Mariners and South Coast: A Marriage Made in Heaven

With so many Orange County church congregations dwindling, it was fun to attend the Mariners South Coast Church in Newport Beach on Sunday, where it was standing room only as the crowd swayed to rock-style music.

When you fill every seat in a huge sanctuary, it’s bound to help out the coffers. The congregation applauded with enthusiasm with the announcement that the church is running 15% ahead of budget. And this without passing a collection plate. (It makes too many people uncomfortable, I was told, so you drop your donation off at the door.)

Church-goers first mill around on the spacious patio where tables are set up promoting church causes: summer camp for abused children, global ministries, the Lighthouse ministry to help the poor. There’s even a group devoted to helping people cope with divorce. If you’re a newcomer, you get a free tape with a message from the head minister (with a coupon for a free doughnut, to boot.)

But this past Sunday the patio quickly emptied as we heard the sounds of the church’s music group, led by the energetic piano sound of Jeff Gunn.

“Welcome to Mariners!” he called out as he played. And that could be a big reason this church is successful. Everybody is welcome.

People came in shorts and sandals, Hawaiian shirts, jeans. Many looked like they were headed to the beach straight from services. The minister for the day, Lyle Castellaw, was dressed like a camp counselor. No robes or suits for this crowd.

“It’s contemporary,” Gunn told me later. “I think that’s what appeals to people.”

Mariners, which is nondenominational, came to my attention because it was the focus of a major piece on “mega churches” by the Atlantic Monthly in its August issue. By dealing in volume, the magazine suggests, mega churches have the money to provide an array of services outside the sanctuary, which appeals to many.

Since the magazine piece was written, Mariners got even bigger. The Mariners church in Newport Beach merged in April with a second large-congregation church, South Coast in Irvine, to form the Mariners South Coast Church. Its two campuses are drawing about 5,000 worshipers each weekend.

“People in Newport Beach love a crowd,” said Karen Wilson, who has been attending the Newport Beach site for 19 years. “And this church provides all the accouterments.”

She means the church is more than just a place of worship; it’s the center of social life for many of its members.

Sunday night, for example, the church took over Frasier Park in Irvine for the last of its summer parties, with line dancing and a carnival for youngsters. For Wilson, it’s the heart of her community service. She’s involved in a summer camp for abused children as well as some of its other youth programs.

The pastor, Kenton Beshore, was on vacation when I attended. But in the Atlantic Monthly piece, Beshore describes many of the church’s members as “the new rich. . . . They got the world they wanted. But it wasn’t the world they wanted.”

Beshore has written to the congregation that the recent merger is like a “young married couple, committed to and united with each other. . . . Together we are going to develop our own new identity.”

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Life Supporters: Bob Butcher is looking for a few good men to help out many deserving women. Butcher, the principal at Willard Elementary School in Santa Ana, and his wife, Janet, are active in the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s annual Race for the Cure, which raises money to fight breast cancer.

Butcher is in charge of putting together a group called “Men for the Cure.” The men will provide support duties during and after the 5K race--Sept. 22 at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. But Butcher says the group will probably stay together after that.

“We’re looking for men whose lives have been touched by breast cancer, perhaps through a wife or a sibling,” he said. “After the race, we want to stay together. Then, the group will decide what direction it wants to take.”

One obvious role, he said, would be as a support group for men who learn their wives have developed breast cancer.

You can call Butcher’s school number, (714) 480-4812, if you want to join.

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Silent Hero: Paul Wood, a data base administrator from Orange, insists he is no hero. Sorry, Paul, no one’s buying it.

Wood spent two days in a hospital last year to provide bone marrow for a transplant for a 5-year-old Cincinnati boy, Joshua Zitscher. Joshua, whose young life has been a series of hospital stays and chemotherapy treatments, suffers from a rare, life-threatening genetic defect. But Wood’s bone-marrow transplant has greatly improved the boy’s health, and doctors are optimistic.

Now, for the first time, the two will get to meet. Woods and the boy, along with his parents, Angie and Bill Zitscher, will join together Saturday at the Southern California Home & Garden Show at the Anaheim Convention Center. They’ll be part of its “Home Is Where the Heart Is” program at 1 p.m. in Hall B.

“My part was so small,” said Wood. “Josh had to stay for 129 days [after the transplant], much of that time fighting for his life.”

Said Angie Zitscher: “Meeting Paul is like coming full circle with Josh’s illness.”

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Space Week: You can get a close-up look at the world of outer space starting Monday at the Westminster Mall. A traveling exhibit, “Project Space,” will be on display for the week. It will include space suits, models of the Titan V and Saturn rockets, lunar modules, and the Hubble Telescope, plus a lot of photos from space. Add to this package, astronaut Richard Gordon Jr. will be on hand Aug. 31 to meet people and sign autographs. Gordon was the command module pilot for Apollo 12. He’ll stick around to judge a contest for youngsters who build their own version of something for the space program, made up of recyclable material.

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Wrap-Up: On Sept. 15, Mariners South Coast Church will open a learning center on crowded Minnie Street, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Santa Ana, where the average annual family income is barely $5,000.

Laurie Beshore, who is pastor of its Lighthouse Ministries (and the head minister’s wife), writes about the center: “Minnie Street residents often tell us, ‘Many people come to help, but all of them eventually leave.’ That’s why we’ve made a long-term, tangible commitment.”

The church will take over four one-bedroom apartments and convert them into a resource center offering tutoring, computer classes, and reading assistance, plus classes for parents in matters like personal finance and job searching. And yes, it will offer Bible studies, for those who want it.