Grading and site work on a new church at 7619 Fayetteville Road, just southwest of the Streets at Southpoint, is now under way, and the 27-acre property with all the activity is drawing questions from passersby.

"People are calling us asking questions, and we even have folks who see our construction sign coming to visit our services on Garrett Road," said Pastor Benji Kelley of newhope Church this week. The congregation, which was organized in Chapel Hill, moved to a temporary location on Garrett Road about three years ago.

The newhope congregation -- its name is written as one word, uncapitalized -- has begun an ambitious construction project that will put it into a 36,000-square-foot facility by Christmas.

Ever the casual dresser and a playful and exuberant pastor, Kelley talked this week about the excitement that has infected his growing congregation. There were 911 worshippers in three services on a recent Sunday, he said, "the most ever."

Kelley, 37, would not give any revised estimates on the cost of the project, but the original projection, announced about a year ago, put the total at $6.4 million, with the cost of the property at $2.2 million.

Kelley has said that his vision is for newhope to be a church where "you can check out Christianity and seek answers to spiritual questions without pressure. A church where you can experience God and authentic community in ways relevant to life. A church where you can find new hope, real people and a real Savior."

The congregation is diverse, according to Kelley. "The thing I like most is that God is growing a diverse church," he said. Kelley estimates that about 70 percent of the congregation are white and 30 percent Asian and black.

Sunday services at the church's present location at 4310 Garrett Road are at 8:45 a.m., 10:15 a.m. and 11.45 a.m.

UMC superintendent to speak at Duke Memorial

The Rev. Gray Southern, superintendent of the Durham District of the United Methodist Church, will preach Sunday at the 10:55 a.m. service at Duke Memorial, 504 W. Chapel Hill St.

In his position, Southern provides spiritual and administrative oversight for 76 churches in Durham, Granville, Person and Vance counties.

Southern previously served churches in Goldsboro, Oriental, Greenville and Wilson, as well as Trinity United Methodist in Durham.

Duke professor to give local church 'The Test'

Dr. Richard Lischer, professor of preaching at Duke Divinity School, will be the McPherson lecturer at First Presbyterian on Sunday. His sermon at the 11 a.m. service is titled "The Test." At 9:45 a.m., there will be a conversation with Lischer in Watts-Hill Hall.

An ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lischer has nine years of pastoral experience in rural and suburban churches. In his scholarly work, he has explored the interactions of preaching, politics and contemporary culture, notably in his book "The Preacher King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Word that Moved America" and in his most recent book, "The End of Words."

The McPherson Lecture was begun in 1999 and is dedicated to enriching the faith and life of First Presbyterian Church and the Durham community.

The church is at 305 E. Main St. in downtown Durham.

Fellowship uses love as its call to arms

Revolutionary love is the sermon subject Sunday at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 4907 Garrett Road. The Rev. Melissa Mummert, guest minister, will look at how love for humanity can translate into action for social justice.

Services are at 9:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

Mummert, a filmmaker, will screen her 30-minute documentary "Perversion of Justice" at 12:30 p.m. The film depicts how Hamedah Hasan and her three daughters got caught up in the nation's federal sentencing guidelines and drug conspiracy laws. Mummert is a community minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte.

Deans' Dialogues turns focus to environment

Dean Sam Wells of Duke Chapel will continue the Deans' Dialogue series on Tuesday when he will converse with William Chameides, dean of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. The two will discuss "What would you do with $100 million?"

The 5:15 p.m. event in Love Auditorium in the Levine Science Research Center is free and open to the public. Free pizza will be available for those who arrive early.

"The Deans' Dialogues provide critical space to speak about the most important issues a university faces, how to use our resources to make the world a better place," said the Rev. Gaston Warner, director of university and community relations. "On the topic of the environment, we must face the issue of how to be faithful stewards of the very world we are striving to improve."

CROP Walk campaign kicks off with rally

This is recruitment kick-off week for the 2008 Durham CROP Hunger Walk, with a 9:30 a.m. rally scheduled for Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, 305 E. Main St. in downtown.

Signup forms, brochures, posters, educational materials and the 2008 T-shirts will be available at the rally. Any congregation or other group that can't be represented today may call the CROP Hunger Walk office at 672-0343 to get materials.

The walk is scheduled for Sunday, March 16, starting from Duke Chapel. The Durham Community Concert Band will again play before the walk begins. The goal is to raise $210,000 for hungry people in Durham and around the world.

Christus Victor: Lessons on being Lutheran

Wednesday night services during Lent at Christus Victor Lutheran Church, 1615 N.C. 54, will feature an Agape meal, an event that St. Paul describes in the New Testament.

"This is an early worship form that Paul speaks of in the Book of Corinthians," said Pastor James Huffman. "It's a way to get in touch with our roots historically and put into context what Paul was saying."

The meal of soup, salad and bread will be served at 6 p.m. in the fellowship hall, and those gathered at the tables will take part in a liturgy of responsive reading, prayer and Scripture reading. During the meal, members of the Church Council will lead a discussion of "Church Etiquette" based on material from "The Lutheran Handbook."

Huffman said the discussion is a way of educating members on the way Lutherans behave when they come together.

"The handbook is a guide to what we see and experience in a Lutheran Church, why we sing so much, for example," the pastor said.

Because the Lutheran Church, like other mainline denominations, attracts members from other traditions, members need to know and be reminded of how Lutherans operate, Huffman said.

"We are a congregation of Lutherans by choice, not by chance or by birth," he said.

Christus Victor, with a congregation of less than 100, has Sunday services at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

"We have young families with lots of children," the pastor said. "When I call the children for the children's sermon, it looks like a stampede."