By Wes Dillon
As the relational chasm widens between church life and community life, several church communities are experimenting with a third place to bridge that gap.
Brad Canning is one church leader whose third place, the Postmark Coffee House, gives his new church plant the opportunity to build relational bridges into the community.
As a result, familiar faces from their Brooklyn neighborhood sprinkled the audience on opening Sunday. Looking out from the stage, Canning could see Mr. Conrad, an older gentleman who”d walked through a cold, overcast morning to be part of the opening service. Seated behind him was Tracy, a medical student who studies every Tuesday night at the coffee shop. Having discovered the coffee shop several months ago, Mr. Conrad and Tracy came to the grand opening of Church! of Park Slope because of the relationship and not the coffee.
A Place to Belong
Do you have a third place? Do the people at your church have one? Better yet, what about your community; does it have a third place?
Cedar Ridge Christian Church in Lenexa, Kansas, asked those questions before building on its new property. The property is located next to Sar Ko Par Trails Park, a city park with a pond, walking trails, a skate board area, and tennis courts. Asking the question, “What would best serve our community?” made it clear that a community center would be best. “There was no YMCA or community center in our part of the city,” said Brian Wright of Cedar Ridge. “So we drew up plans for a multiuse building where our church and community could intersect.”
Don”t let the term third place scare you off. You are probably familiar with the concept. Coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his 1990 book The Great Good Place, the third place is that center of community where people informally gather to put aside the concerns of home and work so they can socialize, relax, develop friendships, and discuss issues.
These relational hubs are as essential as home (the first place) and work (the second place) are for most people. You probably know some local haunts that qualify, that are at the heart of a community”s social vitality. Cafés, coffee shops, and bookstores can provide the setting for a third place. Community centers, beauty parlors, and pubs (bistros) can also be relational hubs spinning out a network of news and events.
Here”s the catch. If Oldenburg is right, it”s likely your community could use more of them. “The third place is seldom found in America”s newer urban environments,” the author writes in The Great Good Place. With zoning laws ignoring the need for gathering places, suburban sprawl has created homes to live in, commercial centers, and shopping centers. But the third places are conspicuously absent, leaving a dangling opportunity for those who wish to create community as part of doing church.
“When our church plant began in the Fremont area of Seattle, Washington, we saw that people in our neighborhood congregated in coffee shops, cafés, restaurants, and bars,” noted Karen Ward of Apostles Church. “We wanted church to be a lifestyle, not a building people go to. By opening a café that”s open every day of the week, we created a way for us to live our life in our community. With good coffee and live music, the setting is right for us to connect with the people God lets us serve.”
Into the Community to Serve the Community
These examples inspire the church that not only reaches out to its community but also wants to improve the quality of life in its community. As Americans move more frequently, this becomes more critical since many people are strangers to their neighbors. For instance, in Phoenix, one out of four people moves annually, meaning most neighbors will move within four years. Imagine the strain this puts on community for churches. If people do not know or talk to their neighbors, is it any surprise that they”ll attend a church service and not speak to anyone while there?
The concept has struck a chord with urban planners. They are creating new spaces in their communities where neighbors can gather, intersect, and meet one another to begin weaving the tapestry of neighborliness.
“What an opportunity for the church,” notes Chris Barras of Forefront church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. “Why settle for a big building that your community drives to once or twice a week? Why not put yourself at the center of a community so that you can intersect, connect, and serve people all day, every day?”
Barras cautions those who might assume a coffee bar in the lobby satisfies the craving for community. “If church leaders think a coffee bar on Sunday morning is a solution they are missing the point,” he notes. “If that church”s third place is to be a coffee bar, it must intersect with the community on a daily basis. Otherwise, you just serve coffee during services.”
How Are They Doing That?
The following is a summary of how three communities are attempting to create third places.
Church! of Park Slope, Brooklyn””In New York City, a church-planting team had to find innovative ways to meet their neighbors. Since the city is a post-Christian environment where suspicion and hostility””instead of curiosity””could be a neighbor”s first response to the new church, the staff must find appropriate ways to intersect with the community.
The Postmark Coffee House helped the staff integrate with the community, meet their neighbors, and give the neighborhood a nonthreatening way to stop by, drink some java, and check out this new church. In addition, the staff has invited the community to relationship-building events, like a kids” story time or a postcard writing party.
Cedar Ridge Christian Church, Lenexa, Kansas””In the Kansas City suburb of Lenexa, Cedar Ridge realized it could use a multipurpose community center to intersect with its neighbors. A gymnasium, locker room, coffee shop, meeting rooms, indoor playground, and climbing wall are open all week to the community and””oh yeah””a church meets there on Sunday morning.
The adjacent park hosts a number of city festivals. In exchange for parking, Cedar Ridge is granted free booth space. Each event provides an opportunity to inform the community of upcoming children”s basketball leagues, fitness classes, and other happenings at their facility. Arts, education, and recreation fill the weekly calendar of the community center.
Apostles Church, Seattle””In Seattle”s artistically oriented Fremont neighborhood, Apostles Church is engaged in a multiphase plan to renovate a multiuse building that will house a coffee shop/restaurant, art school, and gallery, as well as a large meeting room.
“With the opening of the coffee shop, the neighborhood”s come to understand that we”re for them,” said Karen Ward. “The neighborhood knows we”ve been up front about being part of a church, but since we don”t have any self-conscious church publicity, we”ve been accepted as a contributing part of the community. When a community art center was proposed as a part of our new property, the local businesses and chamber of commerce offered to help us raise the money to make the art gallery a reality.”
What If. . .
Each one of these churches is seeking to contribute to the fabric of its community as well as to reach it. By contributing in this way, the church discovers that the community is also granting them a hearing. What a great concept.
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Books by Ray Oldenburg
To learn more about the third place, read Ray Oldenburg”s books, which give an extensive treatment.
The original, The Great Good Place, is a must-read for anyone contemplating the third place”s role in ministry.
To see what third places look like, the follow-up book, Celebrating the Third Place, profiles actual third places across the country.
Wes Dillon is executive director of PictureShock Productions, a new ministry finding innovative ways to communicate the Christian story to teenagers. Dillon lives in Mesa, Arizona, with his wife, Kasey.
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