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The Nation's Pulse

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During that time, Thompson happened across the current 12-acre site, which was vacant, owned by a man named John Callahan. Callahan wanted half a million dollars for it, and the price was out of reach. But when Callahan died, his children, wanting to clear up his investment portfolio, found New England Bible Church's name in his records. They got in touch and asked for an offer. The Thompsons could come up with $150,000. The heirs said yes.

It wasn't simple consummating the deal. "We spent a long, long time in land court, arguing with the local powers that be. I'm sure they were concerned about taking twelve acres off the tax rolls, for one thing. But then the Greek Orthodox Church was built nearby, and a housing development." And the local objections began to look weaker. Finally, in 1996, a judge looked over her bench at the city attorney and said, "Anyone knows a church can build in a residential neighborhood. So why are we here?"

WALK INTO NEW ENGLAND BIBLE CHURCH on a Sunday morning and you'll be greeted with the sound of contemporary Christian "praise music," played by a guitar-bass-drums-piano band on the dais, with the words to the songs projected on a screen behind them. Nothing could have seemed more outlandish to us, as Episcopalians. We first went at the invitation of friends of our sons, from their taekwondo lessons.

At the time, I had stopped going to the Episcopal church, and had retreated instead to daily Bible reading. The Episcopal service was heartbreakingly bifurcated, between blasts of orthodoxy from the prayer book and hymns, and the new age pabulum being preached by the clergy. The appointment of openly gay Gene Robinson to the bishopric of New Hampshire had been the last straw. I would find myself crying for the loss of a church. It was unbearable.

Sally, meanwhile, fed up with the pointless lessons our boys were getting in Episcopal Sunday school, had started taking the boys to 9 a.m. Sunday school at NEBC, then dropping them off with me and attending worship services at St. Paul's for the music and the liturgy. For her, the break came when the priest at St. Paul's, learning of her attendance at NEBC, asked, snarkily, "Do you have to check your brains at the door?"

NEW ENGLAND BIBLE CHURCH HAS THE LOOK of permanence about it. It is a low white clapboard building with a conventional steeple, built in an L-shape, with one leg of the L devoted to the sanctuary, the other to classrooms and offices, the both covering about 10,000 square feet. The church plans a 10,000-square-foot Family Life Center next door, which will have a gym and facilities for family recreation, meetings, and worship. Thompson estimates membership at 350-400.

The building lies a scant mile from Andover Country Club -- a very nice neighborhood indeed. (Andover is home to the prep school President Bush attended.) A big rock sits smack dab in the middle of the church parking lot. On it has been painted: "New England Bible Church, established 1982. Teaching people to know and follow Jesus."

The church operates on a faith budget. That means it relies on weekly collections and pledges, nothing more. NEBC could not get a construction loan with only land as collateral. So they sold church bonds, which will mature in 2009. An old-line denominational church can go along for quite some time with poor attendance and declining membership. A typical Bible church would die very quickly if people stopped coming.

Over and over again, Thompson uses a certain phrase: "speak to." As in, "We tried to find a way to make the services speak to contemporary people." It's a Newt Gingrich-ism, to my ears. It works. Indeed, as Newt Gingrich pulled an unexpected revolution in 1994, Bible churches throughout the country, through grit, hard work, and good communications, are fueling a revolution in religion. Far from requiring that brains be checked at the door, Bible churches require a parishioner's active participation.

People are hungry for religion, not spiritualism. Bible churches appear to have filled the need. It will be interesting to see how the movement fares in the years ahead.

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