The third place is an interesting term being thrown around these days.
The first two places for social gatherings of any sort being your home and your work. Starbucks is marketing itself as a third place. It seeks to be more than an overpriced coffee hut with a lot of sugar in their drinks - it seeks to be a gathering spot.
So the question is - should a church be a third place?
We have a book store and a cafe at our church - both do well to break even at the end of the year...so they're not really there to bring in any income, in theory they're there to create an atmosphere where you can hang out with some friends, or pick up a book that might help you on your spiritual journey.
There has been some talk at a couple of churches of putting in frisbee golf courses. I know this doesn't sound very spiritual, but would it be bad to create a third place that gives the community somewhere to go and hang out for free? I guess that would beg the bigger question - is it worth spending the widow's tithe money on a bunch of frisbee golf baskets?
I guess you'd have to ask if creating third places for the people of that community is what Jesus would refer to as, "loving your neighbor".
I'm just not sure...
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I always get nervous when churches create more programs or build more buildings to encourage people to come to church. I spent seven hours in a bar yesterday (not kidding, and no, we didn't get drunk) with my friends Jason and Adam, and we had deep, meaningful conversations with one another, conversations with staff, customers, crazy people off the street, a guy who threatened to break us into pieces with his martial arts skills, etc...
ReplyDeleteMy point...there are so many "third places" already out there in desperate need of folks who love Jesus, why spend time, money, and energy creating lots of new "third places" that most people who need Jesus will never go to?
Just saying.
i'm with fuller.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not we should put "third places" in churches, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure, though, that the church should be in the "Third Places."
I guess that puts me in the boat with Fuller and KJ.