Pastors, Music Help Black Protestant Churches Thrive : Religion: Nine of top 15 in national growth survey are African-American. Dynamic leaders draw people from distances.

When the Rev. Charles E. Blake was presented as the new pastor before a fractious, 50-member congregation in Los Angeles 22 years ago, the young Pentecostal minister encountered such hostility that “I always wondered why I didn’t leave.”

But Blake now leads four Sunday morning services at the same West Angeles Church of God in Christ that pack in an average of 6,400 worshipers.

The Rev. Charles Singleton has displayed a similar flair for attracting people to the Loveland Church in Rancho Cucamonga, where average attendance has climbed in the last decade from 300 on peak Sundays to about 3,750.

The two predominantly black churches are doing so well they were among the 15 fastest-growing Protestant churches in the country as ranked by gains in average Sunday worship attendance from 1988 to 1989, the last year for which complete statistics are available. Both churches are continuing to boom.

They illustrate dramatically the rapid growth of churches led by engaging pastors who combine thoughtful yet dynamic preaching with lively, contemporary music. Many experts thought this trend was primarily confined to white Protestantism.

However, nine black churches were among the top 15 nationally in a survey compiled by the Rev. John N. Vaughan, a church growth specialist at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo. West Angeles was fourth in the country and led California churches with a one-year gain of 1,200 worshipers. Loveland was 12th with a gain of 850.

Two churches tied for the largest gain of 1,500 worshipers, the largely white Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque, N.M., and the predominantly black Word of Faith Center in Detroit.

Typical of fast-growing Protestant churches, West Angeles and Loveland pull in people from miles around. “It’s a short distance if you enjoy the services,” said court bailiff Charles Hughes of Diamond Bar, who drives 35 miles to West Angeles in the Crenshaw District.

“A major shift is taking place in some black churches,” said Vaughan. “Some of the pastors are shortening their traditionally long services and having multiple services on Sunday morning.”

It helps also if the pastor is a likable, well-known denominational figure, Vaughan said. Blake was named by Ebony Magazine in 1984 as one of the 15 best black preachers in the nation. He was elected a bishop in his denomination the next year.

Blake, a lean and energetic 50, attributes the church’s growth mainly to “giving worship back to the people--with members actually singing and praising God about 25% of worship time.” The music is not traditional church hymns, he said, but “modern-style music you might hear on the radio.”

West Angeles and Loveland both have three professional counselors on their ministerial staffs.

“Church people want to know they can get help from a Christian perspective,” said Singleton. Loveland is affiliated with the Southern Baptists but is more interdenominational in flavor, Singleton said.

The Rev. Cornish Rogers, who once directed United Methodist urban ministry studies in Los Angeles, said “a renewed hunger for belonging” in black communities may be making big churches more attractive. “With the increasing breakup of families, no doubt, big churches have the resources to help,” Rogers said.

But the one-time inner-city pastor, who teaches at the School of Theology at Claremont, confessed that it is still a mystery why some churches grow and others don’t.

“Curious, young, educated blacks are going to conservative churches that emphasize Bible studies and fellowship and local church autonomy,” said Rogers. “It’s remarkable how they attract college-educated yuppies.”

Stephanie and Mark Graham are examples of formerly mainline churchgoers who find large, conservative churches attractive.

When they moved last year from Los Angeles to Rancho Cucamonga, they “liked a lot” the theologically conservative Calvary Chapel of Ontario, a largely white congregation that was the third-fastest growing church in Southern California in 1989.

But the couple heard about the largely black Loveland Church and joined last winter. “They had a welcoming atmosphere and my husband likes the pastor because he preaches the Word,” said Stephanie Graham, director of public relations for the United Methodist-run School of Theology at Claremont.

Likewise, the preaching of Blake at West Angeles was the primary appeal for Carl Balton, a vice president of Bank of California.

“He is able to speak effectively to all economic and educational levels,” said Balton, who lives in Los Angeles. “He’s also bridged the gap between the traditional rural church and the mobile, urban church of today.”

All this success has forced the two congregations to plan for building larger churches.

West Angeles recently purchased property near its present facilities for $8.5 million. In the meantime, the church hopes to begin beaming Sunday services via closed-circuit television to the overflow crowd in a building across the street.

Loveland Church, which sold its old building in Fontana last year, is using the Etiwanda High School gymnasium to accommodate worshipers in four services each Sunday. But Singleton said the church is acquiring land in Rancho Cucamonga near Interstate 15 for an estimated $11-million building project.

Booming Attendance

Here are the 10 fastest-growing Protestant churches in Southern California, ranked by one-year gains in average Sunday worship attendance. The 1989 figures are the last complete statistics available.

1988 1989 CHURCH CITY 3,800 5,000 West Angeles Church of God in Christ Los Angeles 2,750 3,600 Loveland Church Rancho Cucamonga 1,200 2,000 Calvary Chapel Ontario 4,700 5,150 Horizon Christian Fellowship San Diego 3,055 3,503 Saddleback Valley Community Church Mission Viejo 1,300 1,700 World Agape Mission Church Los Angeles 1,500 1,900 Shepherd of the Hills Church Chatsworth 4,600 5,000 South Coast Community Church Irvine 100 500 Power Community Church Anaheim 5,600 6,000 Calvary Church Santa Ana

SOURCE: The Rev. John N. Vaughan, Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, Mo.