Building Hope

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Many of Hope Chapel's 2,000 members have pitched
in to clear land and set terraces for the white-tented church
at the foot of the Koolaus. Workers were busy yesterday
readying the chapel for its first service.

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Church built
by members opens
in glory in Kaneohe

Hope Chapel's founder credits its 16-year
growth to a focus on relationships and appeal
for those from Generations X and Y

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

The terraces of the new home for Hope Chapel in Kaneohe are covered with 200,000 Golden Glories.

A few starter vines at $4 a piece provided the cuttings.

The 2,000 church members provided the labor.

The 10,000-square-foot "clam shell" bubble that will serve as a temporary church opens this weekend, built on a shoestring and volunteer sweat. That, founding Pastor Ralph Moore says, has been "really healthy for the congregation. Everybody has a feeling of ownership."

Many "owners" come from a group that other churches have failed to reach: Generation X, age 18 to 35. "They're really looking for relationships, saying, 'My family let me down,' " Moore said.

And healthy relationships are what Hope Chapel tries to provide.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Deja Nakooka, 2, shows her mother, Marge Dumlao,
some shorts. Dumlao is in charge of organizing clothes
and household goods donated to Hope Chapel, one of
the group's programs for the needy. Others assist
single parents and raise thousands of dollars a
year for Kaneohe schools.

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The scenic 9.5-acre development at the foot of the Koolau mountain range includes an amphitheater, youth classrooms, a nursery, offices, tiered parking lots and a big view of Kaneohe Bay.

The Hawaii congregation started in 1983 when Moore moved from California, where he founded the first Hope Chapel. That year, he and 70 others prayed under a hau tree at Kailua Beach Park, determined to have a church one day.

Sixteen years later, the state has more than 30 Hope Chapel congregations, with 142 around the world.

Reaching out to Generation X has led much of the church's fast growth, Moore says. That means services with big-band performances of music that appeals to the children of the baby boomers, lots of graphics on big TV screens, and programs shaped to provide answers to their questions.

Hope Chapel gives leadership roles to its members. Moore calls this latch-key generation "the most aborted, abandoned, abused, sexually abused kids in history. Anything their parents believed in, they challenged. They don't go to church very much."

But they say they feel comfortable at Hope Chapel, where they can attend services in laid-back clothes and hear sermons that make sense.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
A large white tent provides temporary shelter for the church,
prayed for 16 years ago under a hau tree in Kailua.

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Darlene Ching, 34, says her generation "is searching and they don't know what they're searching for." Hope Chapel provides a "moral base. It gives them reasons to believe."

On the edge of the X'ers, Cass Yagi, 36, joined the chapel four years ago. The Palolo painter has spent many hours volunteering his help.

"I can grasp it," the paint-spattered Yagi said about Moore's sermons. "It's not full of churchy stuff. It's just like talking."

Yagi used to be a "typical rascal," into alcohol. "Now I live the Christian life."

Moore, who calls himself "an old hippie" with two X'ers of his own, has written books about Yagi's generation. Some of his most successful sermons, he said, deal with marriage -- something the X'ers put off after seeing parents divorce.

Many of them attend the more than 100 "mini-churches" held in homes during the week to discuss how they can apply sermons to their own lives.

The congregation also includes 300 members of "Generation Y": junior and senior high students Moore hopes will lead a more church-going age.

But Hope Chapel programs go beyond alphabet-soup generations. It sponsors 25 outreach programs that help groups like domestic abusers and alcohol and drug addicts.

Members raise $60,000-$70,000 a year for schools in the Kaneohe area, and train and provide tutors for classes.

Member Marge Dumlao organizes donated clothing and household goods that single mothers can take home. The church is also organizing a valet service for single parents, and is piping church services to the nursery so parents can stay with their children.

The chapel had been holding services at Benjamin Parker School. Moore hopes to have a permanent church in five years, but he's patient. After all, he's watched his congregation clear land tree-by-tree, and build terraces keystone-by-keystone.

His church-warming sermon this weekend will be a tribute to the people who have worked on Hope. The title: "From Hau Tree to Hilltop."