God is moving in next door to Hooters.

Come on, says the Rev. Brandon Cormier, where else would Jesus want to be?

The congregation’s relocation to The Citadel mall seems like a divine match to the lead pastor of Zeal Church in Colorado Springs.

Because if the Christian savior were here on Earth today, wouldn’t he seek out a neighborhood that’s struggled to overcome the dishevelment of gang and drug activity, tired storefronts and people worn down by life’s hardships?

“It’s a real privilege to partner with what God wants in Colorado Springs,” Cormier said while giving a tour of his church’s upcoming new home at the southern section of the mall, north of Platte Avenue off Chelton Road.

“We’re a church called to tip the envelope,” he said, “and we’ll have more locations, but this is where God chose for us to start.”

The nondenominational Zeal Church was born during the pandemic in the fall of 2020, initially holding services at a local high school and soon after moving to a wedding venue on Palmer Park Boulevard near Powers Boulevard.

Less than two years later, the church purchased for $3.5 million, the 100,000-square-foot first floor of the old Macy’s.

Nearly a year after a $6 million renovation began on 42,000 square feet of the space, the work to transform the former department store’s main level into holy ground is almost complete.

Zeal Church is scheduled to host opening services in its new location on June 9.

“One of our taglines is ‘In Colorado Springs as it is in heaven,’” Cormier said. “We want to see a city that’s transformed by the love of God and where every person has an opportunity to know God.”

Private donations have funded the large remodeling project that’s involved raising dropped ceilings, doctoring ductwork, stripping floors to concrete, removing and inserting walls, painting everything and creating a 1,150-seat worship auditorium with a crescent moon stage and professional lighting.

There’s also a café, meeting rooms and separate sections for children’s ministries — including a room for up to 15 children per service who have sensory issues such as hyperactivity, often related to autism and other conditions.

“There’s such a need in churches for families with special-needs children,” Cormier said. “We want to make it as easy as possible to worship.”

A large sign hanging from the building has brought in new members and heightened anticipation for the project to be completed, the pastor said.

An unexpected discovery of asbestos took several months to remediate, according to general contractor Great West Construction.

With Zeal’s presence at the 52-year-old mall, an overarching hope is that anchoring an energetic, charismatic church will help revitalize and improve the surrounding area that’s been marked by violence.

Since 2016, there have been 12 shootings at or near The Citadel, including a fatal Christmas Eve shooting last year that killed an 18-year-old and led to community backlash and calls for the city to do something to curb the violence, particularly among youth.

Police said at a town hall The Gazette and KOAA-TV convened in March that steps to increase the number of police on the streets as well as dispatch coverage are showing encouraging signs, and that overall crime is down, although auto thefts and illegal activity by underage minors still need to be a focus of prevention work.

“I believe where Jesus goes, the crime rates will reduce,” Cormier said. “I believe businesses in the mall will see a boost because where God’s people are, there should be undeniable differences.

“Everybody should take notice because God’s moving into the neighborhood.”

A ‘beautiful blending together’

Cormier, 40, entered ministry at age 17 in his native state of Louisiana and launched Zeal Church based on gaps he saw while working for the Black church he grew up in and then a largely white evangelical Christian church.

He describes Zeal as “significantly diverse” in all ways — racially, ethnically, culturally, socioeconomically, generationally and geographically.

“With racially homogeneous churches, you create a vacuum, and that leads to all sorts of problems,” he said.

At Zeal services, charismatic worship invokes the Holy Spirit to heal attendees, and water baptisms are performed.

Music selections include both contemporary Christian songs in culture as well as traditional Gospel music familiar in predominantly Black churches.

“What we see is this beautiful blending together, where you can be a 70-year-old Black woman from the South and hear songs you grew up with or a 22-year-old White guy and hear songs that you feel comfortable with,” Cormier said. “I found that was a missing link in the churches I knew.”

In building his own church, Cormier wanted it to “kind of look like heaven,” and his idea seems to be popular among the masses.

Growth having the intensity of an inextinguishable burning bush took hold from the beginning and hasn’t receded. Opening day for Zeal in the fall of 2020 drew 784 people at the high school site.

“We did two simultaneous services — one outside on the grass — because not everybody could fit inside,” Cormier said.

