November 6, 2007
by Evan Silverstein

MALIBU, CA – For Nancy Little, visiting the charred ruins of Malibu Presbyterian Church strengthened her faith and brought her closer to God.

Little and her husband, Braxton, are longtime members of the former white-steepled church that had been a fixture in the seaside celebrity enclave near Los Angeles for over half a century.

The couple's two daughters and one son grew up in the Malibu congregation. They each graduated from the nursery school and have been active youth group participants.

But in the early morning of Oct. 21 embers from a fast-moving wildfire, stoked by fierce Santa Ana winds, caught the church's steeple, then the attic, on fire.

The 60-year-old house of worship burned to the ground in minutes. The building was reduced to a mess of twisted metal, crumbled drywall and scorched wood, as a string of wildfires raged out of control in southern California last month.

Only a cross that had sat atop the spire survived, along with some plastic playground equipment from the nursery school and steps leading to the main entrance of the church. No injuries were reported.

The destruction reminded Nancy Little – when she visited the remains five days later – that God and church are about more than just bricks and mortar.

"I think God's even bigger now," she told the Presbyterian News Service after her pilgrimage to the ruined property. "He's not contained in the walls. He never has been. Yet in our minds maybe somehow we've contained our faith a little because we had the church. But walking up the steps gave me the sense that God is everywhere."

The Littles and others from Malibu Presbyterian said that while their building was destroyed by fire, they didn't lose their church. Malibu Presbyterian is made up of the people who worship there, not the building that houses them, they said.

"The beauty of seeing what went on was seeing what the church really is, that it wasn't the building," said Braxton Little, who is an elder and session member at the Malibu church. "It's the people. It's the people here."

The congregation has vowed to rebuild on the same two-acre hillside tract along Malibu Canyon Road, where the sanctuary offered spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.

"We definitely miss our church home," said the Rev. Greg Hughes, pastor of Malibu Presbyterian. "But the church is not a building, it's much more. We will rebuild."

On Oct. 28 Hughes led the congregation in its first regular Sunday service since the blaze. Malibu church members, past and present, were joined by worshipers from other congregations along with local residents and students from nearby Pepperdine University.

They crowded into the 500-seat Malibu Performing Arts Center, the displaced church's temporary worship site, where they sang, prayed and gave thanks.

Reading from the Gospel of John, Hughes told the overflow crowd the story of Lazarus, whom Jesus brought back from the dead.

"The whole point of the Lazarus text is that God does something extraordinary for Lazarus and that perhaps God might do something extraordinary for us," Hughes said. "It's given us an opportunity to rebuild, to think outside the box and to have a fresh start. So we're looking forward to that opportunity."

After the service, which included contemporary Christian music, attendees mingled in the lobby. They shared church memories, described how the fire affected them personally and offered each other support.

Some recalled momentous ceremonies at Malibu Presbyterian, such as baptisms and weddings. Others described less festive occasions like memorials and funerals.

They noshed on brunch provided by Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and read letters of encouragement sent in from around the globe, which were displayed along a staircase at the arts center.

Concern for the church also came from other quarters that day, as six area Presbyterian churches came together in a service of support for Malibu Presbyterian.

"We just tried to have a service of support, bring the family together so to speak," said the Rev. Ed Brandt, pastor of Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, the L.A. congregation where the service was held. "Just have a prayer, sing some songs, share some words and let people know that we're connected."

The gathering joined an outpouring of community goodwill for the Malibu congregation, as area churches and synagogues have sent prayers and food, and offered the use of their own buildings.

Hughes said the Malibu church served as a hub for community activities. A place where generations of children attended preschool, where Alcoholics Anonymous met, where some 300 Pepperdine students gathered on Tuesday nights and 450 people worshiped on Sundays.

"It was a beacon of light to the community," the pastor said of Malibu Presbyterian, which burned on the first day of wildfires here.

Hughes said in a letter on the church's Web site that we "cherish our resurrection faith" and that "the Lord will make something beautiful out of the ruins and ashes of our church building."

Later, members of Malibu Presbyterian and other curious onlookers visited the devastated church building after Hughes encouraged parishioners to go to the site and stand in the ashes.

