Jane Simmons, the new associate pastor at Unity Church of Lawrence, poses with children from the congregation. Simmons, who holds black belts in the combined martial arts of karate, ju jitsu and tae kwon do, will work with the children's and volunteer service programs as the church looks for a new location to replace its overcrowded building at 900 Madeline Lane.

The Rev. Jane Simmons keeps a broken board in her office.

It was the first board she broke in martial arts, and she was nervous preparing to break it. Now, years later, she holds a black belt in combined tae kwon do, ju jitsu and karate.

“I keep that (board) in front of me to remind me I can break through my limitations,” Simmons says. “It’s good inspiration for me.”

Simmons is looking for new inspiration as she starts her position as associate pastor at Unity Church of Lawrence.

It’s a newly created position at a church that has doubled in attendance in the past two years. Simmons will work with the children’s and volunteer service programs as the church looks for a new location to replace its overcrowded building at 900 Madeline Lane.

“It’s a great opportunity,” the Rev. Darlene Strickland, the church’s senior pastor, says of the rapid growth. “And it will become a challenge if we don’t see it as an opportunity.”

Pastor fits

Jo Anderson, who has attended Unity Church since 1983, credits Strickland with much of the growth.

“We’ve had a lot of fluctuation in the past,” Anderson says. “We’ll have high attendance, and then it will go down – back and forth. It seems to do with the minister, and how he or she relates to the church. Darlene is a thinker and an inspirer.”

Unity Church is a denomination of “new thought” churches that employ tenets of various other religions. It considers itself a very accepting church that focuses on positive attributes of God, rather than negative laws or teachings. It believes the spirit of God dwelled in Jesus, “just as it dwells in every person.”

“Unity’s message is so wonderful,” says Simmons, a Unity pastor since 1999. “It’s about finding within yourself the spirit of God, and experiencing that spirit. That message, to me, is about real empowerment.”

That’s what has kept Andy Holzmeister coming back Sunday after Sunday the past three months. Holzmeister, a 30-year-old medical student, grew up going to churches but hadn’t attended regularly in his adult life.

“I was really blown away,” he says. “I thought it was going to be a liberal hippie show, and it wasn’t. I was stunned – it was so pleasant. I don’t feel I’m being preached to. I don’t feel like I’m being told what to do. It’s about taking my experiences and growing as a person.”

Growing faith

Simmons, a native of Canada, says she, too, walked into a Unity church in the mid-1980s and “realized I’d found my home.”

She later married Gary Simmons, who now works for Unity Church’s headquarters in Lee’s Summit, Mo. The couple already was planning to move to Lawrence when Lawrence’s Unity Church decided to announce its associate minister position.

“It’s one of those things I call a total God-job,” Strickland says.

Simmons, who most recently was pastor at the Unity Church in Fayetteville, Ark., will be in charge of developing curriculum for Sunday school classes, increasing campus ministry activities and will help connect Unity members with volunteer opportunities.

New space

Meanwhile, the church is planning for the future. A committee is looking for potential new buildings, and options include building, buying an existing space or swapping locations with another congregation.

Strickland says the need is immediate. Attendance has grown from about 100 people on a Sunday for worship to 200. The church has added a second worship service.

She sees nothing but growth in the near future, and she thinks other Unity churches will be seeing similar growth nationally.

“People’s lives are being positively changed,” Strickland says. “We don’t advertise – this is all word of mouth. … I believe we are on the leading edge. I believe new thought is the direction we’re moving.”

Anderson, the longtime member, agrees. She says people are looking for the message they hear when they walk through the doors of Unity Church.

“It’s very tolerant and very accepting of new ideas,” Anderson says. “There’s no condemnation. It’s not fear-based religion.

“It’s nontraditional. We attract a lot of people raised in more traditional churches who became disillusioned for one reason or another. They come to Unity and say, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for.'”