By Rev. Ben Ingebretson, director of new church development for Dakotas-Minnesota Area

For the last month I have been meeting with 18 people on Tuesday nights at a local coffee shop for a coupling class.  We decided rather than do our premarital course at the church this year we would advertise it at the city bridal show in January and do it in a public space in March.   People came, we talked and shared stories and we doubled our impact.  

Doing ministry outside of the four walls is as old as dirt. How quickly we forget. It is easy to stay within our walls. Wesley was a master at reaching beyond the four walls with open air preaching.  He was taking his cue from the apostles who ministered in the public spaces of their day.  Wesley knew that to connect with people you have to go to where they are. 

Many churches are preparing for a future that may never come.   We settle for trying to attract a crowd rather than working to penetrate one.   If we look to Europe as a harbinger of things to come, we quickly see that attractional church— generally defined as a congregation that advertises heavily and focuses its programs on bringing people in— is likely on the wane.  We must be careful not to make the success of the past our only roadmap for the future.

Here are some practical ways you can air out your ministry:

1. Hold your next staff or council meeting in a public space.  Let that space challenge your thinking about connecting with your community.
2. Offer worship in a public space.  Perhaps one of your two of your workshop services could be held at the public school or, several times a year taking your service out of your building.
3. Office at least one day per week at a local coffee shop.  I recently saw a pastor who put a small sign on his table saying he was a pastor and would hear and pray for any needs.
4. Buy a jumbo sized grill to loan to anyone in your congregation that will do a block party in their neighborhood.  Don’t let it be used on church property where you will only perpetuate the “church club” mentality.
5. Begin to plan and pray now to stage a new ministry off site fall of 2017.  Perhaps careers transition group or recovery or parenting or other.
6. Join the stream of pastors that are experimenting with pub Bible study finding a night that a local owner may be eager for you to imbibe. 

It is worth noting that the first martyr of the church, Stephen, challenged the idea that buildings are sacred to God.  “The most high God does not dwell in houses made by human hands” Acts 7:48.  If we push on the idol of sacred structures we may get some push back.   We may also discover the practices of missional leadership so needed today.