The Orange County Register Little Crow arranges a buffalo robe on the stage and places eagle feathers, tobacco and swatches of different-colored cloth atop it, each Sunday transforming the multipurpose room at Sunnyside Elementary School in Garden Grove, Calif., into the American Indian Church. By 9, their Rock Harbor Church is ready to roll. In San Clemente, Calif., Lesneski Mortuary swings open its chapel doors once a week so that the South County Baptist Church can move in for several hours and praise the Lord. Across Southern California, houses of God have taken root in unconventional places. University Synagogue plans to move into a failed Irvine ice rink.
Most religious leaders prefer buildings designed for their higher purposes.
As congregations have learned in recent weeks, strict city zoning laws, prohibitive building and land costs and great difficulty in finding parcels with enough room for a church or temple and a large parking lot make that difficult. Unconventional meeting sites are no deterrent to growth. Congregations spun off from traditional houses of worship are outgrowing the movie houses and warehouses that incubated them. The church spent five years looking for a large, traditional church but couldn't find a suitable one. The reason for converting the lumberyard into a place to celebrate the life of Christ is simple.