New site on tap for growing church

By: JAMES CURRAN - Staff Writer | Saturday, October 28, 2006 10:44 PM PDT ∞

MENIFEE ---- Perhaps it was force of habit, but although the parking lot wasn't yet full for the 8 a.m. Sunday service at Revival Christian Fellowship, Barry Hobson noticed the sign "This service is full: Next service time 9:30 a.m." was pointed toward Scott Road.

Hobson, a parking volunteer from Sun City, turned the sign around while his partners buzzed on walkie-talkies. They were giving each other color-coded messages about where to squeeze vehicles in for what could be another overflow crowd.

"It's been to the point where we fill up five minutes before the service starts," Hobson said of the megachurch. "We don't want to turn people away, so sometimes we even offer a CD of the service."

Revival recently added a sixth service to handle its growing congregation, but church officials hope that in three years or so, there will be a better solution than to just keep adding services or to direct people to sites other than its 1,200-seat sanctuary. One of Southwest County's largest churches recently detailed to its rapidly growing congregation a proposed move to a potentially 80-acre site Sunday.

Revival Christian Fellowship ---- a church affiliated with Calvary Chapel with about 6,000 members ---- expects to spend about $40 million to build a campus near Scott and Briggs roads. The new site is less than a mile from its current site on Scott. Church leaders offered varying dates for a groundbreaking and an opening. Its most aggressive targets are for a November 2007 groundbreaking and an opening in 2009.

Revival ---- originally known as Calvary Chapel-Menifee ---- opened in 1992. Indicative of the growth in the Menifee Valley, Revival has grown in attendance 180 percent since it moved to its current 10-acre campus in 2001 and has had to expand the number of services to accommodate the growth, including five on Sundays and one Saturday night.

Revival services had become so packed that late attendees have been directed to its onsite coffee shop for a live video feed, while others were turned away with CDs of the pastor's sermon. Church officials also have tried to locate an off-campus site on which to broadcast live services for overflow crowds.

"The big hint that it was time to move was when ... we added our sixth weekend service a couple of months ago," Revival Executive Pastor Ted Leavenworth said. "Basically, we're at the place where we can't add any more services. We either kill our pastor or we add space. He's just real busy."

Specific plans for the new church haven't been completed for submission to the county. Leavenworth said church officials want an amphitheater, a larger sanctuary, a bookstore, coffee shop, wedding chapel and a location for youth ministry. He said worshippers have asked for a school, but no decision has been made on that.

Revival senior pastor Gary Galbraith told the congregation a service earlier this month that construction would take place in phases, due to cost considerations. Leavenworth said last week that it was not known if the entire 80 acres would be developed or if part of the parcel would be sold to finance construction. It's also undecided if the current site would be sold.

Leavenworth said Revival bought the 80 acres years ago as a contingency plan for growth. The church had learned its lesson from underestimating its current space.

"We had the opportunity to buy the 10 behind us (years ago)," he said. "We knew we would be kicking ourselves if we didn't. Of course, they sold it to a developer behind us and we're feeling the pinch now."

As a result, church volunteers now find themselves directing people not to park in a residential neighborhood behind the sanctuary ---- the very land it could have bought several years ago.

Leavenworth said the parking ills are indicative of why Revival needs to move.

"One of the names in our church name is 'fellowship,'" he said. "Our intention is to design it with fellowship. We want people to stick around. We don't want to say 'Hurry up and leave because we need your parking space.' By doing that, our hope is that the experience of the community won't be 1,000 cars rushing in and out in a confined period of time."

Contact staff writer James Curran at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2627, or jcurran@californian.com.

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