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By Greg Gaudio
VIRGINIA BEACH
Residents can expect quieter Sunday-morning skies in the Great Neck area.
A city zoning inspector has issued a cease-and-desist notice to Wave Church for using a helicopter to ferry its pastor between services at two locations.
Zoning Administrator Karen Lasley said launching and landing a helicopter is prohibited in residential districts, such as the one surrounding the church's property at North Great Neck Road and Old Donation Parkway.
"It's more disruptive - that's why it would take some special zoning," Lasley said. "It's not something you want everybody to be able to do right away."
"There are some safety issues, I'm sure," she added.
Wave intends to stop using the helicopter immediately, said church elder and attorney Stephen Lentz.
"We never intended to violate any codes or anything," he said. "We're always open to anything that (the city) needs to alert us to. When we know there's an issue, we always go to them first."
The church chartered a helicopter to transport pastor Steve Kelly to 9 a.m. services at the movie theater in Strawbridge Shopping Center between the 8 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. services at Great Neck.
"At the heart of it is his commitment it to preach at all of the services because he cares about our slogan: 'One church in two locations,' " Lentz said.
The idea came from a congregation member who'd heard of other large churches doing it, he said. Flying cut travel time from 30 minutes to 12 and eliminated the possibility of getting tied up in traffic.
Lentz said the nondenominational Christian church planned to stop using the helicopter in September, when the opening of a 2,500-seat convention center would cut the number of Sunday services at Great Neck from six to two.
The church holds 9 a.m. services in the movie theater pending construction of Wave's second location in the Beach, off Seaboard Road, slated to break ground in late 2009 or early 2010, Lentz said.
He said he couldn't recall when the helicopter rides started, but residents reported hearing a chopper on Sunday mornings for the past couple of weeks.
Zoning officials approached the church in response to a complaint from Rick Kennerly, who lives on Paramore Drive near Wave's Great Neck Road location.
"We put up with enough with the jets," Kennerly said. "We don't have to put up with a civilian helicopter landing at a church."
Other residents near the church said they weren't as concerned.
"The helicopter thing is not bothering me," said Donna Wible, who lives on Assembly Drive.
But "I personally think it's a little on the scary side because there's not a whole lot of land right there," she added.
"Doesn't bother me," said Thomas Rozier, of Southern Points Court. "I wish I had a helicopter."
"It wasn't our intention to offend anybody," Lentz said, adding the church was concerned about its pastor being able to reach all of the congregation's 4,500 members on Sundays.
Greg Gaudio, (757) 222-5125, greg.gaudio@pilotonline.com
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Really...
Maybe people should spend less time complaining about stuff that doesn't affect them and more time acknowledging their creator. It seems to me that this is what these wave church people are doing. They also acknowledged that they were violating code, apologized and moved on. That’s what the story was about.
re ecarr
To ecarr,
Yes, that is part of the story, but the Bible says that much more is required of the wealthy. You know, that whole to whom much is given, much is required thing that Jesus talked about. Oh, and don't forget that Jesus also rose up the poor who gave all in comparison to the rich who comparatively gave more than the poor, but proportionately gave much less. That's how WAVE church is. They give a little so that people can make arguments like you make, but in the grand scope of things they don't give very much. You can tell that from the clothes and jewelry they wear, the cars they drive, the places they frequent, there whole general attitude on life. You really should take an objective look at the leadership of the church including Steve Kelley and his wonderboy protege (who got the job because his dad is a heavy donor, you seriously must know that the kid is ridiculously spoiled and has zero life .
The Chick-fil-A Church
http://www.slate.com/id/2197166/
Slate just did an interesting article on Mega Churches, telesermons, and running small churches out of business with Mega-McGospel churches like Wave.
Apparently one church even has a 3-d hologram projection of the pastor giving the sermon for its remote locations.
The Holy Helicopter
Does the helicopter's operational costs enjoy the same tax-exempt status as a plane on loan from Operation Blessing to Pat's private diamond mining operation in Zaire?
Video is the best idea yet......
It works for Andy Stanley in Atlanta, where they have some 17,000 people in attendance at three sites. If I am not mistaken, he changes his location from time to time to be "live" at different sites at different times.
Pastor Steve are ya listening?
Helicopter
The congregation ate it up, made them "special" to have such a desirable haha pastor who is oh so important. Baaaah Baaaaah Baaaah
irrelevant, I don't think so
The comments about how the church spends their money is completely relevant to this article. Anyone with an ounce of introspection knows that WAVE church is corrupt. The problem is that journalists need proof and the church is highly secretive about how they spend their money. Articles like these go beyond the anecdotal and provide an undeniable glimpse at their excess.
Rev James Bond!
I've heard that he preaches a great sermon with powerful messages. However, what message did he think he was sending his congregation with his air transports. Then again this may make a great story among the rich and famous.. "Hey, my preacher drives a Porsche Carrera 4s" oh yeah,"mine flies in a helicopter between sermons"........ you get the picture...
What a waste of money!
This has to rank as one of the biggest wastes of money. I do have one question. If you look at the map the flight path would take the civilian helicopter directly over Oceana. There is a 5 mile air traffic area around Oceana. So do they suspend operations so the good pastor can save the 12 mintues? Or does the helicopter play dodge em with the F 18's. Maybe he needs a nice Gulfstream jet like brother Pat Robertson.
While on the subject of churches and waste. Anyone else notice Manor Drive over by Rock Church has been renamed John Gimenez Dr. after their pastor. I wonder who foots the bill for the signage and to modify the city Computer Aided Dispatch system and print new public safety maps?
Wave Church is worthy of my time, my talent and my treasure
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
This verse sums up what Wave Church is all about. I’ve read a lot of the comments questioning Wave’s commitment to the community. As a friend of the vision of Wave Church I want to tell you about the countless outreaches we have to impact our local community and the world: weekly food distribution to public housing residents, drug and alcohol recovery programs, educational tutoring, the Hope Foundation for women, assistance to AIDS orphans in Uganda, funding an orphanage in Russia, starting a church in Israel…just to name a FEW of the ways Wave Church is impacting our world.
If you need further proof of Wave’s dedication to improving Hampton Roads, I would encourage you to stop by Dreamkeepers Academy in Norfolk this Saturday f