Recovering from a great disaster challenges a congregation’s quick reflexes and endurance, according to Greg Hughes, pastor of Malibu Church in Malibu, Calif.
“Up until this point it’s been a sprint,” admits Hughes. He and the church made international news as the first structure to burn in the October 2007 wildfires that wreaked havoc through the Malibu area last fall. “Now we’ve got to start pacing ourselves — we are now in the marathon stage,” says the pastor. Almost six months after the fire, the story of Malibu Church is one of both perseverance and exhaustion, of challenge and opportunity as the staff and the congregation work to grieve over what has been lost and dream toward what is yet to come.
“The church burned on a Sunday and we had our first meeting that next week,” shares Kris Martin the church’s finance officer. “We hit the ground running and we were all over the place working from home and over the phone and finally we had a meeting together and realized that we had not checked in with each other at all,” she remembers, “and we realized that we all needed that — it was a roller coaster there at the beginning.” Though staff members are quick to point out that the church is obviously much more than a building, there still is a lot of loss involved when that building burns to the ground. “We all react differently, mourn differently, and recover differently,” admits Martin. “But at the same time it was amazing to see the amount of goodness that showed up on our doorstep, to realize how many good people there are out there.”
Ross McMeekin works with the university students at the church. He notes: “You may feel isolated but this is a nationwide body and people come out of the woodwork when they see a need. We didn’t realize that body was there until we had the need.” Eric Smith, director of youth ministries adds, “We have seen the support of tons of different youth groups, and not just local –we even had stuff sent from a youth group in New Jersey!” Smith has also worked to help his students deal with the tragedy. “Here you have teenagers who are given an adult situation to deal with, yet they don’t have the adult set of skills yet to process this kind of event.” Realizing that, he asked one of the members of the psychology department at neighboring Pepperdine University to assist the church in helping the youth cope with the aftermath of the fire.
Being “buildingless” has forced the church out into the larger community in a number ways. “We are no longer a church under a basket in that sense –we are a church that is meeting all over Malibu,” says Hughes, who notes that it is good but also has its challenges, with logistics now being coordinated in so many locations.
Tim Jones, director of missions at Malibu Church, admits that he is a “no walls” guy already. “Now we literally have become a church without walls,” Jones observes. “This is the church that we want to be — to reach out into the community.” This outreach to the community did not stop because of the fire. They followed through on a commitment to build a home in Mexico just three weeks after the fire and will continue on into the summer when they will host a “Church on Fire” (yes, the title is intentional) conference. “We had churches from around the nation contact us to offer support, prayer and love, and a lot of those churches wanted to mobilize teams to come and help us,” says Jones. “So we thought, why don’t we invite these people to come here and to help us in our vision to reach out to a hurting world?” Thus “Church on Fire” was born. From July 13-20, Malibu Church will be hosting church groups from around the nation, from various denominations, to work in Malibu and throughout the city of Los Angeles.
Associate Pastor Michael Mudgett had been at the church only nine months before the fire. “This is my first ordained call,” says Mudgett, “but it is more than I could ever dream of — it really is.” Mudgett’s enthusiasm is palpable. “I think the most powerful thing is to realize and to wonder, what is the church after it loses its buildings? What has really struck me is how people have genuinely gotten excited to be the church without a building.” Because of having lost their physical facilities, there is no longer a place to congregate during the week. On the weekends the church uses a school facility, but mid-week that is not available. Prior to the fire they had small groups that met at the church for six-week sessions or studies. There were about 30 people involved. Now that they are no longer able to meet at the church facility these groups have moved “in home” and in their first week more than 100 people signed up. “I’m dumfounded, but we’re also really excited about this. We have lost a building but we are still the church,” admits Mudgett.
“It’s been amazing to interact with people we would have never interacted with otherwise,” says Kristie Vosper, director of children and family ministries. This year the church will not be able to host its annual Father Daughter dance onsite, as in years past. “This year it’s happening in a bar,” says Vosper, “and it has been cool to interact with them and to love them and for them to see that we are normal people.” Vosper also admits that the past months have been challenging as well. “I feel like the church has come through a funeral and everyone has come forward and said how much it meant to them. But the thing is, nothing is really dead. We are just entering into a new season.”
One of the results of having lost their church building is the realization that the effort of rebuilding is not just the responsibility of the pastors or the staff, but, as pastor Greg Hughes puts it, “we need a church to do this.” Pre-fire it was enough for folks to just show up on a Sunday morning while the church’s pastoral staff took care of the rest. “Now we need people to be involved and people are embracing it,” adds Hughes, admitting that it is a process of learning as they go.
Information on the “Church on Fire” conference or helping Malibu Church in its rebuilding efforts is available at info@malibupres.org.
Erin Dunigan is a freelance writer/photographer living in Newport Beach, Calif.
