Outside the Box

I don’t know how many people are aware of the 100 ton challenge presented by UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief).  They are trying to get churches to serve free trade coffee on Sunday morning, and take the opportunity to share the difference that choice has in the lives of farmers across the world.  There is a story behind the coffee and the story is of one making a difference in the world by picking a brand of coffee.  You can even buy and sell the coffee on Sunday mornings in a display.

Coffee in churches is all the rage, but this is a perfect union of intigrating a culturally relevant product with the love of people.  Please think about ordering their products.  If you are going to spend money on coffee, why not give the money to those in need instead of Starbucks.

I recently did a duet in the middle of a sermon at Arapaho UMC in Richardson.  It is the first time that I have ever heard myself recorded.  Check it out.

If you’re out there, by John Legend with sermon by Rev. Chris Dowd.  If You\’re Out There

I went on a litle road trip this weekend to visit some churches in Houston.  After singing at a wedding on Saturday evening, I decided to drive to Houston to visit a few churches for Sunday morning.  The line up included Faithbridge UMC, the Loft at the Woodlands UMC, and Ecclesia.  I spent the night in my car across the street from Faithbridge.  It was quite an adventure.  I thought I would sum up my thoughts:

Faithbridge UMC – I tried the Traditions Service, to see what a traditional service started from a contemporary background looked like.  I was hoping they were doing something unique, but it wasn’t that spectacular.  The preaching of course was wonderful.   The LIVE service next was everything I expected with great music and great preaching.

The Loft at the Woodlands – Wow!  The media at the Loft is something amazing!  The music was from a guest band called The Autumn Film with some great music from their new album Hymns, Page CXVI.

Ecclesia – Their converted old church facility throws every notion of what a growing church should look like off.  The Autumn Film followed me from the Loft to play the 5:30 worship service.  I love their bookstore and coffee shop.  I could have bought every book.  Their gallery was showcasing modern art depicting the 12 stages of the cross.  What a venue for the creative, artsy types such as me.

As one of my friends stated “Ecclesia is very grungy.”  I would agree that it is grungy, but not in a bad way.  The people are much more ecclectic, but overall a young congregation.  In an attempt to describe my experience through architecture, you got the sense that they spent money to make it nice, but not polished.  The grunge effect says something about the church’s philosophy about spending their resources on mission.  What a powerful statement in a world of million dollar mega-churches.

It has been quite a while since I updated on this blog.  It was in December, right before Christmas, that I learned that the architecture firm, specializing in church design, I was working for was laying me off.  It got me thinking about the health of architecture firms that specialize in church design.

While in college, I really wanted to specialize in designing and helping churches.  I have found two inherent problems with that mentallity.  First, firms that only specialize in church design, are hit hard when there is an economic down turn.  Church giving is directly affected by the economy as well as dreams for church building projects.  Second, and the one I am dealing with the most now, is that I find it hard to help influence churches as an architectural intern.  It breaks my heart to go for an interview and not receive the project.  I get so emotionally attached to every project and want to help them with a building that is unique to their ministry.  Unfortunately, churches see architecture firms as a a business, and not a ministry to help them.  Also, churches are the client and they might not see the vision for there church that I do.  I am praying about somehow helping churches before they get to the architecture phase.  An influence on their big plans, expand their dreams, broaden their horizons, enrich their influence and congregational dynamic.  I hate having bigger dreams for a church than they see for themselves.  Maybe that is why architects always design buildings over budget.

Please pray for me and how God can use me in the future.  It is hard to dream when no options are available.

I read a wonderful blog this morning, the Wesley Report, about churches who don’t use the Methodist name in their marketing.  I have to admit this blog was both fascinating and convicting.  The analogy given was between the Cola giants and the Protestant Denomination giants.  The Southern Baptist being Coca Cola (no. 1) and the United Methodist (no. 2) being Pepsi.  The idea of sub-branding is beautiful.  Multi-site churches already use brand familiarity to sub-brand a new congregation, but suppose the Methodist church saw how wonderful Granger Community Church was doing and started sub-branding more campuses across the country to attract young people.  Perhaps we could go from accidental sub-branding to intentionally using it to target a distinct audience.  Just like how most teenagers would buy a Mountain Due, but probably could care less about Pepsi.  Intentional sub-branding.  Yeah….

It has been an extremely long process to help my parents and members of St. Paul UMC in Bridge City to recover from Hurricane Ike.  I heard someone say the other day that people are only interested in your problems for about two weeks before they forget about you and move on to something else.  It has been several months now since Ike hit and my parents are still living without walls, without a floor, without a kitchen.  It is an extremely slow process and it is now that the spirits of the victims need the most encouragement and hope.  I was pleased to read an article from a first time volunteer who took their time to help these victims and found there is still much to be done three months later. Thanks to all those who continue to travel to this community and support them with your prayers.

One of the things I want to teach the Methodist church and especially new church pastors is how architecture is your greatest marketing tool to your community to showcase your churches core values and how you want to be perceived by visitors and the community.  Who is your target audience?  What does your building say about your beliefs?  A building says a lot about you and most of this needs to be understood and known before an architect is involved.

One of the best designed churches in the Dallas area is Watermark Community Church.  It was designed by Omniplan  Architects in Dallas.  Although this firm is not know for designing churches, that is exactly why they were chosen for this project.  They did not want the architecture to resemble a church.

One of the greatest successes of this church campus is their building growth strategy and their correlation of their building design into their marketing strategy.  They knew who they were, what their target audience was, and created an atmosphere and environment condusive to attracting that target audience.  The building does an excellent job of becoming a refuge or “third place” throughout the week for bible studies and promotes wonderful community interaction before and after worship.