While not affiliated with a specific Christian denomination, Zeal is affiliated with the Association of Related Churches, a nonprofit church-planting network based in Birmingham, Ala., that’s helped launch more than 1,000 churches with loan agreements.

Debuting a new church six months after COVID-19 took hold had some advantages, Cormier said. Real life was calling, and many people were turning to faith for answers.

Cormier and his wife and co-pastor Octavia’s preaching, he said,  addressed people’s most troubling questions: What does God have to say about the pandemic and about social justice, racism, political division and “how we can live together as humans.”

Zeal outlines a firm Christian stance on such issues.

“We all have these chains — pride, arrogance, depression, bullying, addiction, suicidal thoughts — and we all want to be free,” Cormier said. “We believe everybody was made on purpose for a purpose, and we want to see people motivated to make a difference in their lives and somebody else’s.”

With such a wide representation of society, Cormier said anyone can find someone at Zeal with whom their story or situation resonates.

That’s true, worshippers say.

“Everyone is welcome and accepted with open arms. You will not leave the same way you came in,” one churchgoer wrote about Zeal on social media.

Sunday attendance has never dipped below 600, and today 1,500 people attend Zeal’s three weekly Sunday services at the wedding venue, Cormier said.

“We’ve completed outgrown it, which drove us to buy this property,” Cormier said.

The pastor said he began looking all over town for a building just a year and a half after Zeal opened. Church leaders were interested in the old Babies R Us freestanding property south of The Citadel.

“I knew that was our space,” he said.

But the deal fell through.

Afterward, as Cormier was driving around and praying about the need for a new home for his church, he spotted the “For Lease or Sale” sign on the building that Zeal would end up buying with the help of a Church Development Fund loan.

“They said we showed responsibility and were good stewards of the money we had,” Cormier said. “They took a risk on us.”

It’s proving to be a good decision.

Heavy security presence

After Macy’s closed a decade ago due to declining sales, the massive space has had other uses. A charter school bought the top floor and operates classes and activities in the building.

Another church in Colorado Springs had held services at the site in recent times, but the pastor told The Gazette last year the location didn’t work out because worshippers were afraid to attend due to the number of shootings that had happened in the area.

Cormier knows about the neighborhood’s reputation and past violence. He’s not daunted, but he’s also taking precautions.

Members of Zeal’s security team are at every major gathering, and bodyguards protect Cormier and his family, which includes his spouse and co-pastor, Octavia, and the couple’s four children.

Statistics show that in a shooting, the target is not necessarily random but most of the time is tied to the leader of the organization, Cormier said. “Whether it’s something that was said, or the ideology … ”

The new Zeal at The Citadel has been equipped with copious video surveillance cameras inside and out, which Cormier thinks will help the mall’s businesses as well as the charter school.

“I’m sure there are some families that are a little nervous, but we’ve done everything we can to mitigate some of those risks,” Cormier said.

Some car break-ins and random incidents inside the current facility that required removing people have happened but nothing major, said John Zachman, a member of Zeal’s security team.

“The more pre-emptive we can be, the better,” he said of the church’s heavy security. “Just having a presence can slow things down.”

For the past year, a Zeal prayer team has been scattering across the city on one Saturday a month to pray for neighborhoods, including around The Citadel.

“We believe everything starts in prayer; we don’t want our ideas based on our strength or our power but God’s,” Cormier said.

“We pray a blessing over people on the street with financial troubles, health issues, marital problems. We surround the area and invite God in the space.”

Zachman also believes that Zeal being at The Citadel mall will be good for the neighborhood.

“It’s exciting to think about having some presence here and bringing some goodness and being a light on the hill,” he said.

Another religious group known as the mall monks has been located inside The Citadel for nearly 23 years.

The Catholic Center, a ministry of the Capuchin Franciscans of the Province of Mid-America, opened at The Citadel in November of 2001 and continues to offer prayer, confession, Mass and consultation to augment work of local parishes.

The ministry has been steady, the friars say.

“Thank you for being here,” is the most frequent comment the friars hear, according to Father Bill Kraus, one of the priests assigned to the center, who made a video for the ministry’s 20th anniversary celebration.

The ministry is based on the work of St. Francis of Assisi, who did not wait for the people to come to him but instead went into the streets and markets of his time proclaiming Jesus Christ as savior.

“Today the Capuchins seek to bring this same Gospel message to the modern marketplace,” its website says.