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The general idea of the benefit of community formation is not limited to the church and to Christian thinking. There has been a decline in community in the UK, and this has affected the whole of life.
So, for example, a report by Onward states,
The UK has suffered a long-term and broad-based decline in the networks and institutions that make up the social fabric of communities People are less likely to be a member of a local group or volunteer, to attend church or community activities, or go on trips with their families than they were even ten years ago.The State of our Social Fabric
Is there an answer to this, and does the church have anything to contribute.
tl;dr: yes.
Third Places
This idea is not novel: in 1989, Ray Oldenburg wrote The Great Good Place, which looked at social groups and how they can form the heart of a community. In that book, he introduced the idea of the Third Place:
- First Place : the home, and the most important place
- Second Place: the work setting
- Third Place: a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work. (The Great Good Place, p16)
These places have a particular character. They are neutral places, where status is surrendered, conversation happens, and where people are made to feel that they are in a 'home away from home. It is the regulars who determine the character of a third place creating, ideally, a place of comfort and support. In the book, Oldenburg uses cafes, pubs, and coffeehouses as his case studies: these are the kind of third places he has in mind.
The Challenges to Third Places
It's worth a brief discursion to look at some of the challenges that are making these places harder to find. The first is cost. The average price of a pint is £4.79 (The Independent), while the average takeaway coffee is £3.40 (FreshGround). That means that a gathering of a few friends can get relatively expensive quite rapidly, and that's before we consider travel costs and parking.
Second, the effects of the pandemic. During the lockdowns, two things happened: your first and second places became the same, and third places all shut down. Many of these gatherings never re-opened. As the need for third places increased, they were being stopped.
The final challenge I want to mention is individualism - that people think of themselves in terms of 'I' and 'we', and are less invested in their community; the UK scores highly for this (Geert Hofstede). This is a neutral measure—it's not inherently negative to have a high score—but does have an impact as to how communities and third spaces exist in the UK.
Church and Third Places
How does the church fit into this discussion? Looking at Oldenburg's description of the characteristics of third places, a church family should be the ultimate expression of one.
On Neutral Ground
A third place doesn't take place in someone's house: no-one is the host, and all should feel comfortable there. The early church did meet in people's houses (e.g. Romans 16:5 & 1 Corinthians 16:19), but very quickly they started to meet in other buildings. The church meets in a neutral place, where all and none are the host, and where God is the ultimate host.
The Third Place is a Leveler
There is an equalising of status in a third space. As Oldenburg puts it,
Worldly status claims must be checked at the door in order that all within may be equals. The Great Good Place, p25
My mind goes to Galatians 3:28,
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
or James 2:1,
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism.
Conversation is the Main Activity
Great, good places:
Neutral ground provides the place, and levelling sets the stage for the cardinal and sustaining activity of third places everywhere. That activity is conversation. Nothing more clearly indicates a third place than that the talk there is good; that it is lively, scintillating, colorful and engaging. The Great Good Place, p27
The church:
Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:5-6
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29
The manner of conversation is vital to the third place and to the church. The conversation is positive, friendly, and uplifting. In short, if you want the best conversation, church should be the best place to go.
Accessibility and Accommodation
Oldenburg's theory is that good Third Places are places that are open for long hours, and are accessible outside of the demands and needs of the first and second places—they meet a need that home and work cannot meet (p31).
The church is a community open and accessible to all, everyone is welcome. The church meets a need: proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and growing disciples (cf. Matthew 28:16-20).
Oldenburg also talks about the need for these places to be physically close, he uses the example of the English pub, the 'local'. For the church, there is something about being in a particular geographic location. The parish system is no accident: the Church of England provides a church in every location and every community—it is the local for everyone.
The Regulars
One of the draws of a third place is the regulars:
The third place is just so much space, unless the right people are there to make it come alive, and they are the regulars. It is the regulars who give the place its character and who assure that on any given visit some of the gang will be there. The Great Good Place, p33
Something similar is true of the church, because the people are the church. It is a joy to see familiar faces each week, people we know, people we care for, and people who care for us. More than that, meeting together regularly is good for us:
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 19:23-25)
A Home away from Home
Oldenburg draws David Seamon's criteria for what makes a "home away from home":
The home roots us …; it provides a physical center around which we organize our comings and goings. Those who have a third place will find the criterion applies. As a self-employed individual once told me with regard to his coffeeshop, “Other than home, this is the only place where I know I’m going to be every day at about the same time.” If the individual has a third place, the place also “has him.” In America, the third place does not root individuals as tightly as, say, in France, but it roots them nonetheless. Those who regularly visit third places expect to see familiar faces. Absences are quickly noted, and those present query one another about an absent member." The Great Good Place, p39, referencing David Seamon, A Geography of the Lifeworld
The third place provides a home away from home, a place where people form family, where absences are noted and presence welcome. Is that not what our church families should be like? Christians are drawn together not because of a shared hobby or a common interest, but because we have been made into a family:
Yet to all who did receive [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13
For [God]] chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will Ephesians 1:4-5
A Missing Piece
The Great Good Place could easily be read as a manifesto for all kinds of organisations, perhaps including a church, that will provide a useful, and valuable, social and community benefit. However, Oldenburg misses something vital—the spiritual element.
Church is, or at least should be, the best possible 'third place', not because it wants to be the ultimate social club, but because it aspires to be, and represents, a heavenly community. This heavenly community is made up of individuals drawn together by God, and adopted as brothers and sisters into a new family through Jesus Christ.
Without God as the basis and cornerstone for a church, it would rapidly become another social club, focussed on the benefit and comfort of its members, rather than actively seeking to share the great news of this new community. If this was just for now, then it would also be effectively just another club. The church, however, is a heavenly community that will outlast our earthly lives, and stretch on into eternity.
For the Christian, death is not the end of a Great Good Place, but the beginning of The Greatest Best Place, where we will be truly home and where all the regulars will be there.