Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

H.B. Horn ascends the stairs to the sanctuary at First Baptist Church of Albuquerque. Horn, 91, has been a congregation member since he was 10. The church building is one of several for sale in Albuquerque. First Baptist is expected to be ready for services at its new West Side location this summer.

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

H.B. Horn reads through the program after settling into his seat in the worship center of First Baptist Church of Albuquerque. First Baptist is moving out of the building it has occupied for 80 years and into a new building on the West Side.

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Light seeps through the window onto the sign on the stairway leading to the balcony above the sanctuary at First Baptist Church. The church's Downtown building is for sale and the congregation will be moving to the West Side this summer.

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Connecting with Gens. X and Y — with their iPods and Xboxes, new houses and young children — can be tough for an 80-year-old.

Especially if that 80-year-old is a church with a 154-year history.

That cross-generational disconnect might help explain why some of the biggest buildings listed for sale on a statewide commercial real estate Web site are Albuquerque houses of worship: First Baptist, First Family and Adat Yeshua.

The rest of the site, carnm.com, is filled with commercial lots and strip-mall spaces, but a handful of houses of worship recently have joined their ranks.

First Baptist Church in Downtown Albuquerque at 101 Broadway Blvd. N.E. is arguably the most prominent church listed, and definitely the oldest.

Being nearer to young families will help the 154-year-old institution connect with the next generation, church leaders says.

That's why it's moving its main operations to Paseo del Norte Northwest, near Eagle Ranch Road. A coffee shop also is planned for the site, and a bookstore is being considered, leaders say.

"We're trying to reach as many people as possible," said Michael Cook, who became head pastor of the church after the moving process began. "We want to help as many people as possible, that's the goal."

Letting go

The demographic group First Baptist once served is no longer there, Cook said. His congregation has aged, and younger families aren't moving into the surrounding neighborhoods. Instead, they are buying houses on the West Side.

Cook said many of those young families aren't comfortable Downtown. The church helps serve food to the city's homeless community throughout the week, and that can make families with young children uneasy, Cook said.

"Young families have moved out of the Downtown area, and Downtown has gone through its ups and downs," Cook said. "This is not a `Leave It To Beaver,' everybody-walks-up-and-down-the-streets kind of neighborhood anymore."

The property — with its 105,000-square-foot main building on seven acres — is listed for $14 million.

The city has zoned the site as urban, high-density and mixed-use. That means a prospective buyer has plenty of options.

"Anybody that's looking at that site is going to be thinking about mixed-use, which may or may not include residential," said the church's real estate agent, Joel White.

Selling the property hasn't been easy, even though it has seen plenty of interest, White said. It's not like filling up a shopping center.

"There are a lot of emotional ties in play," White said.

H.B. Horn, 91, has gone to First Baptist Church almost every Sunday for 81 years.

He has sat on its boards and committees. He raised his children in the church. He buried his wife there.

The church's decision to move has been hard for him, but he understands the leadership's desire to move to reach the next generation.

"We all know how much growth is there," he said. "We know that there are a lot of young families."

Horn said he'll be sad to see his only church move on without him — he has no plans to attend after First Baptist leaves its Broadway location.

"It's been my only church home forever, all my life," he said. "It's sad that it's moving, to me. But I've accepted it."

Horn said he expects the next First Baptist campus to be successful, filled with families and serving a new community.

Cook said 97 percent of his congregation supports the move — nearly double the number when Cook took over the pulpit a few years ago.

"The process has been twofold. One is dealing with the attachments of this location," he said. "A lot of people have made investments, made tremendous sacrifice" for the Downtown location.

"Gosh, this is the first evangelical campus in the West," Cook said. "We probably carry a little more baggage than the typical church does."

Spreading out

At First Family Church, which has met in a building at Wyoming and Montgomery boulevards Northeast since 1974, the need to move has been evident to head pastor Galen Woodward for years.

The church has purchased property on Renaissance Boulevard Northeast and is hoping to break ground on a new building in June.

"We knew we had to totally relocate, and we really struggled with that for a long time because we didn't want to," Woodward said. "When we presented it, we presented it at a time when everyone realized we were in need. We had already gone to two services and were really cramped on educational space."

The church tried to buy the vacant land next to its property to no avail, Woodward said. It took two years for the church to find property it could afford.

First Family now owns the 12 acre lot next to the Bob Turner Ford car dealership on Renaissance. When it is finished, the 63,000-square-foot church will seat 1,500 people and feature a theatrical stage. The current building is a third that size, Woodward said.

First Family has produced holiday plays — including "The Messiah" and "The Gospel According to Scrooge" — for standing-room-only crowds for years.

Retha Shiplet has worked behind the scenes at the productions for at least 10 years, she said.

She's holding out hope the new building will give her more space backstage.

But more important, she said, is more room for the congregation to grow and learn.

She's been going to First Family for 22 years, she said, and part of the reason she continues to attend is her appreciation for Woodward's big ideas for the church.

"I absolutely love this place," she said. "His (Woodward's) vision is to reach more of the community. An organization doesn't get better and grow if you don't have that visionary leadership to grow and take you into the future."

She's excited for the church's move, and Woodward said the rest of the congregation feels the same way. One reason, he said, is the location near Montaño Road and I-25.

"Everyone's really ready to make that move," he said. "What it does is tie us to both sides of the river.

"There's a real excitement. We're seeing very good growth right now. We're anxious for this property to sell and to go ahead and break ground. We're spending a lot of time and energy and prayer on this."

Other churches have looked into buying the First Family building, Woodward said. But it's more realistic that it will sell to a private or charter school because many churches can't afford the $4.4 million price tag.

"Our building has a gymnasium and classrooms," he said. "It could work very well for a school."

Shuffling around town

White, the agent representing First Baptist Church, said he was surprised to learn there are a handful of churches for sale around Albuquerque.

"It is somewhat unusual to have more than one or two larger congregations trying to relocate," he said.

Also listed for sale is Adat Yeshua, a messianic synagogue at 529 Jefferson St. N.E. near Lomas Boulevard with an asking price of $1.4 million.

Real estate agent Jean Duran said the building is receiving interest from charter and private schools. The congregation, which meets on Saturday nights, might continue to meet in the building after the sale, depending on the new owners.

Uptown Church, near Menaul Boulevard and San Pedro Drive Northeast, is listed for $875,000. It sits on nearly one acre and is 7,215 square feet. The church's real estate agent declined to offer details about the property beyond what was available online.

Both sides of the river

When First Baptist heads West, it will be doing so to be nearer to more young families, Cook said.

But it won't exactly abandon Downtown.

"Of all 11 or 12 evangelical churches Downtown, the ones we've studied have plateaued or aren't growing anymore," he said. "A church, for the most part, needs to be where the largest number of people live. That's not to say no one lives Downtown — that's why we're not moving lock, stock and barrel."

The church has purchased property near Mountain Road and Second Street Northwest The plan is to begin work on that campus soon after the church moves into its West Side digs.

Both campuses will be called First Baptist Church of Albuquerque — there's already a First Baptist Church of West Albuquerque — but the Downtown location will have the word Central attached to it. FBC Central will continue to house the church's homeless ministry.

Cook said he's planning to preach at both campuses — an early and late-morning service on the West Side, with one in between at the Downtown branch.

"I think our people are excited," Cook said. "I think we have a common vision for what we're trying to do. People are waiting expectantly for us to open up in June."