Reimagining What a Future Campus Looks Like
A new senior pastor was walking both his father and his daughter through the 200,000-square-foot building that his church had developed over the last season of ministry. It was quiet that day… as it was on most days besides Sundays.
As they walked around, his dad commented, “Very impressive building! This must be a successful church.”
His daughter had a much different perspective: “What a waste. All this unused space.”
Two very different perspectives. And a great example of why it’s time to reimagine how churches use their buildings, especially if we want people in younger generations to know we’re not here for ourselves. We want to be here for good.
Is there a better way to use church facilities? A way that thinks about the community first, and then solves for how the facilities can work for church?
We want to think about spaces that meet the needs of the community, add value, connect with people in the regular rhythm of their lives… and work for church too. It’s this heartbeat that has led us to the idea of a Local Good Outpost.
It’s Time To Reimagine
Picture a childcare center, coffee shop, counseling offices, a community venue, conference center, and indoor play center open all week for everyone. And then, at key times during the week, the church would use the same facilities for worship, lobby space, kids’ ministry, groups, and students.
Imagine a space where the church looks more like a tenant among many other tenants. A space that is designed more like a retail center than a “church first” building. What would happen?
A FEW THINGS:
We communicate to our neighbors that we care about the community.
We have hundreds of people each week on the property that would never come to a church experience, which could create a starting point for a relationship with them. When pivotal circumstances happen in their life, they would be more likely to look to us as people who could help.
We add value to our community by listening to them and using the building for what they tell us is lacking in their neighborhoods.
The facilities generate money, which means the buildings can begin to fund ministry that wouldn’t be able to happen otherwise.
We create a “well” (like Jacob’s Well, where Jesus met others in the rhythm of their daily lives), as opposed to a “wall,” which is what most church buildings feel like to outsiders.
We exercise better stewardship of the spaces we’ve been entrusted to create and use.
Creating Local Good Outposts will create pull to a place that is connected to God’s presence and his people yet is still common ground for the entire community. As a church, we are not just in our community… we are for our community. To communicate that to a new generation, we believe it’s time to reimagine what our spaces look like and how they operate. We want our buildings to be places that make our community better, help people in their daily lives, and draw others toward Jesus and his love for them.