RALEIGH, N.C. - The 10 a.m. service at Calvary Chapel in Apex is mobbed. People sit in folding chairs at the edges of the aisles, on the floor and in the lobby where they watch the service on a TV feed.

But The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that what makes this church unique is not its apparent popularity. Instead, it breaks many of the unspoken conventions of church life across the country, and especially in the South. Its pastor, Rodney Finch, is black. The congregation is about 70 percent white.

From his pulpit where he wears a long-sleeved T-shirt under his jacket and a microphone attached to his ear, Finch projects a thoroughly contemporary and casual approach to preaching.

"I feel like it's important to be real," said Finch, the 47-year-old pastor who started the church more than a decade ago. "I'm not trying to impress anybody. I come to the pulpit with an understanding that I'm a tool in the hands of God."

The Christian evangelical network of Calvary Chapels, consisting of 1,000 churches across the United States, is especially diverse, but it's not alone. Eleven o'clock Sunday morning may still be the most segregated hour in the week, but increasingly it is less so. A new generation of churches, including many of the new megachurches, are making significant strides toward integration.

Leading the pack are charismatic or Pentecostal churches that believe the Holy Spirit bestows gifts such as the power to heal, prophesy and work miracles. And many megachurches have adopted an inclusive vision, open to a wide diversity of economic and racial backgrounds. When asked if they liked being in a racially diverse community, 90 percent of megachurch members said they agreed or strongly agreed, according to a 2005 study of megachurches by Hartford Seminary.

Part of the reason large churches draw a more diverse crowd is because their worship format, even their architecture, is modeled after contemporary, secular styles that appeal to a larger cross-section of the population.

But mostly black churches are changing, too. A rising generation of black church pastors didn't necessarily grow up in the black church and were educated in racially diverse schools. Many say they are squarely part of the middle class and feel comfortable socializing with whites.

"I have been groomed under a different style of ministry," said James Roberson, the pastor of Church on the Rock, a mostly black North Raleigh church where about 20 percent of members are white. "My background was ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse."

Roberson grew up outside New York City and attended James Madison University in Virginia as an undergraduate and Dallas Theological Seminary - schools where blacks were in the minority. His first ministerial experience was at Denton Bible Church, a mostly white megachurch outside Dallas.

For white pastors, attracting African-Americans requires an intentional effort.

"At a soul level, we need to do our best to empathize with where people are coming from," said Ron Lewis, pastor of King's Park International Church in Durham - perhaps the region's most diverse church with a congregation that is 40 percent white, 40 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic or Asian. "When we begin to listen to their stories, that breaks down walls."

King's Park has also been serious about hiring minorities. Aside from Lewis, who is white, the church employs two black pastors and one who is Asian.

But not everyone sees integration as a goal, especially if it means the abandonment of historically black churches in inner city neighborhoods.

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