Scott Vorie

Scott Vorie stands before a small group of men and women on a street just a few blocks east of Lake Merritt. A weathered bible lays open in his hands with tabs and markers protruding from its pages. A portable cooler with condiments dangling from the outside pocket is draped over his shoulder; inside are some two dozen hot dogs while even more are kept warm in a nearby car.

He’s wearing an Oakland A’s jersey and he stands with his legs awkwardly spaced apart as if bracing himself for the passage he’s about to read.

Vorie reads aloud a passage and the group, six men and one woman, bow their heads in prayer on the dimly lit sidewalk.

Tonight is a little different than most nights for the members of Regeneration, a new-age evangelical church located a few blocks from Oakland’s Lake Merritt. It’s only 9 p.m. and they are already heading out to spread their message. A group of high school boys are riding along tonight and they have to be home earlier than the rest of the group. Normally, the Bible reading goes well into the 10 ‘o clock hour.

Earlier in the evening, this small church east of the lake had its lights on and its door open and inside a small group of high school boys sit around a table joking and laughing.

It seemed odd that these young men would be sitting in this church given the late hour, 9 p.m., and the fact that it was a beautiful Friday night made it all the more perplexing. They were in fact waiting for other members of their congregation to finish preparing food across the street at their community center. They would be going out tonight, just not in the way one expects a teenager to at the beginning of the weekend.

Regeneration Church, a new-age, and rather new, evangelical church is situated just east of Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif. Every other Friday night, dedicated members participate in Crosstreets, where food and gospel are distributed among Oakland’s disenfranchised. Regeneration is placed decidedly between East and West Oakland, a border that serves as a source of tension among rival gangs who fight for territory.

“It’s a way to express my faith in a real way,” Vorie explains his participation in Crosstreets.

Vorie has been with Regeneration almost since its inception in 2001. He runs a landscaping business that operates mostly in the Dublin/Pleasanton area, but still manages to make the trek to Oakland for mass on Sundays and Crosstreets.

“For me it comes down to Jesus, was he a real person? Did he exist? Did he die? For me, you have to start from there.”

Vorie has not always been as religiously devout as he is now. He grew up in nearby Fremont and said his family was never particularly religious. During college, however, Vorie saw the excesses of drinking and partying and decided that he needed something else.

Vorie first attended Regeneration after a friend recommended it to him.

“I didn’t find nothingness very attractive anymore.” Vorie said, “I guess I was searching for something more.”