Church That Looks Like Community And Feels Like Home

“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

1 Peter 1:23

I passed by Steevenson’s strawberries (that he’s hoping to share with all his classmates before school lets out for summer!) and thought about how incredible it is that we can count on tiny dried-up seeds to bring about a pot full of plump, juicy fruit.

Amazing how God, through His Word, is the same way. His goodness always grows.

Did you have a nice Easter? Ours was slow and sweet. The message at church was an encouraging reminder that not all storms come to disrupt our lives. “Some come to clear a path and make a new way”, Pastor Patrick said. I love the way that Perspective whispers, “Take heart! Because that thing you are facing…battling…barely surviving…in the end, it will be powerless over you and what matters. Because Jesus loves you…and His promises are imperishable.”

I didn’t start attending church until later in life. You? I was surprised to recently learn that so many churches are closing each year. Something like 5,000-10,000 annually. Can you believe that? 100-200 per week. Church or not, it’s hard to wrap your mind around that many organizations ceasing to exist, ya know?

Our congregation meets in our school’s gymnasium right now but we’ve got fun plans to start settling down into the 23 acres next to our neighborhood starting next year. We call ourselves Century Church because we began as 100 adults with a vision to plant a new church in the 21st Century preparing to reach the future generations that come along in the 22nd.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

The folks in charge have been hard at work putting together a design that will come together slowly and intentionally over the next several years and I love that they’re putting community, not construction, first. Because, as Pastor Patrick put it, “throughout the centurie­s, the church has always been its healthiest when it focused it’s love and energy outward toward the community“.

So instead of creating a large church building that is surrounded by a sea of parking and only used once or twice a week, the community will band together to create a campus that is alive all throughout the week. Slowly but surely, there will be buildings that cater to the needs of the entire region because every part of the property will be designed to feel inviting and restorative so that people will feel comfortable doing life and hanging out there.

Inspired by The Hub in Florida and Magnolia Market in Texas, the heart of the campus will be an engaging place where people can enjoy the company of others as they eat, listen to music, talk, or play on the green. We’re calling it The Well, named after Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4, and this is the first area in the works…

(Photo: CityBuilding Partnership)

The buildings around that open expanse of grass will all serve the community in various ways. Partnerships with the folks who want to lease and use them throughout the week will cultivate community and help offset the cost of constructing and maintaining them.

For instance, the Community Theater (the largest white structure) can be used by the congregation for worship services as well as others who lease the space for concerts, dance recitals, plays, and conferences. The pre-school in the (future) Learning Court will function as a pre-school throughout the week as well as a worship space for children on Sundays. The Creative Arts Studio (the red brick building straight across from the Community Theater) will offer affordable workspaces for local sound engineers, videographers, photographers, graphic designers, etc. and will serve as those kinds of workspaces for those on staff at the church too. The Culinary Incubator (the building on the left side of the green space) will be Century’s main kitchen and will also be used by partners who are looking for a space to develop a food business or incubate food trucks.

Another type of partnership will be with a local non-profit organization who wants to build homes that will house foster care families. The design team designed a Foster Care Court (3 in the photo below) where the cottages can contribute toward the life of the campus as well as serve as an important reminder to those who visit that foster care might be a great way for them to serve the community.

(Photo: CityBuilding Partnership)

So, in a nutshell, it’s not going to be about building everything into a single structure, designed by a single person or firm, at a single point in time. It’s about a long-range plan for future additions, a faster more manageable start, and greater flexibility- which will allow everyone to adapt to changes along the way. Because let’s be honest, we’re all just humans and there’s no way to know what the needs and desires of future generations will be.

It’s about character from the many hands who will contribute to the creation of the place over time.

It’s about building at a smaller scale in hopes to increase the range of people who can provide services to the community (since fewer people/organizations are set up to operate at a larger scale).

It’s about embracing an incremental, creative, and adventurous approach, and serving the community by creating an experience for visitors that cannot be replicated on a T.V. or cell phone screen.

Here’s the long-term vision…

(Photo: CityBuilding Partnership)

Isn’t that fun? I loved seeing the renderings for so many reasons. The artist and designer in me is fascinated by the creativity and color, and after reading about how the decline in togetherness when it comes to community, it seems so important for the church to move in this direction. To not close down. To not lose heart. To walk among the shaken things and clip what fruit remains and to give it to each other.

(Photo: CityBuilding Partnership)

To be givers of Light and Hope…and strawberries! 😉

Layla

PS- Special thanks to Nathan Norris for giving me the go-ahead to use the renderings in this post. You can read his super informative article about these plans here: Re-designing Church For The 21st Century

And to Pastor Patrick, whose enthusiasm is absolutely palpable through even the shortest of text messages about this project and in person wherever he is planted, and not just on Sunday mornings. 🙂

And readers, by all means, feel free to share this with whomever you think might be interested in reading about this kind of thing and I’m sure Nathan and Patrick would be happy to chat with folks who have questions, too!

You can find Nathan at [email protected] and you can find Patrick at [email protected]