Despite its reputation, Colorado Springs has low church attendance

Never mind Focus on the Family and the new 7,500-seat worship center at New Life Church. Set aside the almost 400 churches that dot the city like freckles. Most local residents don't belong to a church, and most don't go to services regularly. "I think it's a misperception to call (Colorado Springs) a religious Mecca," said the Rev. Marvin Vose, senior pastor for the 1,200-member Sunrise United Methodist Church in northern Colorado Springs. "It's not. At best, it'd be about average." In 2000, about 37 percent of El Paso County's 516,000 residents belonged to a religious group, sect or denomination, according to the American Religion Data Archive. The rest were listed as "unclaimed." That makes the county statistically less inclined to go to church than the state as a whole, and much less so than the nation, which has about a 50 percent adherence rate. The county, a reputed hotbed of Christian conservatism and "moral values," has lower church adherence than states such as California (where 46 percent belong to a church or denomination), New York (60 percent) and Massachusetts (64 percent). "It verifies to me that the ultraconservative religious component of Colorado Springs has a disproportionate amount of power and influence in the country," said Rebecca Hale, a co-founder of Freethinkers of Colorado Springs. The group, made up largely of atheists and agnostics, is critical of organized religion. Church attendance is also lower, according to the experts. Some pastors say less than 20 percent of Springs residents attend church weekly. A few put the figure as low as 14 percent. Those secular numbers can motivate pastors. They represent, to many evangelistic preachers, opportunities to spread the word. "It is great to see lives changed, and our culture offers plenty of opportunity for that," said the Rev. Doug Anderson, senior pastor for Fresh Wind Church, a 400-member church that opened its doors about a year ago. "From what I can tell, about 70 percent of Fresh Wind (members) were not in a church anywhere at this time last year." Colorado Springs doesn't qualify as a "reached" city by evangelical standards, according to the Rev. Ted Haggard, senior pastor of the 11,000-member New Life Church. A "reached" city has a congregation for every 1,000 residents. Colorado Springs would need another 100 churches to hit that benchmark. "Our reputation in some circles is larger than the reality because of the religious organizations we have here," Haggard said. Haggard says the city is much more religious now than it was 15 years ago, but it still can't match the fervor of the Southern states that make up the traditional Bible Belt. Not all who forgo church or a denomination are faithless. According to the 2002 General Social Survey, only 13.7 percent of all Americans claim to have "no religion." Pastors say some families sometimes split their time among several local churches, and others switch churches weekly, depending on their needs, the church's services or the pastor's message. Some may attend a church for months or years before joining. At the same time, there's a real aversion to organized religion in many Western states, experts say. Of the 10 states with the lowest adherence rates, seven (Arizona, Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Colorado) are in or west of the Rocky Mountains. "Membership, adherence and religious attendance are lower in the West, despite the fact that there also tend to be a lot of parachurch organizations," said Kirk Hadaway, director of research and congregational development for the Episcopal Church, U.S.A., based in New York. He thinks that is partly because there were no revivals, no 19th-century "Great Awakening" out West as was seen in the eastern United States. "This also has added some volatility to the nature of religion in the West, so more experimental forms arise and flourish there," Hadaway said. Pagan and nature-based faiths flourish in many Western states, including Colorado, and even Christians are more likely to experiment with unorthodox styles of worship. Haggard, of New Life, thinks that's linked to the region's "mountain mystique." It attracts people who treasure solitude and pride themselves on individualism. That keeps even some deeply religious people from going to church. There are other factors as well. Colorado Springs has a young, active, transient population. Demographically, more older people than younger attend church, and more active people tend to spend their spare time outside rather than in a worship center. People who move a lot are less likely to hook up with a church. "When folks move, sometimes they leave the church behind," said Vose, of Sunrise United Methodist. Even the city's large Christian organizations may hinder attendance, according to some pastors. "Many of those who work for Christian organizations seem to assume they have handled their Christian activity through work or whatever, and are very lightly committed to a local church," said Anderson, the Fresh Wind pastor. But those demographic trends mean little to the pastors interested in spreading their faith. "I am encouraged with the high interest in God among those who are under (age) 30," Anderson said. "That group is usually from post-Christian homes and has little knowledge of the Bible, but they are interested and make great Christians."