The Daughter Church

Shortly after Mimi and I returned from Tennessee, Pastor John decided to start a second church. Mt. Tam Community Church had grown to a respectable size—by Marin standards—of over 100 souls, but we had been more or less stuck at that number since the Easter marketing blitz of the previous spring. And John was sure that the buzz created by a starting a new “daughter” church would re-energize Mt. Tam and leave us with two thriving congregations instead of a single sort-of-limping-along one. (Of course, someone with a more pessimistic bent might have argued that expending our church’s limited resources on multiple fronts was likely to result in two sort-of-limping along congregations. But, assuming such a pessimistic person existed, he was probably worried about coming across as a no-faith naysayer, so he kept his mouth shut.)

So it was that BayMarin Community Church was born as my 3rd year of seminary got underway. I don’t remember who came up with the church's name, but it was perfectly seeker-sensitive: trendy sounding without a hint of religiosity. After all, words like “Christ” or “Redeemer” tend to remind seekers that they are, in fact, going to church, and nobody wants that. Better to have the realization dawn on them slowly. Very slowly.

The setting for the new church was an auditorium at a Catholic college in San Rafael. The space was dominated by a statue of St. Dominic de Guzman, who was perched front and center above the stage where he could keep an eye on things. Undoubtedly, St. Dominic was worthy of any such honors that could be bestowed upon him, but his presence did detract a bit from the neutral, religion-free zone we were trying to create. So Pastor John asked Mimi to sew a colorful banner whose dimensions were approximately equal to those of a certain 12th century Spanish saint. (Perhaps good Dominic can find it in his heart to forgive her.)

Once the location was set, we got things rolling with the same approach that had proven successful the previous Easter, sending out thousands of colorful invitations to BayMarin’s first service. And with the San Francisco Giants’ chaplain appearing as an extra drawing card, the seeker sensitive formula worked for a second time. Close to 200 people showed up, and even after subtracting for Mt. Tam people who dropped in after their service was over, it was a nice beginning. Best of all, no one seemed wise to the St. Dominic cover-up.

On second thought, the best part was that we pulled the whole thing off without a trailer. The college gave us some on-site storage space, so there was no need for Mike and me to venture further down Highway 101 with the Jed Clampett pickup truck.

Maybe this two church idea was going to work out after all.