Downtown Church

When we first joined the young church plant, it had an average Sunday attendance of about 80-100 people. It met in a local museum. We set up chairs each Sunday morning and put them away after the service. The space served our congregation well, and the church grew during our two-and-a-half years there. The pastor often spoke of his hope for a church building, expressing a deep desire to be in the same neighborhood as the museum. The downtown low-income neighborhood had few churches and was filled with minority families.

He tasked the church to focus evangelistic efforts on the residential streets surrounding the museum. We spent many Saturday afternoons leaving flyers throughout the neighborhood, serving meals at a nearby senior center, and hosting free events with food and games for neighborhood families. Despite these efforts, we never saw local families come to faith or regularly attend our church. Our church demographic remained the same despite growth. Our members and regular attendees traveled from more affluent neighborhoods to this downtown area.

When a nearby church building became available due to its congregation’s decline, my husband and I joined our lead pastor and a small group to see if the building suited our church’s needs. We found the building in poor repair. Inside, a narrow staircase led to the basement, where the only bathrooms were located. The sanctuary, unchanged since the 1940s, featured stunning woodwork, retro light fixtures, asbestos flooring, and lead-painted walls. The pews could seat about 100 people. Someone in the group joked that if we continued growing, new people would have to stand. My husband pointed out that the nine parking spaces were insufficient for our church body. Another stated that handicap-accessible bathrooms would need to be added on the main floor, even if no other work was attempted. We stood in the tiny parking lot for over an hour, talking with our lead pastor. He was convinced that we should move our gatherings to this space. Although the museum we met in was just a few blocks away, he believed an authentic church building was key to reaching the neighborhood.

Mid-City Church

Mid-City Church met in a school cafeteria every Sunday. However, the church never struggled from their lack of a building. In fact, the church experienced significant growth through its members' outreach efforts. Under our pastors’ leadership, we were regularly taught, often reminded, and greatly encouraged to be the church in our circles of influence. We were to be the church in our neighborhoods, challenged to meet our neighbors and get to know them, their children, their stories, and their needs. We were called to be the church in our jobs, social groups, school pick-ups, and at the grocery store. Our church grew significantly because we did not focus on one neighborhood where none of us lived. Our church grew because we focused on the 70 neighborhoods we lived in. In my women’s small group Bible study were several women who had come in unchurched, lost, and searching. They had come to know the saving power of Jesus because their co-worker or neighbor was a member of Mid-City Church and shared the gospel with them. Our church reached low-income and affluent neighborhoods over time through believers engaging in their communities.

Every October, I’m reminded of this church’s teaching. Our assistant pastor challenged us to cook chili in our garage or put the fire pit in our driveways on October 31st. He encouraged us to be outside and meet the person across the street who usually drives into the garage and closes it behind them immediately. If our neighbors are opening their doors on this one evening of the year, we, the church, need to be in that space. Our home groups shared about the fruit of that night the following week. We prayed for relationships to develop and for God to continue giving us opportunities to be light and salt in the world around us.

Reaching the City

Mid-City Church’s teachings shaped my understanding of what it means to be the church in everyday life. In every neighborhood we’ve lived in since then, God has continued to remind me of that wisdom. I am to be the church here because I am the Church, and this is where God has put me.

The contrasting focus on evangelism between these two churches had equally contrasting fruit. In one church, we were kept busy with tasks to perform for a group of people with whom we had no common ground, no true understanding of their struggles, and in whom we never fully invested, while our homes, jobs, and schools were miles away in a different world. The other church extended its influence through dozens of tentacles into the lives of many, as the living and active Church spread across the city.

The churches that have most transformed us and in which we have seen the most successful outreach are those that encourage the church to be the church in their everyday lives. When a church program temporarily and superficially reaches only one small pocket of a community, we often fall short. But when the active church reaches across a community, into every pocket it has access to through authentic relationships, we can reach a city for Christ.

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