A Changing Faith

New Life Christian Fellowship is a relatively predominant church within the Petaluma community. It hosts a weekly Sunday service as well as providing groups for individuals in the church to meet and discuss topics pertaining to Christianity. However, the building, or rather the manner in which the building now stands, that hosts the various services and groups that meet is not nearly as old as the time span in which these meetings have been taking place. In fact, the faith of many of the various church-goers is older than the building as well. The building itself, the structure that is, is many years old, but the way in which the building is now furnished and operates is less than two years old. This building very much represents the state in which the modern church has evolved.

Over a span of fewer than two years, New Life Christian Fellowship purchased, refurbished, and opened to the community a new building in which they would host various Christian activities. However, before this building became what it is today it once stood as the office building for Yardbirds Home Improvement, a local home improvement chain that was bought out by Home Depot a few years ago. The building was primarily comprised of office space as well as an extremely large, extremely vacant storage room in which shipping must have once been operated. This room acted as the belly of the giant beast that was the office building, housing various products that manufacturers designed in the offices, the head and brain of the building, that would later be sent out as if golden waste. This building would soon become the center of a new line of operation, one that had been in effect for thousands of years and already had factories all over the world. This operation was that of religion, more specifically, Christianity.

The building was virtually torn apart completely. The offices stripped, the storage room marked for construction, and the inner ventilation, the veins of the building, all but removed. However, unless you were inside the building none of this was obvious or even noticeable. Over a period of a year or so wood and lumber were laid to separate the various new rooms of the storage area, new ventilation systems were installed, and, ironically, new offices built, as if the old ones hadn’t been up to standards. As the new building came together it took on not the appearance of a hallowed church where people met to confess their sins and seek forgiveness, but a community center in which friends came to “hang” and socialize. It became a place where one could learn the teachings of Christianity in a seemingly more comfortable environment.

This new building contains no steeple, bells, stained glass windows, or other fixtures commonly found about a church building. It is a modernized building including a large worship center and a very large stage upon which Christian pop and rock is played, replacing the dusty hymns of older days. Several classrooms fill rooms previously designated to stern office work and important meetings. These rooms now entertain children and stimulate young imagination, whereas they once stimulated the creative thoughts and ideas of adults working to make a living. Other than the worship center, the large, monstrous room that was at one time a place of storage is now dedicated to a secondary auditorium, a youth room, a classroom for elementary grade children, and bathrooms, all culminating around a lobby. The lobby, which serves as a “meet and greet” area, carries a distinct aroma of coffee when one enters it, giving a sense of welcome. The ceiling above the lobby stretches well beyond any conceivable reach, illustrating an almost heavenly quality of the room.

Beyond the worship centers and classrooms one finds offices for the leaders of the church, including a meeting room. This addition to the church is the one area that most resembles what the building once was. Outside a large parking lot engulfs much of the land surrounding the church, including large eucalyptus trees on either side of the building. These trees dwarf the already very tall building, diminishing the power of the structure and yet creating a sense of divine majesty. In many ways the exterior of the building gives a false picture of what the purpose of the building actually is, yet it also gives off a peaceful state of welcome that invites the community to participate in the happenings inside the large structure.

New Life Christian Fellowship very much represents how the modern church has come into being. Whereas once the church was a solemn place of reverence and repentance it is now a place of socialization, fellowship, and even office procedures. It has become almost what the building that New Life now resides in once was, a place of business and conduct. There are still many signs of the old church within New Life, but the signs of the new church run rampant throughout the magnificent building in which it now operates.


-Ian