being happy with third place

Ah, java.

The biggest thing I miss about Iowa City is its abundance of trendy coffee shops. I used to joke that you couldn’t fall down in Iowa City without hitting your head on one. I miss them.

A couple of months back, I was walking home and, as I was leaving the square, I noticed a couple peering in the window of a new shop. I leaned forward and cupped my hands around my eyes to cut the glare and see inside. I turned to the couple and observed, “Just what we need on the square – one more antique shop,” which drew a pretty good laugh.

The woman then said exactly what I was thinking. “What we need is a coffee shop. I can’t believe Washington doesn’t have even one coffee shop.” We parted company shaking our heads.

Now that there are two new coffee shops in Washington, I am reminded of why I was so fond of them. It is because they are a perfect example of a “third place.”

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg, coined the term “third place” in his book The Great Good Place. He argues that public gathering places like bars, coffee shops, general stores, and other "third places" (in contrast to the first and second places of home and work), are central to local democracy and community vitality, and I tend to agree.

Many ministries are beginning to embrace the idea of the third place as a means to reach deep into their context and meet people where they are. Oldenburg explains, “What suburbia cries for are the means for people to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably – a ‘place on the corner,’ a real life alternative to television.” One need merely observe the amazing popularity of chains like Starbucks and Seattle’s Best to see that Oldenburg is right on the money.

Ideally, the church would be the perfect third place, and perhaps it once was, but many of the things that make a third place so appealing – its playful attitude, open spirit, and accessibility – have been pushed to the margins in the institutional church. Overcoming this marginalization is at the center of our efforts in LIFEGROUPS, but, because one normally enters a LIFEGROUP through the church and not the converse, if the church is not functioning as a third place, it is unlikely a LIFEGROUP will either.

You have heard me speak of the need for the church to discard our attractional and evangelistic model for a missional and incarnational model. To do this is to stop focusing on attracting people to the church and talking them into the baptistery* (the Holy Spirit will take care of that – John 12:32), but rather placing God’s mission for the church – the Missio Dei – that of reaching the lost with the good news, at the center of our efforts and facilitating it by physically inserting ourselves into our culture to change it from the inside out. I appreciate missiologist Alan Hirsch’s explanation of these terms. He describes being missional as “casting seeds into the world” and describes being incarnational as “embedding those seeds in the earth so they can take root.” Hirsch suggests we must abandon our come-to-us approach and adopt a go-to-them strategy. Exactly what this means in our Washington, Illinois, context remains to be seen, but perhaps third places are a good place to start. Let me share an example:

Last week, when I stepped into The Ugly Mug, the new coffee shop on the square, the first thing I heard was, “Ed!” Remember Cheers? While Cheers may have been a bar, it was the ultimate third place. Didn’t you always wish you could walk into a place and everyone would shout, “Norm?” Anyway, Dee, the barista and owner of the place, immediately began to relate how she had met someone I should talk to. She went on for a bit, and then someone across the room overheard and added an observation. From there, we launched into a lively three-person conversation about the difficulties of experiencing community in our current culture.

In a completely natural and organic way, this space was transformed from a shop on the square to a seedbed for the gospel. I didn’t walk anybody into the baptistery that day, but the Lord was there amidst the decaff latte and espresso.

Ah, Jesus.

*That is not to say we shouldn’t invite people to church or to baptism, only that the approach and the focus could be slightly different