As Mega As Churches Get In Seattle

Megachurches excite us in the way a NASCAR race excites us. We don't get it, but we want to get it, or, at least, witness it. The image we've gotten of megachurches recently intrigues. A vast mall with Tulalip Casino style parking set off the highway. Inside, the bolo ties of the faithful dip into sausage gravy and the shopping errands saved up throughout the week serve as an excuse to make the rounds. There's some kind of dance routine in the lobby where scantily-clad daughters worship in their synchronized way while proud fathers tuck their shirts deeper into their jeans. Eventually everyone files into something like an auditorium and someone charismatic with impeccable hair walks energetically around the stage for forty five minutes.

Yeah, that's nothing like what West Seattle Blog's talking about when they post "More about West Seattle’s next megachurch." He's talking about Mars Hill aquiring the church that predates zoning laws limiting the square footage of churches in the city.

From the Mars Hill blog:

Freak of nature
See, in Seattle, zoning laws prohibit the construction of church buildings larger the 20,000 square feet, which makes life tough for large churches like Mars Hill. Mars Hill West Seattle is more than 50,000 square feet, though 10,000 square feet of the building are quite old and need replacement. Since it was zoned as a church before the more stringent restrictions were established, it’s a freak of nature that could not be reproduced within today’s city limits.

And Seattlest vows to never again begin a paragraph with "See," and are heartily sorry for having offended thee in the past.

And Mars Hill, Seattle's fundamentalist haven that's more mega church than megachurch, is currently renovating that big, old church in West Seattle that used to be Doxa.