Chesapeake church's influence, membership grows

CHESAPEAKE

Nearly 18 years ago, Bob Groves delivered his first Sunday sermon to the dozen or so members of Faith Alive Ministries.

The altar was a folding chair. On the other six days of the week, the sanctuary was a car-sales office.

Not many car-sales offices could hold Faith Alive now. Groves reminisced about those early days at the Feb. 1 grand opening of a packed, 1,550-seat sanctuary with a soaring roof and three massive video screens. So many people flocked to the $11 million, 46,000-square-foot addition that flagmen had to direct traffic in and out.

The nondenominational, evangelical church in Deep Creek has become an influential group within Chesapeake, growing to about 2,000 members and winning the attention of top city and regional leaders.

Chesapeake Mayor Alan Krasnoff, who joined more than a year ago, took the stage Feb. 1 to describe how welcoming the church had been to him and his wife. "You are indeed my extended family, Faith Alive," Krasnoff told the crowd. Of Groves, the mayor said: "I truly love this man. He allows me in his house to have ice cream, to share Starbucks."

U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes sat in the audience for the 9 a.m. service. Del. John Cosgrove was there at 11.

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, visiting Faith Alive for the first time, closed the ceremony. "You're going to have to get a bigger church," he told the congregation. "People are going to be flooding in here."

Krasnoff and Groves have become friends. The pastor served as one of several spiritual mentors on Krasnoff's mayoral campaign last year. After a minor inspection issue threatened to delay the new sanctuary's opening, the mayor spoke up at a December meeting packed with top city officials.

At the Feb. 1 service, Groves called building the new Shell Road sanctuary "the biggest stretch, the biggest trial, and the biggest learning curve I've experienced as a pastor." Among the challenges: building a city-required turn lane that created tension with a neighboring church worried about having its space pinched. To make way for the widened road, another neighbor's longtime brick fence was destroyed - and is now sitting, in pieces, across from the church.

Groves said Faith Alive has worked hard to be a good neighbor as it has grown to meet its increasing membership.

The church has had 30 to 40 new guests each weekend since the building opened, Groves said. The expansion also has about $1 million worth of audiovisual equipment, which Groves hopes to use to get into television. It's all about reaching more of the community's lost souls, he said.

"This building is not the goal," Groves said. "This building is a boat to fish in... a hospital for the hurting. We have not arrived."

The service on Feb. 1 began like a rock concert. Worship Director Jason Jackson, a spiky-haired 27-year-old who used to tour with Christian recording artists, sang for 35 minutes backed by a 70-person choir and a band of two guitars, two keyboards and a bongo drummer. "The congregation seems to live up to its name," Forbes said. "It's very lively."

Wednesday's youth service is even edgier. Beforehand, teens played Nintendo GameCube, skateboarded outside, and ate pizza and candy. The service mixed rock music with youth Pastor Steve Bellavia's sermon about dating and finding the right person.

Longtime Faith Alive members say they would not be surprised if the church gains thousands more members. They credit Groves for attracting people with sermons that are easy to relate to.

Raised in the Kempsville borough of Virginia Beach, Groves said he got into drugs and alcohol at age 13. He never finished college. "I was as lost as lost can be," he told his ministry.

In 1984, he said, he survived a frightening solo car crash off Providence Road. "I should have died in a car wreck," he said. "I got out without a scratch. But I realized the road I was on was going to kill me."

After starting as a guest speaker for the church's original 11 members, he began as Faith Alive's pastor on June 2, 1991, he said.

"The church I grew up in couldn't handle me when I was lost," Groves said. "I didn't want to pastor a church that couldn't handle lost people."

And, by setting an informal tone, he wanted to reach people who didn't go to church. Most members refer to him simply as Pastor Bob or PB. "A lot of people feel like they don't belong in church," Groves said. "They've got to get a dress or a suit. That's not who we are."

As the members grew to about 100, the church's sanctuary moved from the Chesapeake car-sales office to a garage in the same building, and then to a 220-seat sanctuary on Canal Road. In 1994, Groves left his power plant operations job at Virginia Power to go full-time at Faith Alive.

With Faith Alive's continued growth, church leaders wanted to build on 20 acres off Shell Road. At the time, the city was searching for alternatives to connect busy Cedar Road with U.S. 17. At least one option would have run through the church's site. Plans for a new route were stalled in 1999, and Faith Alive won city approval for a 500-seat sanctuary, which opened in 2001.

"I just spoke, and it's just grown," Groves said. "There's been no mechanism. There's nothing magic about it. We just do what we do, and people come here."

Eventually, Groves began running three Sunday services there as attendance swelled. By 2006, the church membership topped 1,000.

One new member was Krasnoff. He joined after his wife, Phyllis, started attending services. "The minute I heard the music, I thought, 'I have to tell Alan,' " Phyllis said. "It just hit me. It felt like home." Alan Krasnoff ended up seeing a concert for himself. He now goes there every Wednesday night for Bible study. Groves said he helped advise Krasnoff when the councilman was thinking about running for mayor last year. The pastor also sat by Krasnoff's side at a Chesapeake restaurant in May as he awaited voting results at an election-night party.

The church began construction on its newest sanctuary in 2007.

In November, leaders of the Rehoboth AME Church called the city with concerns about a new turn lane into Faith Alive. Church representatives felt better about the project after a discussion with Chesapeake officials, according to city documents.

The fence that neighbor John P. Flemming IV built 24 years ago was removed so the road could be widened. Chesapeake's city attorney said it appears that the fence was built within the city right-of-way. Flemming wants Chesapeake to pay to put back his fence.

Another hurdle came when a city inspector had issues with the church's stove because it didn't have a commercial hood. The oven was removed, and the issue was solved.

But Krasnoff spoke up about what happened at a Dec. 17 meeting attended by top city officials, saying that the inspector "wanted to shut them down for two weeks" when the opening was supposed to happen within days, according to meeting minutes.

The head of the city's neighborhood services department began an informal inquiry into what the inspector told officials leading the church project. Nothing came of it.

Krasnoff said no one at the church came to him, and that he heard about the situation from the pulpit. He said he would have spoken up for any group that had issues with the city development review process, and didn't know about the informal inquiry that followed his remarks.

Groves said he never asked for Krasnoff's help during the building process.

"I haven't played those cards yet," Groves said.

With its growing popularity, the church might have to expand again at some point.

Groves said the new sanctuary could be enlarged to 3,200 seats with another six weeks of construction. He also imagines another Faith Alive in southern Chesapeake, and one in the Harbour View community in northern Suffolk. "Right now, those are just ideas tucked in my heart," Groves said. "We're not done. We've got a lot to do."

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com