Rethinking Church III: Breaking Out of the Box

Marilyn: Having lived with the idea and started on a pilgrimage of my own, I have started to come up with some alternatives.

Theophilus & I have discussed the subject at length, and at the beginning of 2011 I decided that my "pilgrimage" would involve becoming a member of the Church at large. I would visit a different church each Sunday.

We have a mess of churches in this town, and since I could not possibly visit them all I soon developed some parameters. First I narrowed it down to churches who used the Revised Common Lectionary, so we were all on the same page, so to speak. Second, I wanted to celebrate the Lord's Supper each week. Third, I wanted to sing the hymns of the Church, old and new. I chose not to make an issue of the quality of the music program or the personality of the preacher (although I expect to hear the scriptures preached). I immediately had to eliminate churches which did not accept my baptism: I was baptized as an infant and confirmed in the faith at the age of eight. I also have problems with churches where women are denied leadership roles.

Four months later I find myself dividing my time between three churches. One is my "home" church up the street, one is the Black church up the street, of the same denomination, and one is a large Episcopal church in town. If I go to a communion service on Thursday I might plan to visit an additional church (one which probably does not offer communion each Sunday) once a month.

What have I learned?

1. It is almost impossible to explain what I am trying to do (I am not even sure), so I just do it and go about my business. People's immediate response is that I must be "church shopping". I have been welcomed (usually if I already know someone), I have been ignored, I have generally wandered around looking lost.
2. One person cannot do much, and this is not supposed to be a one-person job. I am still looking for a wider community that I can plug into. So far everyone has their own little box. I have not found anyone who wants to break out yet, but surely they are out there somewhere -- remember Elijah's whining about 'I only am left!' and how God set him straight (I Kings chapter 19: you and 7,000 others).
3. We should be focusing on the basics: Is the Gospel preached? Are we faithfully studying and teaching our children the Scriptures? Are we in the business of seeing that people's spiritual and physical needs are addressed? Working for the Kingdom of God?

It seems to me that we are going to have to "break out of the box" big-time, tear down the fences, join forces, and make our churches into public spaces instead of what are essentially small private fiefdoms.

I believe that if I were building a church, I would build a Coffee House instead, with attached offices and meeting rooms. We would serve lunch. You could buy a pre-paid card for a discount, and the various "welfare" agencies could be given cards to distribute to their "clients". AA and Toastmasters might reserve meeting space, as well as Christian education classes and study groups open to the public: an introduction to the Christian scriptures, for example, or other topical studies as well as on-going small groups.

Or maybe an apartment building. Maybe we could move into a vacant store (now there's an original idea). That is not to say that worship spaces are not important, but I have not gotten that far yet.

As I was pondering these possibilities, I came across a book by Jay Walljasper, All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons, in the public library (of course). And there was an article on Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, whose dean also has training in city planning. They felt that historically, spiritual places have been common spaces, and houses of worship should be public places, so they built what they called Trinity Commons:

Trinity Commons was created in the 2002 environmentally-friendly renovation of Trinity Cathedral and the headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. The Commons is a home for mission and ministry in downtown Cleveland, including meeting rooms and conference facilities, an art gallery, Cathedral and Diocesan Offices, and the Shops at Trinity Commons, which include Cafe Ah-Roma, Sacred Path Books & Art, and Ten Thousand Villages Cleveland.

Sounds good to me. But it reminds me of the time a certain small church had the opportunity to open the gym to the community, maybe bring in community people as coaches and leaders, partners in the enterprise. The outcome? Too risky, what about insurance, we don't want outsiders messing with our stuff. Maybe we could try a church league (again). Breakout avoided.

Next time: exploring the idea of the Commons.