The perks at this place read like highlights from a profile on a “Best Employers” list: a positive, non-judgmental atmosphere, smart, creative people everywhere, free child care, free support groups, bilingual services, unlimited volunteer opportunities, huge growth potential. Plus: multi-media entertainment is available everywhere and rock concerts go off regularly. And then comes perhaps the ultimate perk: God is the CEO.

It’s a powerful pitch – and one that’s capitalized on that growth potential. The place where all this happens, Salinas’ First Presbyterian Church, was named number 75 on Outreach Magazine’s 2007 list of fastest-growing churches in the United States. It’s a surge in size made all the more unique by the fact that FPC, as it’s known locally, was the only Presbyterian church on the list, making it the fastest-growing Presbyterian congregation in the entire country. FPC grew by 33 percent this past year to reach a current attendance of 2,300 (including children).

The primary reason it has happened is an alumnus of Stanford and Oxford universities and Princeton Seminary who describes FPC as having a “style of worship that’s 21st century.”

“Our programs meet the real needs of people looking for solutions,” says Senior Pastor Mike Ladra. “My goal is to change the city from the inside out, one person at a time.”

Twenty years ago, Ladra took over a turn-of-the-century, traditional, red brick church with stained glass windows and a mostly white congregation of 700. For the past 13 years he has been manifesting a contemporary blueprint that prioritizes youth and Latino outreach and an assortment of specialized ministries. Since FPC has become too large for Ladra to handle administrative work, Daryle Bush, a CPA and Princeton Seminary graduate, was hired in March as executive pastor, leaving Ladra to fulfill his creative vision.

FPC has expanded its attendance so rapidly that the 3-year-old, 1,500-seat, 54,000-square-foot auditorium, now functioning as FPC’s main site, is no longer adequate for the church’s projected growth. As soon as they can raise $2 million to buy the adjacent 33,000-square-foot strip mall, FPC will begin developing a multipurpose space which will cost an additional $10 million to convert.

Such growth wouldn’t have been attainable without a concerted – and successful – courtship of Salinas’ huge Latino population. For the non-English speaking attendees, there is simultaneous translation into Spanish for the two Sunday services. Listeners can check out free headsets. A team of native Spanish speakers, including four volunteers and three greeters, is headed by staff member Raquel Salazar-Doolittle. FPC’s attendance is 35 percent Latino, a surprising number for a non-Catholic church.

Ladra says outreach, not marketing, is his emphasis. He adds he doesn’t look at statistics or do research; instead, he and a committee use creative sessions and retreats to come up with new ideas and to test FPC’s direction. A radio ministry, begun six years ago, is one such direction. KKMC in Salinas airs FPC’s services 11 times a week.

What they’ve also come up with are blockbuster events that resemble halftime at a major sports event. A multi-media extravaganza called “Christmas on Main Street” took place last month, involving seven live performances by “American Idol” veterans George Huff and Mandisa, a 2007 Grammy nominee. Three video screens carried live action on-stage while a state-of-the-art sound system enveloped the audience.

Ladra followed with a tidy eight-minute, user-friendly, multimedia message on coping with relatives coming for the holidays, splicing it with clips from a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and other humorous video.

The appeal of this kind of performance, Ladra says, is that “the person not used to going to church isn’t really used to the traditional Christmas service.” He adds that his sermons include practical messages.

Most worshippers aren’t likely used to the kind of sound produced at FPC either.

Above the stage sit a control room, a 64-channel recording studio, a set room, an editing room, the translation booth, and the “Tiki Lounge,” a creation of FPC designer Ryan Hunzie, where staff and volunteers can take a break.

Another major engine of growth is the church’s youth ministry. FPC’s youth services and programs, which involve 1,250 kids a week, are tailored to the each age group, infant through high school. Joel Parkins, who has been doing high school ministries for 28 years (and 12 at FPC), says his vision is to make an impact on the youth population in Salinas by doubling the 350 students who now attend his programs. Some 50 to 60 young people help run the outreach program by speaking at youth events on issues such as drug, alcohol and substance abuse, and peer pressure.

Linda Seldomridge’s 75 volunteers teach Sunday school nine months a year. Seldomridge, director of children’s ministries, is a former public school and ESL teacher. She has been with FPC for 18 years, and helped design the children’s area in the auditorium basement, using child-friendly biblical scenes for the 11 rooms. While at church, parents get 20 hours of free child care and parents of children up through age 3 are issued pagers.

“A large church like ours has the advantage of offering specialized ministries and staff,” Ladra says.

Ladra hopes further expansion will lead to more specialized programs – and more healing. His motivation to develop more counseling-type services comes in part from a place close to home: his son died last year after a struggle with schizophrenia.

His congregation certainly seems to be buying in. “Living miracles are happening right here,” says Brad Nuke, a Salinas resident and church member who joined to be closer to his children.

Lorraine Aguirre, a homemaker who lost a son three years ago, came to FPC for grief support. She also has a baby and a handicapped child. She has stayed with the church because it has given her a sense of “not feeling alone in her grief,” according to Aguirre. She claims the draw of FPC is “by word of mouth, it starts opening doors, not only to help myself but to help others.”