The Villages Daily Sun

THE VILLAGES — When Luth Tenorio started her snowbird visits to The Villages nearly five years ago, she wanted to find a small church that was compatible with her background.

She found it is not so easy to find a small church in The Villages.

“I think the ones I attended were pretty big,” said the part-time Village of Briar Meadow resident.

During a time when church attendance nationwide is at a plateau or declining, churches in and around The Villages are flourishing, and new churches are continuing

to locate here.

“It’s a wonderful problem to have,” said the Rev. Bob Perry of First Baptist Church at The Villages, located off County Road 42. “If we had to pick a problem, I’d much rather have more people.”

Against the tide

Religion in America is in a relatively transitional state.

According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 28 percent of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised for a different faith, or profess no faith at all.

“The statistics are horrible,” Perry said. “About 75 percent of all churches are declining.”

Barry Hunteman, senior pastor of Hope Lutheran Church, said he sees church being different in the future, given the current situation in most of the country.

“Fifty percent of the 10,000 Lutheran churches are below 100 in average attendance every week,” he said, adding that it takes about 125 members to support a pastor. “That tells you something about the church and how it’s changing.

“They’re in a declining situation,” he said. “I’m not concerned about the church dying, I just think it will be different.”

However, in The Villages, most churches are looking to expand to accommodate their ever-growing congregations.

“This is quite unique,” said the Rev. Simon Shanor of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church. “Other churches up north are downsizing … we’re still experiencing growth.”

In fact, in less than three years St. Mark on County Road 42 has grown so much that the church has plans to construct a larger building that will accommodate about 1,700 people. The congregation has grown to 3,500 members in its short time in existence.

Hunteman’s church has 1,400 members and is growing. Perry’s church has 550 members, with about 600 attending services.

Hunteman thinks it is indicative of the area and the traditions in which Villages residents were raised.

“This area is probably the last of church culture as we’ve known it for probably the last 50 years in our country,” he said.

Perry believes many area residents are at a stage in life when church attendance becomes more important.

“As people age, spiritual issues become bigger,” Perry said.

Awe-inspiring growth

In the three years since First Baptist Church opened its doors at its location off County Road 42, the congregation already has outgrown the building.

“We’ve got people tucked in all the corners,” Perry said. “The growth is awe-inspiring. We’re just kind of thrilled with it.

“To not be one of those plateau or declining churches is very humbling.”

Perry would like to see the church continue to grow, despite the space constraints, and said he is always encouraging his congregation to invite guests.

“Our vision is to continue to grow,” he said. “One of the things I’ve told our folks is if we stop growing, it’s because people stopped inviting.”

Even though it has been only three years since the church completed its building, Perry said they are already starting a capital fundraising campaign for a future building.

“We want to make sure there’s always room for one more person,” he said. “So we want to prepare a place where they can come.”

Hope Lutheran, off County Road 466, is in a similar situation, the congregation having doubled in size since moving into the building in 2003.

“It looks like we don’t have enough room to do everything on our site that we would like to do,” Hunteman said, adding that it is still too early to know how they will resolve the issue. “But our dream is to buy a piece of land and have a community ministry center on that site and have a two-site church.”

Hunteman came to the area, having previously been a senior pastor at an 1,100-member church in Tampa, looking to start a church in 1998. His office was his car and a cell phone under a tree at La Hacienda Center.

“When I came to this area, I thought it would be good, but I didn’t think it would be anything like this,” he said. “I had a lot of confidence that it would be a growing church, but I never dreamed it would go from zero to 1,400 in less than 10 years.

“I felt God was calling me to take my 25 years in ministry and begin something where there wasn’t anything. I feel very blessed.”

Shaner is experiencing being the pastor of a church for the first time at St. Mark, and he said it has been wonderful to do it with such a large and active church.

“I always tell them I’m spoiled,” he said. “I grew with the parishioners … we grew together.

“The energy does come from them, and for me that’s very invigorating.”

In the early stages

At the other end of the spectrum, the United Church of Christ is in its early stages, starting four years ago holding services at a member’s residence.

