Engaging Community

Cultivating Missional Living

Engaging Community

Luke 10:1-12

The Importance of Public Spaces

Isolation is a word that describes the kind of lives many people are living today. More and more people are spending less and less time with others. There is less time given to civic participation, connections in the workplace, involvement in any type of faith based activity, and neighborhood relationships than ever before. The fact is that more people are spending time alone than ever before. One possible solution involves identifying and engaging what I’m going to call, “Third places” in our communities. Third places are represented by public places of common ground where people enjoy the company of others.

A couple of questions might be, what examples of isolation do we see or have we experienced in the lives of people around us? Are things different than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago? And what are some third places in our community.

Very soon, in just 2 weeks, we will begin a journey. We will make our way through the twin texts of Luke-Acts. Very soon Luke 10:1-12 will become a foundational passage for the future of Ridgecrest. One of the reasons I say this is that I believe that Luke the writer of both books, is suggesting the way to understand the church in relationship to our community.

Luke, I believe is suggesting a radically different location for being the church when the Spirit is breaking our boundaries. Which if you have paid attention to me at all, you have heard is what I’m suggesting God is doing at Ridgecrest, in our communities and in our City. ?... What if one of the most important locations for the church isn’t so much being centered “in here” as much as it is being located “out there” ? What if an element of what God is saying to us in this passage is that our nature, our meaning, our role, and our function will be rediscovered only to the extent we learn to discern what God is up to in the interactions in our relationships with people in the homes and public spaces of our neighborhoods and communities. We should ask, why did Jesus send out the Seventy-two? Where did they go? How does the concept of hospitality, which we looked at last week, play out in this passage? What can we learn in our interacting “out there” that we might not be able to discern “in here?”

? What thoughts are you beginning to have when I tell you that our relevance might only be rediscovered as we interact in our neighborhood or community? I pray, with only one week left in the first half of this series that huge questions are rising up within our minds.

Where Everybody Knows You Name

In the late 1980’s and early 90s one of the most popular TV shows on US television was a show called Cheers. It was set in a bar in the heart of Boston. A very popular scene was when a particular “regular” would bust through the front door of the bar and everyone would shout his name in unison, “Norm!” The tagline for the show was, “Where everybody knows your name.”

A man named TJ Palmer took this concept of a place people could call their own and developed the most successful restaurant chain in the world, Applebee’s, whose restaurants were originally designed around the cheers set.

The environment within the world of cheers and that desired in Applebee’s provides a perfect picture of a cultural phenomenon referred to as a “third place” by sociologist. Places like Starbucks and others have used this trend to build large chains of Cafes, Coffee Shops, and other Hangouts. Many of us frequent a form of these third places.

So, what exactly is a third place? Well, a first place is our home and the people whom we live with. A second place is where we work or go to school and spend the majority of our waking hours. A third place is a public setting that host regular, voluntary, and informal gatherings of people. It is a place to relax and have the opportunity to know and be known by others. It is a place people like to “hang out.”

So, ?, why is it so important for Jesus followers to understand the concept of third places? …Because the vast majority of people in the US are living isolated, relationally impoverished lives, and third places offer an opportunity for missionally minded people to do life in very close proximity to others.

Let me share some interesting statistics and changes in the US in regard to social interaction. Did you know that in the past twenty years the number of people who bowl has increased dramatically? But, the number of people who bowl in a league is very small. In the past a bowling alley was a very popular third place. Most people who bowled there bowled in a league. And it is estimated that as much as a third of adults bowled in a league.

Another third place of the past was the 1950 and 60 phenomena of the game of bridge. It is estimated that by 1958 one-third of all adults, men and women, at that time, gathered once a week for club games. This spread through dorm rooms and student unions in the 60s and 70s and millions of college students spent millions of hours in seemingly endless games of bridge. On college campuses mixed double clubs developed and it became a very important way for men and women to gather informally. The very rules of the game, limiting talk among partners about their cards, encouraged conversation about topics other than the game itself.

Now people play card games and numerous other games alone on their phone or tablets. The problem, when we play games alone, we obviously do not participate in the social interaction and community that occurs in leagues or teams or club environments.

Now, let this sink in, just a few decades ago, once a week, the majority of our population, was in a bowling alley, living room or college student union or dorm room spending the evening with other families or friends. Today we have substituted things like television and computers and tablets. The reality is that we usually engage them all alone. 

What I’m saying is that this deterioration of social connections in our communities should drive us to action. As followers of Jesus we know we were created as relational beings. We know that God designed us to be in deep, abiding relationship with Him. But we also understand that we were created to be in life-giving relationships with one-another. The idea of millions of lonely people sitting at home, remote control, tablet, mouse, phone in hand, dying relationally from the lack of basic human connection should inspire us to bring about change. But, what can we do? Let me say some things in regard to third places.

Third Places

Identify and Enter

First, we must take the time to identify the third places in our neighborhood. Where do people gather to spend time with others? Where are the typical places, the cafes and coffee shops and other hangouts? And where are some atypical places where people come together. Maybe libraries, parks, workout places. We may need to think outside the box when identifying where people gather. But then once we identify them, we must then seek to engage these places. As we discussed way back in the second message in this series, this will involve embedding our lives incarnationally into third places. Listening and learning where God is at work, and asking how we can participate in what God is doing!

Create Environments

This is one that is often talked about. Churches attempt to open coffee shops or libraries. We plant community gardens hoping to encourage people to work together. But when we do these things they often become more about members rather than reaching our community. Coffee shops for members, libraries for members to study the Bible, gardens that members use….Good things, but we must keep our minds set on ways to be creative in the way we think about common space in our neighborhoods, and how they may enhance relational connections.

Support and Defend

Now this one may sound unusual. But in some ways we may need to become urban planning advocates. If we are committed to the importance of relationships for the health and vitality of our communities. We should involve ourselves in anything,. parks, bike trails, and anything else that would enhance the opportunity for a richer public life.

So, our engagement with third places should first flow out of our desire to see those who are relationally disconnected drawn into life-giving relationships with others, and ultimately with the giver of life. And, secondly, it should flow out of the recognition that as an increasing number of people are less interested in the activities of the church, it is we, as the missionary people of God, who have to engage others on common ground, or third places.