Why meet outside the church?

We hear this question quite a bit on our team. I’ve had clergy ask me the point of meeting offsite when we have so many buildings and places to meet. I had one priest announce to me that it was futile to do so and another say it was their humble opinion that this was just a novel thing to do.

Wow. I don’t think the team had any idea that meeting outside church property would generate conversation. I am curious about why something as simple as meeting some place else besides the Bishop’s Office or on other church property would create such a buzz. I wonder what that says about us as an organization—that something as simple as choosing to meet in a different place creates conversation.

Our facilitator, Greg Rhodes chose to hold our first meeting of our group at Seattle Central Community College as a reminder to our team that our work is to connect with people outside church walls. Many of us in the group responded so favorably to meeting outside church property that we chose to make it our common practice.

Our name says it all—outside church walls. We are thinking about ways to engage people outside the walls of our building. Our choosing to meet outside church property is an opportunity for us to practice meeting different people in different places, engaging different spaces and neighborhoods.

We have a monthly chance to be church outside of our buildings and that is a great privilege. We have a monthly chance to be the diocese outside of 1551 10th Avenue in Seattle. What a great privilege for each of us on the team to remember that church is not a building but a body and a diocese is not a collection of buildings or one head-quarter building in Seattle rather, a relationship among people in a particular geographic region.

One of the best conversations to my recollection was one our team had in the Seattle Public Library. We discussed the functionality of the building versus the functionality of our church buildings—how the spaces differed, what we could learn from the space we were using in the library. Every space we have used and the people we have come into contact with in those spaces and organizations have been opportunities to reflect on engaging people outside ourselves—even if our engagement with others is small, I think its good start and practice.

This practice of our team reminds me of something I did years ago in my work life as a priest. I made a regular practice of walking to a neighboring park to do some thinking. Across the street, away from the church that I served, I found two things to be very useful about this practice:

1. I came back to church with a better perspective for having been outside church walls—some of my most creative ideas and thinking took place at that park.
2. I had numerous conversations with people from the neighborhood. Some were members of the church but many were not. 

In many ways, OCW’s practice of meeting off site reminds me of those walks. I think some of our best thinking might arise from being outside, off site.

In every space we are in, I find myself thinking, how is this like or not like my church’s building. Could our space benefit from being like this? What’s the hospitality like in this place?

What is this space’s atmosphere express to me, how would I engage people about life? I wonder if they would want to know about church or faith? I wonder what think of the Episcopal Church—do they even know it exists?

People are off kilter when they come to church—especially if they have never been inside of a church! Part of my monthly meeting practice is to notice how I am oriented to a new space whether or not I feel like I can find my way around. What I do notice that helps me or doesn’t help me. How is my congregation that I serve similar (or not) to this?

I will admit to you, dear reader, that there are those OCW Fridays (that’s when we meet) that I wake up thinking, “Oh crap where on earth are we meeting today?” And I imagine that it is a bit more work and hassle on our facilitator. However, I think the value of being outside far out weighs the sticking to the usual pattern.

In reflecting on this further I think if someone were to ask me today why does OCW meet off campus, I would answer their question with a question and that question might go something like this:

Why do you take trips or travel?
Why do you take personal retreats away from home or why do you take retreats with varying organizational boards?

I think the answer is in looking at that which is outside of our experience that invites us to broaden our perspective. If nothing else, it would be a very rich conversation to have! I hope someone asks me this question again sometime soon—I’m looking forward to that next conversation I have about OCW’s meeting practice.

George+