Emergent Brethren

Found this interesting article in Leadership online from Dan Kimball about using buildings missionally.

They can be outposts of mission, not just a drain on resources.
Dan Kimball

Sunday, November 29, 2009

If you had asked me eight years ago what I thought about church buildings, I would have said, “Who needs a building? The early church didn’t have buildings, and we don’t need them either!” But I was wrong.

My anti-building phase was a reaction to having seen so much money spent on church facilities, often for non-essential, luxury items. I was also reacting to a philosophy of ministry that treated church buildings like Disneyland; a place consumers gather for entertainment. But these abuses had caused me to unfairly dismiss the potential blessing of buildings as well.

Consider the building occupied by Compassion International in Colorado Springs. It has a well-groomed lawn with sprinkler system, an attractive sign, and an expansive parking lot. It’s a nice facility. But it’s more than just a building—it is the headquarters and training center for a ministry that brings physical and spiritual nourishment to more than one million children in 25 countries. The Compassion building is used for a missional purpose, not simply as a place for Christians to gather and consume religious services.

When we planted our church in 2004, we needed a place to meet. We found a very traditional church building that had a sizable “fellowship hall” originally used only for donuts and coffee on Sundays. Wanting to use the building differently, we converted the fellowship hall into a public coffee lounge featuring music and art from the outside community. The Abbey, as it’s now called, is open seven days a week and offers free internet access.

Just yesterday I was in The Abbey and saw about 20 people, not part of our congregation, studying and hanging out. (During finals week I counted 90 students packed into the place.) While there I talked to a brand new Christian who has been coming to our gatherings. He found out about our church from a Buddhist friend. His friend loves coming to The Abbey and recommended our church because he trusted us.

We’ve also used our building to serve our community in times of crisis. When wildfires forced nearby residents to flee their homes, our building became an overnight refuge for those without a place to stay.

These missional opportunities would not be possible without a building.

What about the sanctuary? When we first got the building, one person said the sanctuary “looked like a funeral parlor.” We sought to remake the worship space to express our congregation’s values of community, worship, and service.

First, we removed the pews. Looking at the back of peoples’ heads simply didn’t communicate our values of community and participation.

We also invited local artists to create images during our worship gatherings. These were then displayed in the space.

The only cross in the building was very small, so we brought in a huge iron cross as the visual focus of our worship space. This clearly communicated that Christ was at the center of our mission.

We lowered the large wooden pulpit in order to facilitate more relational teaching, and we added a prayer shawl over the podium to reinforce our frequent talks about the importance of prayer in changing lives.

Little by little the space that had been powerfully missional in the 1930s and ’40s was transformed to reflect missional values of the 21st century. In 20 years I’m sure the way these values are expressed will have changed again, and I hope the design of the sanctuary and fellowship hall will change accordingly.

What’s important is that our mission drives our aesthetics and our use of space.

Today I am incredibly thankful we have a building. It allows us meet in larger groups for worship, and it allows for training classes that equip people for mission. We also use our space all week and welcome the public into it.

So, I have recanted from my earlier belief that buildings drain resources and create consumer Christians. I was wrong. Now I see them as missionary centers to impact lives for the gospel.

So here is my question and assignment for you. If you had the opportunity to have a building or you already own a building, what types of things could you or do you do to use the building missionally and to not be a drain on resources? If you could design a building anyway you want to be a missional center, what would you do? What creative ways could you fund the designing of the space? Let me know your thoughts about the article and the questions.

Many people are probably aware of the concept of Third Spaces developed by the sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his book “The Great Good Place”. For those who aren’t here is a little run down of what Third Spaces are from Wikipedia.

“The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

Oldenburg calls one’s “first place” the home and those that one lives with. The “second place” is the workplace — where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs. Oldenburg suggests these hallmarks of a true “third place”: free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.”

So your coffeehouses, pubs, bars, etc are Third Spaces.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about Third Spaces and the problem that most Pastors have with them…they are so busy that they can’t be in them. I know that has been true for me in the past and I am seeking to change that.

