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Published on 04/20/1998 All articles from this issue

Going beyond success

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

Spiritual revival trend tied to professionals' search for life's meaning after making money

Signs of a spiritual revival are showing up throughout the Los Altos area. Standing-room only crowds flock to healing services, record-breaking numbers attended training in Los Altos for the Billy Graham Crusade and multi-million dollar church expansions dot the landscape from Grant Road in the south to Arastradero Road in Los Altos Hills.

"There's a thirst for spirituality, of heart needs, of soul needs," said the Rev. Bernard "Father Bernie" Bush, S.J., a priest at the Jesuit Retreat House in Los Altos. Bush, 63, also has a doctorate in psychology.

The Rev. Dave Genberg, 44, minister of local outreach at the First Baptist Church of Los Altos, said he sees an increase in people seeking a sense of some spiritual understanding.

"They are working 60-70 hours, their batteries are running out. People are sensing the need for renewal, for the spirit," he said.

The Rev. Jack Ericson, 56, pastor at Immanuel Lutheran church in Los Altos, said the "drive to newness" among area engineers "does get exhausting."

Some begin to wonder if that's all there is, said Kay Kuhlmann, 63, associate in ministry at Immanuel Lutheran.

Local ministers see people responding to these pressures in increasing numbers as area folks search for a meaning beyond grinding schedules and material success.

Healing services

When Father Bernie began holding monthly healing services at the Jesuit Retreat House just a year and a half ago, he never imagined the numbers it would draw.

He had tried to get a colleague to lead a healing service. But the colleague moved away.

So Bush decided he'd give it a try. "To suggest is to volunteer," he said.

He bought some oil at Safeway and blessed it. "We picked a date, told our friends and did it," he said. There were 10 to 15 who came.

Now anywhere from 65 to 110 come from as far away as Santa Rosa and pack the small Spanish-style chapel on the retreat grounds one Tuesday evening a month.

"Most aren't suffering from physical disabilities," Father Bernie said. "They come for a heart need, for losses, for anxiety, for stress-related things. People are under a lot of stress - their marriage is in trouble, their kids are on drugs, their mother-in-law fell, they're depressed.

"A lot are on Prozac and still don't feel good. People are looking for healing," he said. "You can help people pull their conflicts together. But then what? There's still a life."

At a recent service, a soft hush enveloped the chapel. Candles flickered as many people stood, giving testimonies.

A wife told of her husband, suffering with cancer and afraid, who came to the healing services.

"He died with such peace in himself," she said.

Five priests stood in front as people came forward for a laying on of hands and anointing with oil, fresh olive oil

pressed from olives on the grounds of the retreat center.

Quiet folk music played. "Lay your hands gently upon us, gently lay your hands," sang the guitarist.

An older woman, gnarled with arthritis, walked slowly with a cane, toward a waiting priest.

Father Bernie kneeled down to be at eye level with a small boy in a teal T-shirt who timidly approached.

People hugged, they wept, they smiled, they shared with a glance.

Father Bernie talked of a power that comes from "the collective prayers for healing." Then these prayers are added to the blessing prayers.

"This is the power of God," Father Bernie said. "I don't have any healing power. It isn't me doing any of it."

Lynn Fielder, 54, an Episcopalian, came to the healing service for the first time. Her gold hoop earrings gleamed in the candlelight. Tears streaked her cheeks, slipping onto the collar of her pink and white candy-striped Brooks Brothers shirt.

Fielder works in a high-powered job with Oracle and sees "an evil, a greed. Men walk away with $30 million and haven't done anything except exercise their stock options. We need faith now more than ever before."

Training for outreach

The Rev. Dave Genberg is seeing some of that faith at First Baptist Church of Los Altos on Madgalena Avenue.

His church was one of several South Bay host sites last June for training local folks who wanted to be counselors at the fall Billy Graham Crusade.

"The Crusade planners told us what to expect. I said, 'Remember, this is the Bay Area,'" Genberg said. "In the Bay Area there is more chance for achievement than salvation of the soul."

But everyone was astounded at the turnout.

"We broke all records in the Bay Area for training. We had more, who came for the training, than in the entire history of the crusade," Genberg said.

Between 400-700 people came, mostly from the Los Altos and Mountain View area, one night a week for five weeks, learning to be spiritual counselors.

"People of faith are wanting to share their faith," Genberg said, "or be part of the process.

"People are sensing the need for renewal, for the spirit," he said, "as part of a sense of wholeness."

He is also seeing an increase in Sunday worship attendance, of people visiting. "People are not finding it as difficult to walk through the doors," he said.

At First Baptist, a church with a $2 million annual budget, 1,000 to 1,100 worship each Sunday.

Genberg has also noted a growth in the number of prayer groups, as people renew themselves with prayer. And more people are requesting a healing service, he said.

In his first 10 years at First Baptist, there were only three or four healing services.

"In the last four years, there have been that many a year - for the body-soul-mind to be made whole," he said. "People are seeking the well being of the total person."

Genberg said he's never had so many requests from people who want counseling.

"People are asking to talk to a minister. Why do they come to a minister? People are running on empty. They need a foundation. And they come to a minister because they believe we have another resource available. God. People in darkness see a candle and are drawn to it."

Building additions

As more are drawn to things spiritual, churches are outgrowing their space.

The folks at Immanuel Lutheran Church on Grant Road recently completed construction of a $1.2 million new sanctuary.

Worship had been held in their Fellowship Center. But church members wanted the fellowship space "as a tool for ministry," Kuhlmann said, for hosting the Alpha Omega homeless shelter, for housing the Red Cross blood bank.

"This tells how someone wants to connect their world with the needs of the world," she said.

So they built a new sanctuary.

A stained-glass window soars above the altar. "But we used clear plate-glass windows on the walls so we will always be stirred by what's outside," Ericson said.

In the last two years Sunday attendance has grown by 25 to 30 percent, he said.

Kuhlmann has seen an increase in the number of small groups within the church.

"People are looking for spiritual direction," she said. "The small groups help people focus in on what is the real meaning of life."

In an area of great affluence, people are wondering what to do - "when they've played all the golf they want or have taken every trip they've ever wanted," Ericson said.

"There are no wrong answers. We're glad they're asking the questions."

Ericson ends every service with the benediction, "Go in peace and serve the Lord. I expect my congregation to live their faith in the community."

At the other end of town, on Arastradero Road in Los Altos Hills, Congregation Beth Am will be breaking ground on a $5 million addition on May 17.

"The building is nothing more than a means to an end," Rabbi Richard Block, 51, said. "But we are seeing increasing numbers who want to be part of a religious community."

He said people are successful in material things, "but that doesn't satisfy a deeper longing and the need to grow in a deep, personal way," he said.

At Beth Am, Block has seen a "great increase in the numbers of adults wanting Jewish learning." He said that for Jews, "learning is the essence of spiritual experience."

Many in his congregation want to grow in family-centered experiences, "to do Jewish learning with their children.

"People may not be thinking of spiritual growth, but people want to be part of a sacred community. They also want to acquire a beauty and a value system of giving rather than getting," he said.

Recently, Beth Am received grants from the Koret Foundation and the Taube Family Foundation to allow the congregation to fund a full-time adult learning coordinator.

"This will be the first one in the country," Block said. "It's an exciting development. It will enhance our ability to respond to the needs people have for learning and growth."

All over town churches are seeing people reaching out for meaning in their lives, for healing in their souls for reaching out into the community.

Some say the country is in the midst of a spiritual revival. Signs locally suggest that we are part of the energy, too.