Storrs church to hold services at Parkade Cinemas (Journal Inquirer)

By Kala Kachmar
For the Journal Inquirer
Published: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 12:08 PM EDT

MANCHESTER — St. Paul’s Collegiate Church, which lost its bid to hold services in a Buckland mall comedy club, will start holding services April 13 in the Parkade Cinemas.

St. Paul’s, a post-denominational evangelical church, currently has four services at its Storrs location, 1768 Storrs Road.

Manchester services will take place Mondays at 8 p.m. at Parkade Cinemas, 308 Broad St.

The church tried to launch a second location at the Funny Bone Comedy Club in the Buckland Hills mall nearly two years ago, said Ben Dubow, a pastor at the church. The mall, however, stopped the contract.

Until now, the church has struggled to find another location, Dubow said. It has been working on securing the Parkade Cinemas location since last fall.

“We like the idea of the church being amidst the community,” Dubow said. “Churches shouldn’t be cloistered, but be part of the broader community.”

The church was started by about a dozen University of Connecticut students, faculty, and alumni in January 2005, Dubow said.

With more than 300 people attending the four services every weekend, the church has wanted to add a Manchester location, Dubow said. The Storrs location currently has about 120 seats.

Sermons at the movie theater will be shown by video, Dubow said. Everything else will be live.

Th Sunday evening service in Storrs is a video sermon, Dubow said.

“It’s actually one of fastest-growing services,” Dubow said.

Dubow said the church wants to reach out to young business professionals in Manchester, since 60 percent of the congregation in Storrs is under 35 and single.

“As we continue to grow as a church, we’ll get more involved and invested in the Manchester community,” Dubow said. “We’re really excited about that.”

St. Paul’s has been working to raise money to expand elsewhere, Dubow said.

The church is looking to a buy a 60-acre property on Route 195 in Coventry, Dubow said. They would rebuild the current farmhouse on the property and make it a church.

The remainder of the land would be turned into a park with soccer and baseball fields for the community to use, Dubow said.

“Our concept is to create a park that’s open to the public that happens to have a church on it,” Dubow said.

There are also plans to renovate the Storrs location, Dubow said.

Dubow said the church’s vision is to create several micro churches instead of having one “mega church.”