At the 8,000-member Faith Landmarks Ministries church, parishioners can shop for books and CDs, grab a latte at the coffee shop and attend rock concerts. As with other mega-churches in the Richmond region, reports Chris Dovi with Style Weekly, it's getting hard to tell where worship and fellowship leave off and commerce begins.

"As more churches expand their ministries beyond the Sunday-morning service and the restrictive confines of the modest, pew-lined sanctuary," writes Dovi, "the line between noprofit church and unregulated enterprise is blurring."

While most churches are small and unobtrusive, the mega-churches are major activity generators. Says Angela Galante, business manager at Faith Landmarks: "When you start talking about what is commonly known today as the megachurch, our building basically runs from 7 in the morning to 11 at night, seven days a week. We're busy all the time."

That can become an issue for planning commissions and boards of supervisors who are sometimes called upon to referee between the churches and their neighbors.

Dovi cites the instance of Third Presbyterian in the Spottswood Park subdivision in Henrico County. A proposed 46,000-square-foot addition to the church will double its size, stretching its walls to the perimeters of the its 3.3-acre lot on Forest Avenue.

At least one neighbor, Mirian Tice, expressed concerns that the church's late-night activities, parking lot lighting and expanded operations will have a negative effect on the neighborhood. A 46,000-square-foot office building would have less impact, she contends. But the Henrico County Planning Commission approved the plan and sent the measure to the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Pat O'Bannon sees clashes between churches and their neighbors as preventable if counties extended the same restrictions to churches that already apply to businesses engaged in the same nonchurch activities.