Congregation Finally Has a Roof of Its Own : Religion: After 15 years of wandering, fast-growing Saddleback Valley Community Church puts down roots in Portola Hills.

It was just a large piece of canvas, leaky during rainstorms and not very good at keeping out the morning chill.

But for 10,000 worshipers of the Saddleback Valley Community Church, their tent was a spiritual home for almost three years.

Choir member Bill Cowdrey remembers watching a particularly nasty cloudburst blow freezing rain on several rows of the congregation last Easter.

“The cold water came pouring down on them and people jumped out of their seats like they were doing the wave,” said Cowdrey. “Yet, somehow, it didn’t seem to dampen their spirits.”

This weekend, one of the fastest-growing congregations in the country will leave its frontier past behind when it officially opens a 36,000-square-foot church in Portola Hills.

On the inside, the building looks more like a performing arts center than an evangelical church. Twenty-foot-wide projection screens loom over the stage. Huge 35-foot windows on each side of the auditorium offer a commanding a view of the scenic Saddleback Mountains.

To church officials, the new building is merely a transition to another, much larger house of worship planned for construction in about five years.

But it’s also a symbol of permanence for a congregation that has experienced phenomenal growth while remaining nomadic for much of its 15-year existence in the Saddleback Valley.

“The Israelites wandered through the desert for 40 years,” said Executive Pastor Glen Kreun. “I’m glad we didn’t have to wait that long.”

The church started in the home of founder and Senior Pastor Rick Warren. About a dozen of Warren’s friends and family went through the phone book and licked the envelopes on 15,000 invitations to attend the first services at Laguna Hills High School.

About 200 people showed up and, shortly afterward, the congregation began searching for land to build its own church.

As the church went from school to school, doubling and tripling in size with each move, two land deals fell through. Finally, the church found a 74-acre plot nestled in the foothills between the fast-growing communities of Rancho Santa Margarita and Foothill Ranch.

Instead of slapping down a modular building, church leaders decided in 1992 to erect a 500-foot tent. California’s drought promptly came to an end, with two of the rainiest seasons in recent memory passing through the Southland.

“It would get so cold, people would come bringing lap blankets and wearing heavy coats,” said Kreun.

Still, thousands showed up every weekend, mostly baby boomers who moved to the Saddleback Valley looking to improve their quality of life.

Despite the tent, Saddleback became the fastest-growing church in the United States in 1992-93 and has been in the top 10 nationally each of the past five years, according to Pastor John Vaughn, who heads the American Society of Church Growth in Missouri.

Running a church of 10,000 is something like a cross between leading a city and a small army, Kreun said.

“It takes a lot of different talents to run a church this large,” he said. “But if you don’t have someone to implement a vision, it all falls apart.”

The Saddleback Church’s resident visionary is Warren, the 41-year-old founder and senior pastor.

Warren started the church as a 26-year-old whose message appealed to fellow baby boomers. Church officials and ecumenical experts say the secret to the pastor’s charisma lies in his knowledge of his congregation and his ability to apply spiritual solutions to social problems.

“Rick can put the pieces together,” Vaughn said. “He’s a very Bible-based person who is also very contemporary.

“He very clearly knows the language of his culture and finds places where people need the Bible rather than trying to make them try to understand it themselves.”

Sometimes the solution to the stresses and complications of life is just a hug, church officials said.

Although many Saddleback Valley residents were on familiar ground in the workplace, in their neighborhoods, “they were lonely,” Kreun said. “A lot of our congregation tells me that the only time they get a hug is at church.”

Few religious icons adorn the new house of worship because “where most churches like to control their environment, we don’t want people to be intimidated by a lot of symbolism,” Kreun said. “We wanted this to be a place where people feel comfortable.”

Contemporary Christian music is an integral part of the program. At a private opening for church members last weekend, more than 200 musicians took the stage. Racks of sound equipment and video monitors line the walls of an audio-visual command center backstage in the new church.

The church doesn’t shy from the problems of modern life. Group sessions on drug and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, marriage counseling and recovery from divorce are run by congregation members.

When the new building is replaced by an even larger house of worship in about 2000, the former current facility will be turned into a Fellowship Hall where many of the church’s programs will be run.

Also on the grounds is an outdoor amphitheater for weddings and special events, a complex for Sunday school classes and child care, and sports fields.

Still, as the giant tent was being dismantled this week, Cowdrey said he’ll pine a little for the old days.

“I’m going to miss that tent,” he said. “Just because, when you’re going through adversity, sometimes you remember the tough times fondly.”