Overflowing church moves, for now, from mall to former K-mart

  
By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
     VANCOUVER, Wash. — Pastor John Bishop says Living Hope Church is entering a new, unpredictable and even “dangerous” phase of growth and impact.
     Bishop, whose forthcoming book Dangerous Church outlines his views on making today’s church relevant to the unsaved masses, has been busy of late dealing with such masses of people.
     As this issue of Christian News Northwest went to press, about 8,000 people had flocked to the church’s Westfield Vancouver Mall site in December for the first half of the church’s 13 Living Nativity presentations, and 1,300 — many with no church background whatsoever — had received Christ through the programs, he said.
   “We are just blown away by it,” he said. “We might have to consider doing the program next year in (Portland’s) Memorial Coliseum.”
     The Christmas crowds and their response to the Gospel provided a moving conclusion to what has been a momentous short-term occupancy of the former Mervyn’s store at the mall, he said. The church, which has a total average weekly attendance of about 5,500 at all its campuses, saw an average mall crowd of about 4,000 since moving there last April in time for Easter services.
      The church moved because its main campus in the Brush Prairie area was proving inadequate. “Our church has really changed,” said Bishop. “We had been one with a 6,000 square-foot auditorium, then found ourselves in one with 40,000. We have really morphed into a church that we are accepting as a large one.”
     He said that has meant “re-thinking everything” on how to respond to “a culture that is not churched.”
     “We are in the middle of the town square,” he said. But Living Hope was well aware the mall site was likely temporary. A Cinetopia theater complex is to be built soon at that corner of the mall, and the church must vacate. Living Hope was to hold its last services there Dec. 26, but hoped to get a one-week extension to Jan. 2.
     While a new main campus for Living Hope is not yet confirmed, the church is setting up shop Jan 8 and 9 for at least the short term in a possible site. It is a former K-mart store at 2711 N.E. Andresen Road, now owned by Kuni BMW, which met what Bishop termed a “dire” need by making the space available for at least a brief time.
    “Kuni BMW, in essence, is providing a lifeboat for Living Hope,” said Bishop.
    At 84,000 square feet, the K-mart has the same total space as the Mervyn’s, but acquiring it would cost an estimated $4.8 million, with $2 million more needed for renovation. So Living Hope is trusting God to guide the church and meet the need through His people.
      Bishop says information on the church will be updated at livinghopechurch.com. Information on his new book can be found at dangerouschurch.com.