BROOKLYN, N.Y.—The Christian Cultural Center is a multipurpose destination for Sunday worshipers, according to Charisma News. Thousands arrive each weekend from as far away as Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania to join the growing multicultural congregation in Brooklyn that offers much more than pews and a pulpit to attract new members to the building.

Senior pastor A.R. Bernard said the church's new facility was designed to serve as a gathering place for the congregation and as a way to engage the community.

"We want this complex to be a destination to express the culture and history of the Christian faith," Bernard told Ministries Today magazine.

The 97,000-square-foot facility includes a café, bookstore, flower shop and newsstand. There is an upscale 120-seat restaurant on the second floor.

The church grew out of its 28,000-square-foot home in an abandoned supermarket in 1997. The new building cost $16 million.

It has a capacity for 5,000 worshipers. Three Sunday services attract 11,000 to 12,000 people. Annual decisions for Christ total about 1,200. Bernard reports that 98 percent of these converts become CCC members.

Bernard sees the church extending the hand of Christ to multitudes and giving hope to the community. "The essence of my message is discovering the Spirit of God in you," he said. "The essence for me is Christ in culture."