I love Living Hope Church! One of the biggest reasons I love our church is because we have a true sense that Living Hope is people...not buildings. Of course, it's easy to feel that way when you're a church without a building. But even still, we're very healthy that way.However, there are big disadvantages to not having a building - especially in Dixon. Honestly, we're really under-developed for a town of 18,000. As such, we are EXTREMELY limited in options of places to meet here in town. We currently meet in the multi-purpose room of an elementary school. We are limited to one extra classroom for KidzChurch and as of the last few weeks, our nursery is on the stage of the multi-purpose room behind a heavy curtain. We're down to one decent option of a different place to hold services (at another elementary school).
So I've been trying lately to "thing outside the box" or "church" in this case. What are some worship gathering locations that I might be overlooking? Our town doesn't have a movie theater, a YMCA, or a big community center. We don't even have a big bar or dance hall! I'm concerned about what happens if all our options within the school district become exhausted. There are not a lot of other large spaces in town.
I write this because I'm wondering if anybody out in the blogosphere has heard of any other "non-traditional" locations for churches to meet. I'm open to anything (except the inflatable church pictured above). Let me hear your ideas!
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2 comments:
Option 1: meet in people's homes and do a live video feed of your sermon via skype or another system. It's just like multi-site churches do it, except on a smaller scale.
this will probably necessitate more leadership from your congregation, but that is not a bad thing.
Option 2: Is there a park in Dixon? You can reserve pavilions in public parks. If you're worried about rain, look at the forecast, and have church on the day that isn't calling for rain.
I second most of what jacob says.
What about doing a second service on Sunday mornings? Would the school allow you the extra time? And, do you have the committed people to pull that off?
Another option would be to pull a page out of the Saddleback book and buy a large tent to put up in a public location every week.
Or, you could piggyback on another church's facility...perhaps using their building on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon.
Whatever you choose, the ideal won't happen until you have a permanent place to call your own. Of course, nothing I have found about the early church was ideal, so you'd be in good company out-of-the-box.
Just a few thoughts from SW MO.
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