Some formed prayer circles amid the rubble. Young children used chalk to draw colorful flowers on the church steps and leave messages behind proclaiming "We Love Malibu Pres" and "Fill Our Church With Color!"

Others sifted through the ashes in hopes of finding items that survived the flames.

A dual theme of mourning and rejoicing emerged as many expressed feelings of loss, yet also hope for the unexpected opportunity to expand the ministry of Malibu Presbyterian, which barely escaped the destructive force of wildfires in 1993.

"I feel like it was a great place, it was a great building, it was beautiful," said church member Luke Love. "But at the same time our entire congregation firmly believes that the Lord is looking after us. And that he is going to provide us with a better building and more opportunities for ministry and worship."

As Love stepped away from the mangled ruins, he pointed to his shoes that were caked with ashes from the burned-out church.

At Hughes' request, Love and other worshipers plan to box their ash-soiled footwear until the congregation meets again in its new church facility. Then they'll wear the shoes to symbolize how the church has risen from the ashes.

"What's exciting is the fact that no one is really devastated," Love said. "It's exciting to know that people didn't have their faith in a building. That people's faith wasn't grounded in the fact that everything's going to be great all the time and we're never going to have any hardship. Our faith is grounded in the resurrection of Christ, not in the building. That's what's exciting."

Tim Jones, director of missions at Malibu Presbyterian, had been house-sitting when the wildfires broke out. He knew the church could be in trouble when high winds jarred him awake that fateful day at 6 a.m.

"I looked out the window and I saw smoke," Jones recalled.

"I saw the orange glow above the mountains here." Jones drove to the church. At first he wasn't too concerned by the single fire engine that greeted him in the parking lot. Firefighters didn't expect the blaze to impact the church, he was told.

But 45 minutes later, Jones and others grabbed computers, hard drives and important papers from the church office and headed for safety as flames bore down on the building on a day when wildfires seemed to erupt from every corner of Los Angeles County.

"We prayed together in the office and just entrusted it to God," Jones said.

A short time later he watched Malibu Presbyterian become engulfed in flames on live television.

"We came back three or four hours after the building burned down and it was like watching a friend die in a hospital bed," Jones said. "It was still smoldering. There was still fire. It was being with that friend and mourning that friend."

Some visiting the church site just counted their blessings that no one was hurt in the inferno.

"I feel incredibly blessed that every one of us is OK," said Andrea Lanier. "In such a small town you know every mom, every dad and every child. Just to know everybody's OK with such intense fire is just amazing."

Lanier's six-year-old daughter, Sascha, a graduate of Malibu Presbyterian's nursery school, visited the site with her mother on Oct. 28. The first-grader scooped up a few items she found among the charred ruins of her former preschool room.

Among the treasures recovered were a handful of plastic jewels used by the children in their artwork, a plastic teacup, a colorful canvas, and smooth gray stones earmarked for painting.

"I felt a little nervous and sad," said Sascha Lanier, when asked her feelings about the fire. "But I'm happy we actually saved some stuff that we found in there."

It's the children enrolled in the nursery school that has Malibu church member Karen Dion the most concerned.

"I'm actually more sad for the kids and the preschool and how it disrupted those families' lives," said Dion, whose four-year-old daughter graduated from the program last May. "I'm really thinking and praying about those families and how they're going to deal with it."

Schumetta McLendon, who worships at the church, believes God's hand played a role in the timing of the fire.

"Even though it's sad, it happened in the best way possible," McLendon said. "If we had been here in service, we have 300 people, and you've got kids in the nursery, you've got kids in the preschool. It could really have been a catastrophe just to try to get everyone out because from what I understand it happened so quickly."

Kristie Vosper, director of children's and family ministry at the church, said she believes the congregation will rebuild and grow from the experience, but said the Malibu Presbyterian Church structure will nonetheless be missed.

"I'm feeling a sense of sadness because this is such a beautiful, sacred space and had been a really special place for me," she said. "It really felt like freedom. When you were here you sensed God's presence and love. But I also hold the intention that I'm ready to move on. Let's get this stuff cleared and let's build this new church. I'm excited. It will be good."

Presbyterian News Service