The Middle of the Marketplace
Doing church in the middle of the marketplace is part of our DNA at NCC. Our vision is to meet in movie theaters @ metro stops throughout the DC area. We own and operate the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. And while we don't meet there anymore, we used to do a monthy event at the largest nightclub in DC.
I reminded our congregation on Sunday that Jesus didn't hang out at the synagogue. He hung out at wells. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture. Coffeehouses are postmodern wells. So are movie theaters and night clubs.
So encouraged to see missional churches going into the marketplace! We had two churches doing recon @ NCC this weekend. One is looking at a comedy-club downtown Cleveland. And the other is looking at a movie theater.
Just got a link for a nightclub in Minneapolis called Club 3. Love the sound and look of it. The club doubles as a church on Sundays! And based on the pictures, it looks like they are doing it big and doing it right. In fact, I'd like to check it out next time I'm in the Twin Cities.
So encouraging to see church plants and multi-site churches re-entering the marketplace! Instead of waiting for people to come to us. We've got to go to them. That's what it means to be incarnationists!
I've always been inspired by something C.T. Studd said:
Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.
I reminded our congregation on Sunday that Jesus didn't hang out at the synagogue. He hung out at wells. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture. Coffeehouses are postmodern wells. So are movie theaters and night clubs.
So encouraged to see missional churches going into the marketplace! We had two churches doing recon @ NCC this weekend. One is looking at a comedy-club downtown Cleveland. And the other is looking at a movie theater.
Just got a link for a nightclub in Minneapolis called Club 3. Love the sound and look of it. The club doubles as a church on Sundays! And based on the pictures, it looks like they are doing it big and doing it right. In fact, I'd like to check it out next time I'm in the Twin Cities.
So encouraging to see church plants and multi-site churches re-entering the marketplace! Instead of waiting for people to come to us. We've got to go to them. That's what it means to be incarnationists!
I've always been inspired by something C.T. Studd said:
Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.
7 Comments:
the studd quote is great
your guys are doing awesome work
Hey Pastor Mark -
What church was here from Cleveland? And what club are they looking at? (I grew up there!)
:) Jessica
Jessica,
It is a new church plant that is just forming. Their website is:
http://gatewaycleveland.com/
PM
Mark:
Love the tie-in between biblical wells and the marketplace.
Here's another quote you might like, from Scottish minister George MacLeod (founder of the nondenominational Iona Community in Glasgow in the 1930's)
"I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap, on a crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what He died about. And that is where church people should be and what church people should be about."
Frank,
Not only is it one of my favorite quotes. We put it in our annual report every year!!! Love it :)
Mark
Mark:
Love the marketplace DNA thoughts. Next Sunday our church is launching a satellite campus in Auburn, AL in a former furniture store!
Loved the book, keep up the great work.
Chris
Hey Mark,
Actually, the Minneapolis nightclub is called Club Three Degrees. It's been around for a long while, formerly known as the Union, then the New Union and became Club Three Degrees when they moved to their current location in downtown Minneapolis a few years ago. It's a ministry supported by the Living Word Christian Center, a church in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
Definitely an interesting and cool concept.
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