Like I mentioned earlier... this last week we began a new stage in our Sunday Gatherings for Evergreen, moving them to the slightly nicer, slightly more residential are of the Lucky Lab in NW PDX. Our third pub in as many years...
When we started, I really resisted the whole "pub" church thing. I didn't want that to become a significant part of our identity. I feared being defined as a community by our space and the potential that what might end up sitting at the center of our community would be an anti-establishment identity rather than the person of Jesus. And, truthfully, at the beginning of our journey together, the space really defined us.
We have never really gotten past the pub thing, but... it really isn't such a huge part of our thinking any more. I know people still like the space, for the most part. And the idea of meeting in a traditional church building would really turn a lot of evergreeners off, but...
My sense is that where at one point "the space" really defined us, I think "community" now does, and that's a good thing. As long as it's community built around Jesus, I'm happy.
One thing I've dropped some comments about and alluded to a bit is the idea of replanting some things back in the spaces we've previously occupied- the SW and SE Lucky Labs.
I pitched an idea to the elders a couple of months ago and want to start a conversation about it with our community soon... but this thought I have running through my head is a formative idea of how we can
grow slightly larger as a community and so have the resources for church planting and serving the poor that I'd love us to have
Make more room for those who want to teach the community and help lead
Have worship gatherings remain at a size where people have a reasonable expectation of being able to know those with whom they gather regularly to worship and discuss the Scriptures
The idea I've been playing with is to let our Sunday gatherings grow just a bit more (we're getting close), ask 30 or so people to form the core of a new gathering in our old space with their own teaching team, a couple of the elders, a group of artists and musicians, etc. It would still be part of evergreen, still be connected to the body as a whole through our community dinners, website/forum, elder team...
The idea is to get the best of church planting (starting something new, calling people to exercise their gifts and commit to missional living together) while minimizing the hard parts (feeling alone, lacking resources and support)
I'm envisioning having something back at our SE location before too long and then maybe at the SW Lab not too long after that. I can see how God is bringing some people resources along to make this a possibility... (right now we have 3 people at various stages of raising support to be able to give some focused hours to evergreen).
It feels to me like if we had a worship gathering at every Lucky Lab Pub in town, continued growing as a community, we could do various things
1. remain present in these pub spaces we've inhabited. It really is an important "open door" for a lot of people
2. rent some 24-7 space somewhere central which would allow us a 4th worship gathering, perhaps in a place where we could do more with the exploding population of little evergreeners we're currently seeing, where our bands could practice, where prayer could happen, and where, most importantly, we could do some good things for the community in terms of food pantry, clothes closet, maybe after-school tutoring or other ways of serving like art/poetry nights... all kinds of stuff really.
3. plant free-standing communities in a ring around us... I've seen people come and plug into evergreen from this geographic ring around Portland- Gresham, Estacada, Salem, Vancouver, Newburg- most love the community, and most eventually find that the distance gets the best of them.
I'm not sure how it all works, but... I'm excited about experimenting. Would that make us the first multi-site emerging church? I think Kaleo (an Acts 29 church in San Diego) has done something a bit like this... Anyone know?
For the bloggers; boycott McMenamins (Edgefield). Go to the Lucky Lab Pub instead.
Today at 3:00 p.m. we brought our lab to McMenamins, we were told to put the dog in the car. Yes, car. Now today’s high in Portland was 91 degrees. I told them, “No, not in this weather.” So I walked to the parking lot, and sat with my dog in the shade until my relatives got some food to go. About 20 minutes later, a woman employee walks by and tells me, “There are no dogs allowed here.” We told her we’re just waiting in the shade not even close to a walkway, etc…
So, when our family just spent $100 on food we drove off only to see a dog in a car in the parking lot, unattended. So I ask McMenamins lovers out there, “Why patron this business when they are telling people to put their dogs in their car!
Outrageous. The Human Society should investigate such matters.
Marco
Posted by: Marc | June 03, 2007 at 07:57 PM