On Sundays, Grace Bible Church holds services in a school auditorium near Purcellville. During the week, the church staff works out of rented offices in Leesburg. And when Grace Bible wants to conduct baptisms, the church borrows the baptistery at a church in Ashburn.
"It's hard when you don't have a building that identifies you in the community," said Dan Towery, pastor of the 100-member congregation. Grace Bible has raised about $125,000 toward a permanent home -- "hardly enough to buy an acre in Loudoun County. The Lord is going to have to supply the rest," he said.
Kimberlie Cherry of Herndon receives communion from Church of the Holy Spirit pastor Clancy Nixon in Loudoun.
(Photos Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
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Grace Bible is among dozens of congregations in Loudoun and throughout Northern Virginia trying to find a permanent space to worship and conduct other church activities. As homes, schools and businesses pop up across the rapidly developing suburbs, many religious institutions are a step behind, unable to build facilities to house their growing congregations.
Many houses of worship have turned to the local school system, from which they rent classrooms. In the 2003-04 school year, more than half of Loudoun County's then-61 schools hosted church services. "Our buildings are very heavily used," said Wayde Byard, a spokesman for Loudoun County public schools. He said principals decide whether to accommodate churches as they juggle similar requests from county parks and recreation programs, Boy and Girl Scout troops, English as a second language classes, senior citizen groups and arts organizations. "It's not that we exclude anybody -- it's just that there's a lineup for space," Byard said.
Before meeting at Harmony Intermediate School in February 2003, Grace Bible worshiped in the cafeteria at Loudoun County High School while another church used the auditorium there. Grace Bible also has met in a child-care center and even in private homes.
The space crunch is not confined to the outer suburbs. Congregations are springing up in areas that are mostly built out. In Arlington County, for example, four churches meet regularly in three elementary schools and a middle school. Most use a multipurpose room, which typically costs $154 each Sunday, plus overtime costs for a custodian to open and close the building, said David Blorstad, finance director with Arlington County public schools.
In Fairfax County, churches needing space usually request middle or high schools; elementary school classrooms generally are off-limits because students keep their belongings in unlocked desks, said Amy Craig, who coordinates community use of school facilities. As a result, nearly all the county's middle and high schools not under renovation host a church meeting on weekends.
Craig estimated that the roughly 90 churches that meet weekly at school facilities are charged $60 to $100 an hour, including custodial fees.
Finding suitable facilities can pose challenges to a congregation of any faith. Several weeks ago, members of Beth Chaverim Reform Congregation in Loudoun held a worship service outside after they were locked out of their rented facility because of a mix-up, said Billie Medoff, public relations liaison for the congregation. Beth Chaverim now holds Friday evening services at the senior center in Cascades -- a move Medoff said has cut down on "schlepping materials" such as prayer books and ritual pieces, though the Torahs do have to be taken to somebody's home between services.
James Person, principal of Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, said at least three churches called him about meeting at the school before it even opened in 2000. He decided the school wasn't ready to handle a church in its first year, but Crossroads United Methodist Church has been using the facilities for about three years. That has been a positive experience, Person said, because families who knew of the church through the school found support there after a series of student deaths in the county this year.
Meeting at schools has logistical challenges. Church of the Holy Spirit, a three-year-old Episcopal congregation in Loudoun, uses the gym at Mill Run Elementary School. The hardest part about holding services under the basketball hoops, said pastor Clancy Nixon, is the manpower required to set up each week. Teams of six church members rotate setting up the altar, chairs and screen, taking them out of rolling cabinets made by a company that specializes in portable church products. The setup and take-down consume three hours.
Using the school also means that the church cannot have candles or incense in its liturgy, Nixon said.
"The school has been wonderful to us, but a church building would be nice," said Nixon, who usually plans on about 160 people at each service. The church pays about $45,000 a year to rent the school on Sundays and for special events. "It's harder to attract people when you don't have a church building."
