Christ Fellowship leaders staking out territory in the western communities have sealed a deal to convert a mega-store into a mega-church.

Church officials signed an agreement Monday to buy the former Target building on Southern Boulevard and U.S. 441 in Royal Palm Beach, securing a permanent campus for at least 1,600 congregants from the area — just a fraction of the 20,000 members of the Palm Beach Gardens-based church.

The move reflects a national rise in the number of multi-ministry churches that serve the masses in fast-growing suburbs with a simple, people-focused doctrine and an array of social services that ranges from assistance for single moms to counseling for recovering addicts.

Christ Fellowship’s expansion follows the rapid development of Wellington and surrounding communities. Hundreds of members were making the roughly 35-minute drive to the Palm Beach Gardens campus before the church began conducting services in the auditorium of Polo Park Middle School in August.

“It only made sense for us to birth a campus there, to reach new families moving into the region … It’s a great way to make a statement that we’re committed to ministering to this area,” Senior Pastor Tom Mullins said.

Because of a confidentiality agreement, he could not disclose the purchase price until after the July 31 closing, Mullins said.

With its 116,000 square feet and 15 acres of land, the Target site is a far cry from Christ Fellowship’s humble roots in a Palm Beach Gardens school.

Mullins, 59, an Ohio-born former football coach who comes from a family of ministers, founded the church in 1984 with 40 members. The movement’s exponential growth over the years, Mullins said, resulted from its ability to adapt to the community’s changing social needs.

There are ministries for men, women, children, singles, a large Latin ministry, ministries for the young, old, disabled and other subgroups.

In a building called God’s Town on the Palm Beach Gardens campus, parents can enroll their small children in the Son Shine Avenue educational program. Older children attend the SuperChurch program. While their children are in class, single mothers can take seminars on improving their parenting skills, to name just a few services.

The church also has programs for children coming out of foster care, for the homeless and the poor, as well as missions around the world.

Sunday services are large, concert-style affairs filled with the soft pop-rock sounds of the chorus. At the Wellington services, Mullins is beamed in via a delayed video feed. A live video feed of his sermons is planned for the Royal Palm Beach campus.

“A big church seems to have more capability,” said Sue Kuoppala of Wellington, who joined Christ Fellowship in 1998 and has been attending its Wellington services since August.

Kuoppala, who was raised Lutheran, was drawn to Christ Fellowship’s myriad groups and Christ-centered motivational message. She forms part of the communion ministry, which helps ushers prepare for the sacrament. Her children and husband volunteer doing different activities, and she has seen friends counseled through divorces and deaths as part of various other ministries.

“If somebody has a need and the church doesn’t address it, then somebody is called to address it,” Kuoppala said.

“We’ve kept a real simple philosophy,” Mullins said of the church’s nondenominational credo that focuses on the individual’s relationship with Christ. “We have a mindset of trying to help people in their time of need, and that permeates the attitude and the spirit of Christ Fellowship.”

Mega-churches such as Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, Coral Ridge Presbyterian and Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale and First Baptist Church of Central Florida in Orlando have been on the rise for the last 30 years, scholars say. With multiple services and a homogenized Christian message, they appeal to a mass-market culture over the smaller, sectarian Protestant churches.

“It’s analogous to the way Home Depot or Toys-R-Us or Target are able to provide a diversity of products that smaller mom-and-pop stores can’t provide,” said Fred Greenspahn, religion professor at Florida Atlantic University.

Congregants are driven more by their immediate needs than their willingness to adhere to traditional denominations, Greenspahn said. The mega-churches promise to fulfill those needs in their bid for members.

“Free market religion in this country has always been shaped by people’s desires,” Greenspahn said. “It’s about what worshippers are willing to attend.”

Tal Abbady can be reached at or 561-243-6624.