We've got the Wasatch, and we've certainly got all kinds of religion. It's high time we also had K2, former University of Utah football star Luther Elliss announced this week.
Elliss, drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1995, has played defensive tackle for that team since. By 1996 he'd been drafted by the Lions' chaplain, Dave Wilson, onto a much bigger team.
The coach is God; Elliss found him in Troy, Mich., a Detroit suburb, and now he's bringing him to Salt Lake City around the first of July. Yes, of course he knows Utah has God. But even though Elliss had been to some houses of worship while at the U. in the early '90s, he didn't find one where he felt connected to the divine.
"I tried lots of traditional churches, but all I could find were places where people sit down, stand up, sing some hymns, listen to a preacher who doesn't say anything really relevant, and then you go home," said the player.
Then Wilson invited him to hear the rock band at the Kensington Community Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Troy. After the musical set plus a comedy skit by the church's troupe of thespians, Elliss was in.
"I leaned over to my wife, Rebecca, and I said, 'This is what they need in Salt Lake City,' " he recalled.
Seven years hence, the Elliss family, with their eight children, are making plans for K2, Kensington's Utah planting. The Rev. Dave Nelson, co-pastor at the Troy church for 13 years, has visited Salt Lake City six times in the past year. He talked with people about what kind of place this is, to "see if the city matches who we are." Now, Nelson, 38 and the father of two young daughters, is helping about two
dozen other Troy area families sell their homes and find new jobs along the Wasatch Front. And he is singing the capital's praises.
"I just walked around, talked to people in the malls. They said it's a great place to raise a family . . . that it's a really clean, safe place, and people are really friendly." Some complained that there wasn't much night life — but an equal number touted the downtown arts scene. "Troy is a bedroom community. There's no downtown to go to," unless you want to drive into Detroit. Which can sometimes be unappealing, with the city's reputation for crime.
Where will K2 be located? "We have no idea," replied the pastor. "We still have a lot to learn about the area." As for attracting members, that's also an open question. "To be honest with you, we don't know" what K2's first activities will be. "There are many different strategies. We just need to find out what strategy works best in Salt Lake." K2 does have a Web site that will contain information by next week, at www.K2thechurch.com. The Utah congregation's motto, Nelson said, is "An adventure with God."
Nelson was at pains to emphasize that he's not out to lure anyone away from any other faith community. "We want to reach people who don't go anywhere," he said, adding that he met many such churchless folk when he visited Utah. "I have no desire to be competitive. The goal of Kensington is to reach people who haven't gone to any church. The style that we do, which is real contemporary, helps." K2 will have an arts director, Mike Routledge, organizing the contemporary music, videos screened during services and dance and drama programs.
"We're designing a church for people who hate church," Routledge said. "We just try to help people connect with God." Radio hits find their way into Sunday services, he added. "If a song speaks to what we're talking about, we'll bring it in."
Uprooting his wife and two children, ages 6 and 3, is tough, he acknowledged. He's lived in Michigan, surrounded by extended family, since he was in second grade. "Even the neighborhood we live in is a great neighborhood," he said. "I hope I find something like this there." As developer of K2's arts-in-church programs, Routledge will also need to meet musicians, actors and dancers who want to perform for the new congregation. "We really just need to connect, and find people who'd be interested in this. We're counting on God," to help with recruitment.
The Salt Lake metropolitan area certainly has its share of modern worship, such as Holladay United Church of Christ's rock 'n' roll band and the U.-student-oriented post-Mass spaghetti supper at St. Catherine's Newman Center. Nelson acknowledges that, and reiterated, "I have no desire to be competitive. There need to be churches for different types of people."
The original Kensington Community Church, established in 1990, will support the Utah congregation for the first two years. It will start with three staffers: Nelson, Routledge and business manager Eric Winter. The 6,000-member predominantly white Troy congregation has also planted three others in the Detroit area and supported congregations in India and Africa, Nelson said.
Elliss, for his part, said he believes God wants him to stay with the Lions for at least a couple of years. But Nelson added the 6-foot-5, 318-pounder will still be considered "part of our team."
Contributing: The Associated Press
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com