Some churches pursue social activism by caring for the homeless; some have gotten involved in international issues, such as protesting genocide in Sudan; and others have adopted environmentalism, with recycling and community gardens.
Now some are embracing a gospel of urban planning known as New Urbanism.
That movement, led by architects, builders and urban planners, seeks to retool or build village-like neighborhoods in urban settings, where people can walk to shops, schools, jobs and churches. In new development, they make sure that porches, not garages, grace the fronts of homes and that every neighborhood has some public space.
New Urbanism is seen as an antidote to anonymous suburban sprawl and the social and spiritual alienation that auto-dominated life can trigger.
A case in point is Bidwell Presbyterian Church in Chico, a Romanesque Revival house of worship with a classic Italian bell tower that has been a landmark in the Northern California city's downtown more than a century.
The church began looking to build a satellite campus to accommodate the quadrupling of the congregation in the last two decades to more than 1,000, according to Tom Hayes, an elder on the church's building committee. The early idea was a modern building surrounding by acres of parking.
But then the church was contacted by New Urban Builders, a developer with plans for a $750-million, 250-acre mixed-use community of 1,500 houses, apartments, businesses, schools and a baseball field about three miles south of downtown Chico.
The firm invited the congregation to construct its second church on two acres in a similar style as its original building and to occupy a central spot in the new neighborhood, called Meriam Park.
The new church would be built right next to the sidewalks and would not have its own parking lot; New Urbanists view big lots as eyesores and boring wastes of space. Instead, it would share nearby public parking facilities with businesses.
The satellite campus for Bidwell Presbyterian is estimated to cost more than $7 million. With groundbreaking expected next year, church officials hope to have the first phase completed by 2008.
Forgoing a parking lot allows for buildings besides the fellowship hall originally planned: classrooms and offices, a courtyard, a sanctuary and an outdoor arcade where congregants can chat after worship, said John Anderson, one of the developers of Meriam Park. The multipurpose fellowship hall will be open to the community for other civic and cultural events.
