A problem of place …
In 1989, Dr. Ray Oldenburg introduced a concept called the “Third Place” in his book The Great Good Place. The book discusses the great public gathering places throughout cities and civilizations. Oldenburg suggests that the first two places in a person’s life are home and work. He observes that the great cities and civilizations have always had third places where people go for informal community, conversation and connection. Oldenburg uses the examples of the neighborhood bistros in France, the bier gardens in Germany, the piazzas in Italy, and the English pubs as informal public spaces that play a critical role in culture and the individuals who frequent them.

In America, Oldenburg observes that we have “…a problem of place.” He says, “The automobile suburb had the effect of fragmenting the individual’s world.”  As one observer wrote, “A man works in one place, sleeps in another, shops somewhere else, finds pleasure or companionship where he can, and cares about none of these places.” Randy Frazee, Senior Pastor of Pantego Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas commented that, “We discovered the power and need for the Third Place backwards. We committed to the mega church 100-acre-campus on the freeway strategy only to discover that we were contributing to the problem. Our mega church was just one more contrived place that fractured people’s lives. We had a ministry model for geographic structure to promote connection and authentic community within residential neighborhoods, but built the mega structure that became just one more commute.” Frazee said that “…once you see it (the Third Place), it changes everything. The power and momentum is organic not contrived. We need to stop trying to manufacture community within a church, and instead go do church in the community. In my opinion, the ideal church structure of the future will be churches with many locations of multi-purpose/community center buildings in the middle of neighborhoods.”

People will belong before they believe …
Frazee’s vision for the future is exactly what Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois has been doing. Community Christian is a multi-site church with several locations including a community center they built in partnership with a developer. It is located in the middle of a multifamily residential community that acts as a hub of activity for their neighborhood. Pastor Dave Ferguson explained, “Our south campus in Highpoint was our version 1.0 of a Third Place where a church meets on Sunday. Our goal was to connect within the community. We went through a strategic shift in our thinking when we discovered that most people will belong before they believe.” Community Christian’s building at the Highpoint development in Romeoville, Illinois is a community center with a living room settings around fireplaces, a learning center for after-school tutoring, coffee shop, gym, fitness center and mailboxes for the residential community. Ferguson illustrated the power of using a third place multi-purpose building by telling a story about a resident who showed up Sunday morning in his gym clothes with basketball in hand only to find the gym set up for some kind of meeting. The guy decided to see what was going on, so he sat on the back row, put his basketball under his chair and stayed for the church service. During the service there was a discussion about getting to know people in your neighborhood by joining a small group, and the man signed up. He started attending the small group and brought his brother. A few months later, they both became Christ followers. Ferguson summarized by pointing out, “This is a perfect example of how the Third Place helps us fulfill our mission which is – help people find their way back to God.”

Community Christian Church’s Naperville facility is their version 2.0 of a Third Place – where a church also happens to meet. This facility is a yellow multi-purpose building on 7 acres in a residential community. The facility acts as a commuter lot for public transportation, has a café/coffee bar that is open 16 hours a day, a gym where open gym is held, a cyber café with a wireless internet network and a few hard wired terminals, and an after school arts program where music and art lessons are taught. Pastor Ferguson shared that the neighbors allow their children to gather at the church after school. “It has become a place where they hangout. They love it and call it the YC – The Yellow Church.” However, Ferguson also says that “The components of a Third Place building should depend on the context.” He explained that there is a church in California that is in a largely Hispanic community that has three indoor soccer fields, because in their context that is the kind of public Third Place that allows them to connect with their community.

Creating a place …
Certainly the “Starbucks” type coffee bar or “Barnes and Noble” style coffee bar/book store combination has been a growing trend in new church spaces for some time. However, a few churches are taking the strategic step to create those type environments in public places to connect and serve their communities. Joshua’s Crossing Church in Fort Collins, Colorado created a not-for-profit coffee shop in downtown Fort Collins. The coffee shop started when the church leased the location, but decided it needed to be used during the week to serve the community, so “Everyday Joe’s” coffee shop was formed. Their goal was to make the church’s presence in the community relevant to the community. Tamera Manzanares of Coloradoan Magazine interviewed church board member Daryl Dickens who said, “We make an effort not to be a Christian coffee shop. We just want to be a good coffee shop where believers and non-believers are comfortable.” The article also quoted the manager of Everyday Joe’s, Suzanne Sinclair, who commented, “We are crazy about coffee, but even more so about creating a place to benefit the Fort Collins community.”

The popularity and impact of a Third Place is directly related to the human need and desire for community. Mike McMahon of Leadership Network stated that “Building community is what everybody is looking for today. They long for the place that connects their lives to the lives of others.” Oldenburg states that people need informal public meeting places in their lives where they can meet, set aside the concerns of their home and work and talk. He says “without such places, the urban area fails to nourish the kinds of  relationships and diversity of human contact that are the essence of the city. Deprived of these settings, people remain lonely within their crowds.”

Frazee described the successful Third Place as “the place where worlds converge. The world of the church, the world of the family and the world of the neighborhood all connect. It can be as simple as your front yard if you are always out there inviting others to hang out, come and go on a regular basis with no set agendas.” What will churches look like in 10 to 20 years? Some Christian futurists believe that the younger generations will have no use for the 3,000 to 5,000 seat worship centers the baby boomers are building today. Many churches believe the future is our past: going back to our residential communities, but with a new twist - as a public space. So maybe churches of the future will be many sites instead of one. And maybe they will look more like coffee shops, bookstores, and other places where we find community, conversation, and connection. A place they’ll go after work to see what’s happening and ultimately find a relationship with our Heavenly Father.

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