Their growth strategy included buying an office building and converting it into classroom space gradually as they needed it for their growth.  This is a wonderful way to have the space available when you need it and help supplement the cost of the project until you do need the additional space in the future.

You can see the office building which they have already built out on the top left of the picture.  Their next phase included an interim worship facility with a wonderful glass lobby looking out over a water feature.  The interior design is very earthy, homey, and appealing as a place to meet and gather throughout the week for small groups.  The completely glass entrance allows the building to glow at night and share with the community the activity going on inside.

One of the most crucial aspects of design in a building is the interior design and interior material selection.  Interior design is usually not thought of or comprimised with budget at the end.  Watermark continued with their design detail on the inside and really set an atmosphere conducive to hanging out and forming relationships, forming community.  It is uniquely designed to fit a young, urban crowd with a rich deep colors mixed with an industrial, loft feel.  Their colors say that this is a place to come and feel comfortable while the loft feel says that we are contemporary and edgy.  Also their structure is exposed which relates to the authenticity of the space.  They have nothing to hide, everything is exposed and open.

They placed an emphasis on community relationships and did it in a way that relates to their target audience.  I wish every church was this clear and conscious of who they were trying to attract and how their building showcases their ministry core values.

Their current worship center is designed with the rear in stadium seating.  This enhances the community and intimacy of the space allowing the rear worshipers to be engaged more.  They continue the warm environment inside the worship space but continue to be playful with their chairs and ceiling clouds.  They are again marketing to an audience that wants to feel comfortable while the playful touches help reduce the intimidation of the space to people who have never been in a worship space before.

This church is going through a major expansion and I believe strongly because they knew who they were, who they were targeting, and their building helped them achieve those goals clearly to the community and visitors.

During the meeting of the 100 largest united methodist churches in the country, they created an initiative to pray seven prayers for seven days for the renewal of the church.  I invite you to pray these prayers this week.  We will be praying together, with one common purpose, for God’s engagement in these grand goals.  In the word’s of Ken Medema, “Lord, listen to your children praying.”

Monday – Calling Young People into Ministry – Lord, we pray that You would raise up laborers for the harvest (Matthew 9:37-39). And, specifically, we ask You to raise up 2000 young clergy in America and call them into the ministry of the United Methodist Church.

Tuesday – New Churches – Lord, we pray that You would raise up 400 new United Methodist Churches in America in places where there is no vibrant witness for the Gospel right now (Romans 15:20).

Wednesday – Ministry to the Poor – Lord, we pray that You would use United Methodist churches to alleviate poverty, stamp out malaria and HIV/AIDS, and minister to the less fortunate and overlooked in the name of Jesus (Matthew 25:40).

Thursday – Renewed Vitality of the UMC – Lord, we pray that You would bring renewed vitality to the United Methodist Church (Ezekiel 37) and that You would daily add to Your church through professions of faith (Acts 2:47).

Friday – Unity – Lord, we pray for a healthy unity across the United Methodist Church such that the unbelieving world may see and believe in You (John 17:20-21).

Saturday – The Word – Lord, we pray that as the Word of God is preached in our church and other Methodist churches tomorrow that You would bear fruit that will last forever (Isaiah 55:10-11).

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain” – Psalm 127:1

“I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5

Sunday – Passionate Worship – Lord, we pray that United Methodist Churches across the globe would have an awesome encounter of worshipping You in Spirit and in truth today (John 4:24).

I have gained a new respect for flood victims.  There is so much work and seems so little help.  St. Paul UMC in Bridge City was in a particularly interesting position.  They sold their location to Walgreens and were meeting in their family life center until the end of this month.  Unfortunately the end of the month coincided with cleanup of Ike.  They have received a tremendous amount of help and volunteers from other local Methodist churches so they could salvage anything left and cleanup the place as best as possible to apease the lawyers.  The parsonage was adopted by Kingwood UMC since it didn’t have flood insurance and praise God for their generosity and support.  After a very meaningful worship service yesterday with all the people from town gathered together once again, a message of hope and community has hopefully transformed their spirits.  No one can or has the energy to help their neighbor, because they have just as much work to do.  For a people more comfortable offering help than receiving it, the toil of two weeks of constant work along with the emotional stress, has broken them down to a cry for help from outsiders.  The connectional system of the United Methodist Church is beautiful and they have experienced a great commradery in this situation.  More is needed, but thank God for what has been received.  That is why I am flying from Dallas to the coast every weekend this coming month to do as much as possible and help in their time of need.

I just spent the past few days in Bridge City, Texas helping my parents and church with the flood damage caused by Hurricane Ike.  This consisted of moving all the furniture, packing everything in boxes, ripping out carpet and hauling everything to the street corner to be hauled away.  During the entire ordeal though, an interesting thing happened.  People would drive by, neighbors came out of their homes, and the neighborhood was filled with neighbors once again.  Neighbors would chat and assess the damage, strategize on what to do next, share information on what they had heard, and help each other tear out, clean up, and move out.  It wasn’t easy for anybody, but the community came together to help one another, talk with one another, and help each other.  The hurricane and flooding didn’t discriminate, the whole town was in it together.  All for one, one for all.  I could not help but think that this is what the church should be like.

It reminded me of when John Wesley was caught in a storm on the way back to England from America.  During the storm he noticed a group of Moravians who were calm and at peace.  He noticed something in them that he lacked, the assuring spirit of God in their lives.  As Christians, through the storm, where will we turn?  Will we portray to our neighbors that the assuring spirit of God is in our lives?

When all the layers of our lives are stripped away, when we are searching for answers to questions that seem unexplainable, God surrounds us with signs of his presence.  Neighbors helping neighbors, suburban fences come down (literally), and we begin to interact and share life with one another.