- Church planting & multiplication
Jeff Bennett knows what many of his Washington neighbors think about church.
“Church here in the Tri-Cities is a four-letter word,” he said.
Such an attitude includes the idea that Christians make for undesirable friends or coworkers. Mix in occasional anecdotes about mean-spirited congregations, and people in Kennewick, Pasco or Richland avoid church buildings like a hornet’s nest.
That’s why Bennett and other disciples embarked on an audacious architectural adventure: What if we invite people into a building that’s clearly not religious?
So, they started The Gathering in a Richland shop where people sell or repair single- and double-axle trailers. To transition beyond business, disciples lay down rugs every weekend before they stand up floor lamps and hang tarps as temporary walls.
Bennett noted people respond well to the space because they can relax. Rather than feel angsty about making too much noise in a church, people connect with each other and Christ.
“It feels very much like home,” Bennett said.
He said a waitress recently came to faith in a traditional church building. However, she told him such an environment spiritually demotivated her. So she’s been coming to the trailer shop for friendship and worship since she learned a church meets there.
“For her, it wasn’t your typical church,” Bennett noted. “Each week, people can’t get over all the things they see God doing in the community and in their lives.”
Bennett, who went through a rigorous evaluation process through Converge’s Church Planting Assessment Center, recognizes The Gathering is in the early stages of finding its identity. Even so, the pre-launch team shapes a strategic, selective space where architecture can accentuate faith.
Related: Converge churches come in many forms so more people follow Christ
A New England church creates opportunities and cuts overhead
Wise sensitivity to how people perceive a place led Massachusetts disciples to share a vacant downtown building with four community groups and nonprofits. In the fall of 2017, Terra Nova Church leased a Main Street site in North Adams with room for Sunday worship. Throughout the week, a farmer’s market, recovery community center, studio and community coalition pursued their priorities at the site.
Pastor Paul Gordon said the location reflects missional, organizational and economic values.
“We wanted to be a church that went towards people and met them in their space,” he said about selecting 85 Main Street.
Gordon said the church better stewards economic resources by sharing the downtown site with other entities. Terra Nova can invest more money in ministry and people when it spends less on maintenance projects.
He added that not buying, fixing up or building a dedicated religious space “has helped us build bridges to those who are uncomfortable with traditional church spaces.”
Minnesota groups aren’t even churches — yet
When Eagle Brook Church, located northeast of the Twin Cities, invited a small group to watch services online five years ago, no one called the endeavor a church. But now that viewing group — as Eagle Brook titles the concept — is an independent church. So are three more congregations who’ve followed the same path from inspiration to incorporation.
According to online campus pastor Jeff Dodge, starting a viewing group requires 15 people who will invite their friends and neighbors to attend Eagle Brook Church online. Since 2017, Christians and nonbelievers have gathered on college campuses, in senior living facilities, hotel conference rooms, movie theaters, libraries, wineries, bars and even a county jail. In those places, a live stream of Eagle Brook services empowers people to worship, learn about Christ and experience Christian community.
“Our end goal is for Eagle Brook to do whatever we can,” Dodge said. “We use whatever tools are at our disposal to reach as many people for Christ as possible.”
There are 30 groups, so Eagle Brook is creating a leadership structure to support the viewing groups. Dodge meets with each group over Zoom when they start, plus he emails them and takes calls between quarterly Zoom training sessions.
For viewing groups that incorporate, Dodge said the official 501(c)3 status meant people could give to help pay rental fees and fund coffee and refreshments and necessary technology. Once they finalize their tax-exempt status, some stay viewing groups while others organize as a church and become part of the Eagle Brook Association.
“Some have started churches by sharing our messages, and others have started as a viewing group and grown,” Dodge added.
The first-century church used homes; a Maryland church uses Zoom
According to Brian and Pamela Thompson, a hybrid of in-person and online events fostered by Zoom generates spiritual growth among artists and creatives. They formed Easel Outreach near Washington, D.C., because they saw many who had been hurt by church in the past alongside people new to the faith.
“They’re hiding right now, they’re running right now,” he explained about his friends’ response to traditional churches. “People like the fact that we’re accessible. That’s really the key here.”
Glimpses of traditional religion, whether sights or sites, repel many Americans from Christ. For example, many people seldom need or want to enter a religious space, especially after a few generations of unbelief. Add in pain caused by church, and some U.S. communities are as unreached as countries where missionaries deploy.
Such distance from the people of God is why the Thompsons never intended for their church of creatives to gather in any building, much less an architecturally religious edifice.
Easel started on Zoom, independent of COVID restrictions, so men and women determined not to get wounded again by the church would consider coming. Thompson, an artist himself, said many churches with substantial buildings and extensive programs often treat creative people like commodities.
Related: Donuts, divine moments go together for couple starting a church
People have forgotten, Thompson said, that the first church was in homes where people devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, teaching and prayer. Therefore, Easel Outreach utilizes a hybrid strategy of connecting on Zoom and in person. Those moments include art studio sessions, a barbershop gathering for men and activities for women to find friends.
“The people who are with us, they’re all solid, and they will all tell you they’ve grown,” he added.
Thompson said the church that’s never met in person has conversations about locations for special events and Sunday worship. If Easel someday chooses a space, the site will align with the church’s identity. For now, Easel activities happen online and in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
“The church is you,” he has said to his fellow creatives, wherever they are. “God calls you the temple of God.”
Making a place people can’t wait to visit
Christian Hightower of The Gathering’s core team in Washington spends a lot of time in the Richland, Washington, trailer shop. Monday through Friday, he services or sells utility and cargo haulers. Then on Sundays, the 25-year-old husband and father worships between the tarps that transform the same site.
“We’re trying to figure out how to do church in a way that impacts people in a meaningful way,” he said. “People aren’t really dying to get into a building with the pews and a 45-minute message.”
That is why The Gathering chose a place that stimulates more faith and fewer four-letter words. For example, they’re experimenting with musicians and singers standing around the congregation instead of on a stage. In addition, the people leave the shop one Sunday a month to worship in a park or offer a community activity like a fall festival.
When he ponders a future location for The Gathering, Hightower imagines a hospitable, personal and unconventional place. The destination for this architectural adventure likely won’t include a steeple or stained glass. Yet, by God’s grace, new disciples can speak of Christ’s bride with words of wonder and worship.
“We are trying to be different in how we engage people,” he said. “What’s that thing that’s going to make that person not shun at the word ‘church’?”