As its congregation grew, the church moved its worship location, finding the latest temporary home for its 126-person congregation at Temple Shalom in Oxford.

Soon, though, the church will have its own home. In early March, it held a consecration ceremony for the future site of its church building, with construction expected to begin later this year.

“People are always trying to catch up with us, so to speak, as we move from location to location,” said the Rev. Bill Wealand. “We’re very pleased with the growth of the congregation, and fully expect that later this year, when we break ground and start building the first phase of our own church building, that will probably be a moment when our growth will probably jump.”

Wealand said it has always been a dream of his to establish a church in a community, and he feels blessed to have this opportunity.

“This has kind of been the fulfillment of the hope or a wish that I had almost from the earliest times of my career as a minister,” he said. “It has been exciting, it has really been energizing. The members, the people who gathered in those early years, were all so deeply committed; many of them took on two, three, even four volunteer jobs to help get the congregation started.

“We often remember very fondly those early months, and even during the first year or so.”

The church expects to have 130 members by mid-April; and already its growth, even without a permanent building, is faster paced than other United Church of Christ churches.

“Even after just four years of existence, there are 43 others (United Church of Christ churches) that are smaller than this one in Florida,” Wealand said. “People do express a certain sense of surprise and happiness about that when I talk to other pastors in Florida.”

Wealand thinks the growth has to do partly with church-going people moving to The Villages and seeking a new church home.

But he also believes it has something to do with people’s willingness to help

others.

“I do think there are a significant number of people living in The Villages that feel that one of the things they can now afford to do time-wise is to give back,” he said. “And I hear those words quite often: ‘I’m at a point in my life where I can give back.

“That certainly contributes to people wanting to be active in religious and social welfare,” Wealand said. “I just know that I feel very, very grateful to the people who have given me this opportunity to be a part of this very, very exciting and very, very wonderful congregation. It sort of brought my life in the ministry to a very happy conclusion.”

Finding a home

Marion McClarin is the new-member team leader at Hope Lutheran, and she said she has worked with new-member classes that are larger than her previous congregation.

In February, Hope Lutheran gained 68 new members, McClarin said; her previous church in New York had a 65-member congregation. In her nearly two years as team leader, McClarin has welcomed 299 new members into the Hope Lutheran Church family.

“I was very surprised,” McClarin said of the large groups she works with. “I had no idea it would be that many people.

“We’re still in close contact with our pastor back home, and they just can’t believe it.”

McClarin said she thinks the large membership may be due to residents wanting to, or having the time to, go back to church.

For McClarin and her husband, church has always been a very important part of their lives, and a part that they knew they would want to continue when they moved to their Village of Springdale home.

In fact, the couple became members of Hope Lutheran before they had even bought a house in The Villages.

“We regret now that our house isn’t right next to the church,” she said with a laugh. McClarin said her husband has always wanted to be part of a large church, and feels like it has been a dream come true to be a member of Hope Lutheran.

Ed Johnson is a charter member of St. George Episcopal Church, located at Paige Place, and said he has loved how involved he can be with the church. He thinks the availability of time in retirement is one reason that so many area residents become deeply involved with their churches.

“What is so good here in The Villages is we’re all retired people; we all have time, more time, I guess,” he said. “They all have just so many people that want to be involved. People enjoy their churches more because they have time to be involved.

“That’s what happened with us,” Johnson added.

Tenorio said she has always been active in her churches, and that was an important factor for her in looking for a church in The Villages.

“I was actually looking for a church that was similar to my values,” she said. “I was also looking for a church that is very active in relation to expressing their spirituality through involvement with the community.”

And although it has taken five years, Tenorio feels like she has finally found her spiritual home at United Church of Christ at The Villages. On Palm Sunday, she was received as a new member of the congregation.

“It was exciting,” she said. “It was validating, I think.

“It’s nice to finally have a church family,” she added. “It’s a good feeling that there’s a church you can

go to and call your church family.”

Katie Evans is a reporter with the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9607, or katie.evans@thevillages

media.com.