Medford church turns punk, rock music venue into a multicultural worship space

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Medford church turns punk, rock music venue into a multicultural worship space

Medford’s Reality Center Church draws new worshippers by holding services inside Rogue Valley Mall’s Rockafairy venue, creating a welcoming, multicultural space. 

By Emma Maple | FāVS News Reporter

MEDFORD, Ore. — Sunday mornings, people stream through the doors to the Rogue Valley Mall in Medford, Oregon, Bibles in hand and hearts ready to worship in their church’s home base — a converted punk venue. 

The Reality Center, a nondenominational church founded in October 2025, meets most Sundays at Rockafairy, a venue nestled into the region’s largest indoor mall. Rockafairy, which serves as a creative music and art space by day and a punk/rock/event venue by night, was intentionally chosen by The Reality Center as its Sunday home. 

The main hope behind the church’s location is that it will appeal to people who “wouldn’t step foot into a church, traditionally,” Senior Leader Kym McKandes said. 

“When we first started the church, we had already said we want to make sure it’s a building that anybody would feel comfortable to walk into,” McKandes added. 

One recent Sunday, McKandes welcomed a group of about 50 people of various ages and ethnicities into the concert venue, leading worship and a sermon from the stage where bands had performed the week before. 

Records spanning from “Queen Samantha 2” to “Jefferson Airplane Takes Off” framed him on either side, an homage to the venue’s traditional purpose. Musical instruments lined the walls behind the church’s coffee table. 

Across the aisle from Rockafairy, a clothing store’s theft detection alert system would occasionally puncture the church’s sermon or communion with a piercing beep. As the sounds of worship drifted out of the open door, people would peek through the glass to see what was happening. 

“A lot of people just walk past, they hear the music, stick their heads in,” McKandes said. “Two weeks later, they’re sitting in the front row.” 

Rockafairy has been serving as the home for The Reality Center since February, according to McKandes. Prior to that, the church met at a local middle school. 

Intentional multiculturalism 

In addition to intentionally residing in a non-traditional location, The Reality Center intentionally serves as a multicultural space for people of all backgrounds, races and ethnicities. 

McKandes said his desire to establish a multicultural church in a county that was about 88% white as of 2020 stemmed from his personal experiences trying to find a church where he felt at home as a Black man. 

Although many of the churches he tried out were nice, he said, he also felt tokenized after finding himself prominently featured in photos on church websites multiple times despite not giving any formal commitments to the church. 

“I understand why they did it, but I didn’t like that they did it,” McKandes said. “If you’ll use me, I know that others have been used.” 

Now, Rockafairy works to have leadership that represents people from multiple cultures so that no one feels singled out or alone when they step through the mall doors. There are 11 different ethnicities represented in the church, McKandes said. 

There are also multicultural elements of the services, including some songs sung in Spanish and occasional Simoan Sundays, according to McKandes. Sunday, McKandes’ wife Wendy asked for volunteers to interpret sermons in ASL, for one of the families who regularly attends the sermons. 

When The Reality Center was forming, McKandes said he was intentional about finding people of different cultures and ethnicities so that “people will see themselves when they come.” 

At a recent church service, Medford school board member and church attendee Michael Williams described the church as having “just a spirit of authenticity and love in this room.” 

“It’s a great place to be,” McKandes said of The Reality Center and its location at Rockafairy. “I know I’m a little biased, but it’s pretty much what I had always wanted to be a part of.” 

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