Alternative churches serve those who don’t want ‘church as usual’

When Eugene Coleman began Carpenter’s Cowboy Church in Chattanooga 14 years ago, the entertainers he ministered to all had the same story.

“They’d all grown up in Sunday school and church,” he said, “but the minute they went into a bar” as entertainers, they were looked down upon by their faith families.

Pastors of alternative Christian gatherings say less judgmental, more inclusive, more creative churches, such as the Mosaic Church and its Club Fathom outreach, are drawing increasingly large numbers. And they haven’t had to water down their messages.

“People are no longer willing to play church as usual,” said Dillon Burroughs, a Chattanooga author who is vice president of publications for Ankerberg Theological Research Institute.

Those dissatisfied with spirituality in general in mainstream churches, he said, see denominations as less important.

Megachurches and new churches, which lean toward being nondenominational, are the large growth areas, said Ryan May, lead pastor of The Net Church, which meets in the Rave Theatre in East Ridge.

“Our core beliefs are similar to traditional churches,” he said, “but we tend not to get hung up as much on the debatable issues. We say we have unity in the essentials but freedom in the nonessentials.”

While the theater location of The Net Church is unusual, its social networking ties, advertising techniques and online content help set it apart from other nondenominational churches.

It offers “a lot of humor, acceptance and a grace-based theology and approach toward people and ministry,” Mr. May said.

Keith Riddle, 35, who has attended The Net Church with his family since its January launch, said he was drawn by the congregation’s “If You Hate Church” billboard but stayed because of a common vision and heart among its leaders and members.

“They’re all very, very real people,” he said. “I grew up in church. I’m fluent in the language. This is the most alternative church I’ve been in, but the people here are sincere and have real integrity. There is no pretense, no facade.”

Bob Angle, vice moderator of The Rock, part of a global network of Metropolitan Community churches, said the 21-year-old Chattanooga congregation primarily serves gays but does not discriminate against heterosexuals.

He said people — regardless of sexuality — are looking for inclusive churches, ones that allow them to be “who God created them to be.”

Mr. Coleman, whose congregation meets Sundays in the Centennial Theater of the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and maintains a weekly Tuesday ministry to long-haul truckers, said people who attend churches today want an “upbeat, positive, loving” service in which people can “come as you are.”

Gene Poe, 67, who has attended Carpenter’s Cowboy Church for about three years, said he first visited the church because of his work relationship with the pastor.

Since then, he said, the band, the hospitality, his admiration of Mr. Coleman and the people he met have kept him there.

A congregation with rows and rows of pews where everyone looks alike no longer is the norm, either, pastors say.

“I don’t think you can put them in a box,” Mr. May said of those attend his church. “It’s everything you can imagine. But the great thing is, if somebody walks through the door, there is usually someone to identify with.”

The future, according to Mr. Burroughs, may hold even more alternative faith gatherings.

Certainly, he said, there will be fewer denominational churches. Where the focus likely will be, he said, is on organizations that are making a difference in the community.