The more I talk with parents and people around here, the more I'm tempted to do something really crazy...start a business. At least then I'd be dealing with more a more objective reality of bottom lines, dollars and cents and inventories, not subjective stuff like life-change and eternal impact. I'm not saying planting this church isn't important. It's vitally important. I'm not saying it's too hard either (although it's harder than I ever thought it would be). I am saying that there's a need in this place and I don't know how we can meet it. This place has very little for students - middle school and high school and even college students. There's no real place to hang out besides the theater (which is a stand alone theater), the bowling alley, or one of the downtown clubs/bars. Parents know this. The police know this and the students definitely know this.
I've thought for a while that it'd be a good idea to open up a marketplace ministry. A place where the church not only enters the marketplace and does business, but where we also engage the people more on their terms than on ours. I just think it might be more effective to invite a friend to join you someplace they'd probably go anyway (restaurant, club, entertainment center, etc) then to almost beg them to try church with you. Maybe the church should go to them - hmmmm, maybe the idea's not that original even though it's not all that common.
I realize that Discovery Church is a new church. We're not very big with less than 150 people. We don't have much "pull" in the community. Heck, we don't even have office space and we rent our worship space. Our church supplies all fit in a 20' trailer. Our budget is so variable that none of our staff take a salary from it. To top it off, there are days when I wonder what in the world I'm doing. So how can we help? I've got some ideas...what about you?
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I'm not sure if you've heard the story, but in emailing with Pastor Mark Batterson in WashDC, he told me that he was pretty frustrated one day and eventually he sat down and started thinking. Point of the story: he eventually arrived at the line of thinking you are now. The ending? His church, National Community Church, opened up a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill and is reaching their target community in new ways. Perhaps Discovery Church is meant to do something similar here in Greenville? Just a thought. Still praying for you and your staff.
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