of faith is on the minds of thousands of believers attending Easter services today, and it is a challenge for not only the Catholic Church, the North Coast's largest faith, but also for the Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians and other traditional Protestants who are struggling to win over believers in a rapidly changing society.</p><p>That challenge will be played out today at First Presbyterian, where Pastor Dale Flowers will complete a long series on the Gospel of Matthew with the goal of compelling worshippers to go beyond a religious framework. He will evoke the commission and sense of mission Jesus gave to his disciples on the mountain after the resurrection.</p><p>That's exactly what Paul Verdier is looking for, a way of giving back what he's been blessed with.</p><p>“We at First Presbyterian Church are a mission-oriented church or I wouldn't be in it,” said Verdier, a 72-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and insurance agent who grew up in the Evangelical United Brethren Church.</p><p>Both Verdier and Flowers volunteer at Kid Street Learning Center Charter School in Santa Rosa as part of the church's Community Service Team, a mission that seeks to build enduring relationships between the congregation and various non-profit organizations in the community.</p><p>“We try to form partnerships with community service organizations that allow us to engage with people over a long period of time,” Flowers said. “We're not trying to make this a program or project.”</p><p>Flowers knows that the people he ministers to today want something different than what the average Presbyterian sought in the 1950s, when mainline churches dominated Protestant America.</p><p>“People are less inclined to commit to an organization or institution,” said Flowers. “I think they come here because they hear the Gospel, they experience community and the church is intentional about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.” </p><p>Still, the outlook for mainline churches in America is one of decline.</p><p>According to a recent study by Ventura-based Barna Group, a research group that analyzes Christian trends, the number of mainline congregations has gone from 80,000 in the 1950s to 72,000 today. Membership has dropped 25 percent to 20 million, and adult church attendance indicates that only 15 percent of all American adults are tied to a mainline congregation.</p><p>The report points out that leadership, vision, creativity, strategic thinking and courage will be required to keep mainline denominations relevant to today's Christians.</p><p>“What it says on the (church) sign is a lot less important than what goes on inside,” said James Bennett, associate professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University.</p><p>Bennett, an ordained Presbyterian minister, said the phenomenon of “church shopping” has made demoninations less important.</p><p>During a late-morning service at First Presbyterian last month, young and old worshippers recited, or rather, sang, the Lord's Prayer to the strumming of a guitar and a steady bass pulse. The music began to build until the congregation was singing, “I will sing, sing a new song. I will sing, sing a new song.”</p><p>This was the contemporary worship service, dominated by live music, that First Presbyterian holds every Sunday at 11:15 a.m., half an hour after the traditional and blended morning services. </p><p>Flowers is dressed down, way down, compared to the pastor's robe and stole he wears during traditional services. The atmosphere is not unlike that of First Presbyterian's sister church, Covenant Presbyterian Fellowship, better known as The Cove. That church, located on West Steele Lane near Coddingtown Mall, has an informal and relaxed style that resembles that of post-denominational Christian churches.</p><p>Flowers, 53, was not always Presbyterian. He was born in Springfield, Mo., where he grew up and attended both high school and Evangel College, a small school associated with the Assemblies of God.</p><p>He completed college in three years and, at the age of 20, went to seminary school at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.</p><p>After his first year at Fuller, Flowers took a break and did an internship in Fresno, where he met his wife, who was raised Episcopalian. The two then went back to Pasadena, got married and finished Flower's seminary studies. He graduated with a master's of divinity degree.</p><p>In 1981, the couple did mission work in the Philippines for two years. Flowers made plans to enter the doctorate program at Fuller but a bit of soul-searching revealed that what he really wanted to do was minister.</p><p>After working for a few years as a manager for a savings and loan in Fresno, Flowers landed an associate pastor's position at Carmel Presbyterian Church in 1988. Nine years later he came to Santa Rosa.</p><p>His predecessor, the Rev. Jimmy Adamson, had been pastor at First Presbyterian for 22 years. Flowers said that when he arrived in 1997, First Presbyterian was exactly what he was looking for, a mid-sized church with a strong children's and youth ministry.</p><p>“To me, the basics were already thriving,” he said. “It was a church that wanted to grow, I think, in the directions that we're known for now, in the areas of discipleship and missions.”</p><p>First Presbyterian, he said, was a “very strong community and it just grew stronger.”</p><p>The number of regular worshipping members at the church was in “the low-300s,” he said.</p><p>With more members comes more giving, and First Presbyterian's annual budget has grown to $1.1 million. The Easter offering, close to $10,000, is going to Haiti relief, and the congregation's mission budget, part of its operating budget, is more than $100,000.</p><p>When it comes to the emotionally charged theological and social issues of gay ordination and gay marriage, Flowers steered clear, saying he did not want to speak for the congregtation. He said only that the national Presbyterian church has stated positions on those issues.</p><p>For Paul Verdier, it wasn't the Presbyterian institution that drew him to the congregation.</p><p>A born-again Christian since 1974, Verdier started going to First Presbyterian Church after he and his wife moved to Santa Rosa seven years ago from Colorado Springs to become “nannies” for their granddaughter. His daughter and son-in-law attended First Presbyterian, the neighborhood church, so he and his wife gave it a try.</p><p>What he found, he said, was a dynamic congregation that was evolving and growing in ways that gave membership a chance to “walk the walk.”</p><p>The strength of the church, he said, was in the community formed by its members.</p><p>At Kids Street Learning Center, Verdier helps troubled kids with their math, their spelling, “anything the teacher needs me to do.”</p><p>Flowers said the youngsters at Kids Street “have really gotten” to Verdier. It's exactly the theme Flowers will be hitting during today's Easter Sermon: “Does the Gospel ‘Get' to You?”</p><p>Verdier, he said, “carries them in his heart. That's what I'm talking about ... Then the command to love God and love your neighbor isn't some rule, it's a way of life.”</p><p><i>You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com</i></p>