New Churches - Pictures and Information

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Have there been any churches built in anyones home town in the past few years? I can't recall any church being built in or around my area in my lifetime.

Kingdom Halls etc, yes but Christian churches or chapels - no.

Do we have all the churches we need?

― Rumpie, Friday, 19 August 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

resisting the urge to post a "lords of the new church" album cover...

most of the new churches that are built look like every other mixed-use building (i.e. completely characterless).

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

one thing i see a lot of is disused movie theaters being leased out as churches.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

Leased out? How souless.

There are plenty of new housing estates and villages being built - why not churches?

― Rumpie, Friday, 19 August 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/982/churchsign5dr.jpg

― Huey (Huey), Friday, 19 August 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

My town has several churches that have been built in the last 50 years, but none I can remember being built.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 19 August 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/89/churchsign23mm.jpg

― Huey (Huey), Friday, 19 August 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

my parents go to a weird 70s looking-church. it seems pretty newish. it's pyramid shaped!

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

churches are built all the time. note that often church is happening in random buildings these days. old offices, etc. even in school gyms/cafeterias when school isn't happening.

but often churches end up building in outskirts areas because new churches typically take up a lot of land. they're bigger. they need a lot of parking. extra buildings for schools and other mission work. etc etc. typically a church is built on the edge of town, then the town grows further around it simply because of new development. so you may not be noticing the construction because the construction isn't happening where land values are high and/or everybody lives.

a lot of times bunches of churches seem to be located right next to eachother. probably a case where a lot of land was up and so several congregations jumped on it. same with dealerships. etc.
m.

― msp (mspa), Friday, 19 August 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

In my home county there are a lot of strip mall churches, right in between check cashing places and LA Weight Loss centers.

― pullapartgirl (pullapartgirl), Friday, 19 August 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

There's a new church being built in Pasadena right now, for the Armenian Catholic population, which is growing around here. It's a traditional church shape, I'll get a picture this weekend if I can.

The engineering company I used to work at re-located to Texas in '93, and the building, a one-story suburban office park type, was bought by some independent church. Also an older single-screen movie theater in Pasadena was bought by a church.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

Ive seen a lot of the opposite around here lately - churches being converted into fancy apartments, or in one case, a GYM (wtf). I cant help feeling vaguely uneasy about that, even tho I'm not religious. I guess it says something about church attendance if they have to do such things.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 20 August 2005 04:04 (twenty years ago)

the "churchsigngenerator.com" part interferes somewhat with the rest of the effect. it doesn't seem like the type of thing a church would put on its sign.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 20 August 2005 05:30 (twenty years ago)

This cathedral is being converted to a performing arts center. It was damaged in the earthquake of a decade ago, and the Catholic church decided to build a new one nearby rather than tear this one down.

http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/historic/vibiana1885.jpeg

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 20 August 2005 07:06 (twenty years ago)

in my area of leeds, there are too many churches! there are loads that are either rehersal studios, clubs, or just derelict. theres only one mosque, i wonder if it is big enough to serve the local population.

as for churches using new buildings, in sheffield this is called "st thomas'"!!!!
http://www.borracho.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rock/dRoxyramp.jpg

this is "my" church, it was built in the 50s i think, and i think its really nice, even though people assume a "new" church is probably ugly

ihttp://www.firshman.co.uk/all-saints-church/images/allsaints1.jpg

― ambrose (ambrose), Saturday, 20 August 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

hey nickn where is the new church in Pasadena? and which theatre got bought? I remember the Laemmle Esquire became a Washington Mutual, the only other one I know of was the late lamented State Theatre. Let me also state for the record FUCK Pasadena traffic cops. I drive like a madman all over Los Angeles every single day, my work territory stretches from Glendale to Downtown to Venice to Malibu and all 5 ticky tack moving violations I've gotten in the last 3 years have come from driving in my own fucking city. I'm going to charter some gangs so Pasadena PD has something else to do with their time I swear.
Anyway why are we not talking about a new Mormon Temple in Orange County helloooo. Temple as in not even your average mormon is allowed to worship there normally but it is open to the public this month only hellooooo

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Saturday, 20 August 2005 23:40 (twenty years ago)

The new church is on Colorado, about two blocks west of the Vons at Sierra Madre. The theater that's now a church was the other single-screen Laemmle near the Esquire, I guess that was the State. The Esquire had posters in the ticket area from the Guitar Center next door when it went in, and I was hoping they would buy the theater too and hold concerts/demonstrations there. Unfortunately it's just another bank.

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 20 August 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

This is what it looked like in April.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/nickn/DSCN0891y.jpg

― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:14 (twenty years ago)

the church i grew up going to recently built a new church. it's hideous and they've become such assholes half their parishoners left.

― tehRZA gibbons (tehresa), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

this is the inside of the old building -

it was very cool but i can't seem to locate a picture of the outside.
people used to call it the spaceship church.
i found looking out the skylights a nice distraction from mass.

― tehRZA gibbons (tehresa), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:29 (twenty years ago)

i'm proud of your armenians for building an armenianish traditional church!

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

We're no Glendale, but we do OK! (I'm not Armenian, that was the royal "we.")

― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:54 (twenty years ago)

Still being built!

― The Original Jimmy Mod: Kind Warrior (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:55 (twenty years ago)

It's not surprising that new churches aren't being built, because, as ambrose says, there are far too many already. Furthermore, areas where there *is* demand for new church buildings tend to be areas where surplus churches have already been demolished or re-used. Plus, the feeling I get is that most of the growth in Christianity is at the evangelical end of the market. There's a certain style of evangelical worship - very-large-audience services backed by small 'cell' meetings in members' homes - lends itself very nicely to converting churches from derelict cinemas, bingo halls etc.

(my degree, incidentally, involved studying lots of derelict medieval churches. In England many derelict medieval churches were "restored" in the late 19th century, generally by High Anglicans. In the area I was studying, re-using a pre-Reformation church would have been seen as Papist bordering on Satanic)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 21 August 2005 07:17 (twenty years ago)

as for churches using new buildings, in sheffield this is called "st thomas'"!!!!

so that's like the opposite of the limelight (in nyc)?

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 21 August 2005 07:51 (twenty years ago)

WTF??? Barry Noble's Roxy is now a church???

for those I was telling about my under 18 disco experiences on Friday night - that's the place!!

― Porkpie (porkpie), Sunday, 21 August 2005 09:28 (twenty years ago)

yep, "Oxy disco" takes that church/rave thing a bit too far

― ambrose (ambrose), Sunday, 21 August 2005 11:16 (twenty years ago)

Wow, I love this branding thing - "Realm @ The Roxy" - it really sounds like a theme night at a club or something.

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 21 August 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

http://www.musicoutfitter.com/images/items/87/536387.jpg

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 21 August 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

There's one being built not far from me, on the northern edge of Philadelphia's Chinatown. I don't know whether it will be holding services in an Asian language. There are enough Asians, including recent immigrants, concentrated in that area that it makes sense they might need a new church for non-English language services, or simply for services more appropriate to their culture(s).

― Rockist_Scientist (hair by Joelle) (RSLaRue), Sunday, 21 August 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.