One thing that I am thinking about is a rental space that is literally next door to my house. I am in the process of thinking through the idea of renting the space next door, creating a third space out of it, use it for all kind of community events, have coffee and bakery items for sale all the time, and then use the space for Sunday Worship gatherings. The one problem as far as Sunday worship gatherings is there is no space for nursery and children ministries in that place..we would have to use my house for those things..which could be doable.

This idea is just in it’s infancy..though I am trying to find out what it would cost to rent it and if I can fix it up (paint it, etc..). I’m interested in your opinions…what do you think? And what kind of community activities/events could we hold there (some ideas are story time for children, after-school tutoring, music nights, movie nights, open mic nights, karaoke night, etc..)?

I know it is a rare thing here… but a GOOD thing and a thing I hope happens a LOT more!  Some good dialogue took place under the radar back in July and August… you can find it in the “Third Places” category under Jeff’s “Thanks Starbucks” post.  Jump in…   Thanks Jonathan and Mike for carrying on a bit of a conversation here…  I am interested in hearing other thoughts on the points you raise.  And when I have more time… not sure when that will be!  I will check out Jonathan’s dissertation link!

I’m grateful in a lot of ways for Starbucks. No, one is not the coffee. I go there often, but I’m not a coffee drinker. I’ve been a tea drinker ever since high school when a former Brethren missionary from India taught me to drink tea “the British way”. I do like the teas at Starbucks, but that’s not why I’m posting. I also like the culture, the ability to meet friends, to hang-out and make new friends, as well as to have a place to work when I need to get out of the office.

Another thing I’m grateful for is the writings on their cups; The Way I See It series. Recently, I got a cup with #254 of the series. It is written by Terry Kellogg, executive director of 1% for the Planet, a network of companies that donate a portion of sales to environmental causes. He writes, “I have spent a lot of time living where two bioregions intersect. There’s often amazing diversity in these zones, as species native to one region seem to thrive in the presence of those from another. . .“  Terry goes one to write about how there can be a beneficial relationship between business and the environment.

What grabbed me from the quote above was the thought of how two different types of plant species can co-exist at the same time and place. Yet, if you go very far in one direction or the other, you lose the unique mix. This thought reminds me of what Dan Kimball and Brian McLaren have been teaching for years, that we are living in that inbetween, transition time between the modern and postmodern times.

From conversations I’ve had, some of  us can’t wait for postmodern culture to develop more fully and want to jetison modernity ASAP. But like the mixture of species thrive together where environmental zones meet to create a unique mix, can we find and blend the best of modernity into the ways we want to see church move forward into?  What do you appreciate about Modernity that you feel is beneficial to the church? How can we create a unique blend between the two so that we can bring with us the older Brethren, while reachin those who are outside the church? Is this possible in your mind?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Peace!

Jeff Glass

I am very interested in hearing from others who have successfully launched a Third Place… Our leadership team is exploring doing just that as a way to connect with our community, provide an employment option for our youth and others, and as a way to fund ministry.

A third place is neutral ground, inclusive and promotes social equality, conversation is the central activity, it is frequented by regulars who welcome newcomers, it is a non-pretentious, homey place that fosters a playful mood. Like Starbucks! Home is a first place, Work is a second place and Starbucks or other cafe’s or places like Barnes and Nobel are third places.

I am interested in feeback from any who have done this successfully. But also offer a quote from Len Sweet’s new book “The Gospel According to Starbucks” for your interaction….

“Church used to be a third place of choice, a meeting house, a sacred place where the community gathered for governing, for mourning, for celebrating, for relationship building. But churches increasingly became not relational space but propositional place. Instead of going there to connect with God and with others in meaningful relationship, people started going to church to be convinced of transcendent truth, or , if they already numbered among the convinced, to have their beliefs and religious convictions confirmed from the pulpit. The church lost credibility as a place for sacred relationship when it chose to specialize in formulating and advancing a better spiritual argument. The result is that people who came to the meeting house got connected with ideas and formulas more than they did with God and with other people.” p 132

What do you think? I think sweet is right on and that is one of several reasons why we are pursuing the idea of opening a third place in our community to do again what the church used to do. And then out of those relationships we hope to make a connection with our new friends to our congregation’s life and ministry. It seems to me that emerging churches must consider options like these that get us out into the community making authentic connections and relationships with people who will not come inside our churches…. Thoughts???