In the late 1800’s, Frederick Nietzsche famously declared God to be dead. Fast forward 125 years and it looks as though Freddy’s crystal ball was working — according to a Gallup poll and the ReligiousTolerance.org website, currently only about one in four Americans regularly attend a religious service of any denomination.

Further, according to a new Pew Research Center survey, Washington ranks 36th among the 50 states in the importance with which Americans rate religion in their lives. It seems clear that particularly in the Northwest, organized religion is on the wane.

Why in the world then, would anyone open the doors of a new church in 2009?

None of these trends really faze Rob and Claudia Wootton, who are in the process of “church planting” right here in Queen Anne. Affiliated with the evangelical Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), Hope Seattle opened its doors just this past October.

Sharing space with Queen Anne Presbyterian at 414 West Howe Street, Hope holds weekly services starting at 5:30 PM each Sunday evening.

Rob Wootton — young, tattooed and goateed — is not your mother’s minister. He is drawn to the entrepreneurial challenges of creating a new worship community in a place where most Northwesterners check “none” when asked their religious preference.

According to Wootton however, due to its proximity to downtown and to the arts, Queen Anne is a place to which transplants are drawn; he has staked his claim that a fledgling congregation is a place where those new to the area can easily get invested in the fabric of the community life. Hope’s current demographics bear out this assumption – of the 50 or so regular attendees, most are their 20’s and 30’s, and many are new to the area.

The Woottons have moved into the neighborhood with the express purpose of living, working, and raising their children in the very community to which they minister. Both the Wootton offspring attend Queen Anne public schools and Rob coaches a boy’s soccer team each fall. But mostly, it was because Queen Anne is in many ways a small town that Hope Seattle finds itself putting out roots on the hill.

Editors Note: Following the blog, which appears here on the Seattle Post Intelligencer web site, is a reader’s comment and Rob Wooten’s response:

Posted by unregistered user:

Where’d the money come from to plant them on the hill? QA is not urban tatoo-land. There must be a silver spoon agenda hidden somewhere.

Posted by Rob Wootton to the “unregistered user”:

The money came from our personal contacts, (mostly in Virginia), and from Greenlake Presbyterian Church/Crosspoint Churches, (our sponsoring church http://www.crosspointchurches.org/), and from the Pacific Northwest Church Planting Network, (a group of churches in our Presbytery).

I agree that “QA is not urban tattoo land” like say Capitol Hill. QA culture, on top of the hill, is dominated by young families, like my own. Though it is not unusual to see young parents walking around QA ave. who do have tattoos and piercings. Young families however, only make up 1/3 of QA’s population, most people who live in QA are single and rent.

I’m not sure how you define “silver spoon agenda”. Our agenda is best described as it is on our website under the Who We Are tab, http://www.hopeseattlechurch.com/about-us – “Hope Seattle is a church community seeking to renew our neighborhood and city spiritually, socially, and culturally, through the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

I’d be happy to sit down for coffee with you and talk about this further and you’re welcome to join us any Sunday evening you’d like.

[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]