This one is entirely experimental, as described in a comment by reader Adam several weeks ago.
Here is my wife’s idea – and I think it’s brilliant!! …
Laundromats exist in low-income, neglected areas. Laundromats are already a meeting and gathering place. People who visit laundromats will be there for an extended period of time with not a whole lot to do. It sure seems to me like an ideal environment in which community and relation can be built.
With some clever design and forethought, the laundromat can become a church in the truest sense, and one that seeks out those who are most in need of the church.
And while the laundromat would take some significant funds on the front side for construction, it would, hopefully, become self-sustaining, not through contributions from those it is serving, but through the normal operation of its business. In addition, it provides much needed jobs within those communities where jobs within walking distance (transportation is unreliable for many in these areas) are hard to come by.
For those interested, I have had an architect draw up preliminary plans for one, as I think this is the best idea I’ve heard for what “church planting” could/should look like in modern America, and maybe elsewhere as well.
Interesting …
So interesting, in fact, that, Lord willing, a fellow elder and I will attend a planning meeting Sunday to consider the idea. No decisions are likely to be made, but the meeting will also include leadership from a Baptist and a Methodist church that have expressed an interest in assisting the work in this neighborhood — a neighborhood near their buildings.
Reflection
A laundromat for Jesus? Sounds crazy. But as Adam explains it, it might work.
I can think of dozen problems — without half trying. But the challenge isn’t to defeat the idea. For elders, well, that’s easy. The challenge is to find a way to overcome the problems — or think of something even better.
Now, here’s an example of exactly what Alan Hirsch was talking about … not the new pattern or model, but an example of how far out of the box we need to get.
A community would be formed in a location that is congruent with the local culture and expectations. The appeal isn’t the architecture or the paid professional worship leaders. The appeal is purely the relationships formed, the community, and the love of Jesus experienced by and shown by some families on fire for Jesus who give up the comforts of an at-home washer and dryer to mingle with people who need Jesus.
And it’s nondenominational in the purest sense of the world — not isolated from denominational churches but not bound by denominational expectations and measures. It won’t even be greatly worried about the contribution. Now, that’s a radical way to do church!
Where will it be in 10 years? A new church? A campus of an existing church? A worshipping community that meets in the laundromat on Thursdays and meets with home churches on Sundays?
Does it even grow into an attractional community — an expanded space that draws friends and families from across town and, one day, builds more laundromats around town — laundromats for Jesus?
I have no idea. I’ve frankly not got my thoughts together — not enough to even say this definitely should happen. You see, we’re at the stage where the leadership counts the cost and anticipates the challenges of the proposal — and looks for solutions. It’s really, really early.
But if not this, something (somethings, actually) like this will surely be how some of the missing 60% will be reached and the world dramatically changed.
Now you’re talking!
Same idea but different facility for folks in various circumstances.
Point is ‘Take it to um”
Bring toys…there are always kids at the laundromats…
You could go along with the “witnesses” and have a debate, and see who was more attractional.
The coc has nothing left, (identity wise) door to door or laundromat, preaching, living on a refurbished earth , if we could only figure out who the hundred, and forty-four thousand is going to be we would have it all down. unconditional salvation, holy hands healing. no one has anything on us no-sir -re we have it all
Wow!
That is really “out of the box” thinking.
Several years ago, the church I was with was considering a move from an “inner suburb” of Detroit. We did not make the move, but while we were considering it one of our elders suggested that a K-Mart had closed that was a few miles further out (nearer where many of our members lived) and wondered if we might could purchase the building it had been in.
A couple of us sat down to “brainstorm” what we could do with it if we had it. Just a few of the ideas: part could become a homeless shelter, part could be a ‘thrift store’ for our nursing home, part could be a worship center (of course), part could be a ‘reading room’, we could have plenty of space for 12-step programs, etc.
It all came to nothing – but what if we had gone out on a limb, bought that property, and managed to do at least some of what we brainstormed….
We need much more “outside the box” thinking if we are ever going to reach the 60%.
Jerry
Hmmm… and washing others’ clothes is closing in on “washing feet.” Offering to wash some pants, jeans, shirts and blouses will encourage and will also likely provide some time for two people to simply sit, read the Gospels together and chat/listen. Thank you for sharing, Jay.
In Christ,
Bruce Morton
Katy, Texas
I’ve received a request for an update on this project. There’s only a little to report.
We met with representatives of the Methodist and Baptist churches and the leadership of the project to hear the proposal. The proposal was well received, but no decisions were made.
Some additional information will be gathered re feasibility (the local need for a laundromat) and all will pray intensively about the project.
My church is already firmly committed to that work in general and will surely support whatever the group decides. But we’ll need help to pull off something this challenging.
I truly love this idea. One thing I like about this idea is the lack of features to attact “church members”. This is not a Christian coffeehouse, which WE would enjoy, but an enterprise that we do not even have personal use for. It is a purely external project. I think it’s great.
I would suggest that one key will be to find an individual or two or three who have a real vision for such a venture and let them develop the details. If the operational details and expectations have to be worked out by a committee of purseholders whose members have no ongoing individual sweat equity tied up in this enterprise, it is not likely to succeed. It will become a wish with money thrown after it. Instead, find people who want to do this themselves, get them to present the vision and trust them to carry it out under broad oversight. If we cannot find individuals who can set out a vision others can support, and can commit to the work required, don’t plunk cash down on it.
Getting the capital might be interesting. I hope they don’t try to borrow any of it. Nothing like making the bank the first lienholder on the efforts of the project. That would be like teaching a child to walk while he is hitched to a trailer. I think such a choice would weed-choke the enterprise, as the borrower is the slave to the lender and a man cannot have two masters.
But if the congregations are willing to put up the capital, then raising those funds should not be complex. We have been raising money for real estate for many years. How is this different? It’s $300K for a laundromat instead of $300K for a “family center”. We got really enthusiastic about the family center, after all.
I find it interesting that my own thinking about potential problems in a project such as this begins with trying to keep the enterprise free from encumbrance, not in trying to create a plan. As a manager for many years, I often saw that the most consistent obstacles to the work came from the management. Vision comes through people God has called to the work, not from the people who have extra cash lying around. Mission should drive capital, not the other way around. It is not wise to start a dairy just because you have enough capital to do so and you think people should drink milk. It’s best to start a dairy with someone who really, really wants to be a dairyman and who has the commitment to doing the milking twice a day, every day.
The nice thing about the laundromat idea is that it is not dependent on technical expertise or high levels of marketing expense. It is more a community resource than it is an engine for for raising funds. It also presents the reverse of the common missional approach. Here we do not find “a free meal if you listen to the sermon first”. This project does not start with getting people to attend a meeting. Rather, we find a way to connect with our neighbors, a model which allows that contact to help us understand how to bless them.
Charles McLean, on November 21st, 2011 at 12:00 pm Said:
” This is not a Christian coffeehouse, which WE would enjoy, but an enterprise that we do not even have personal use for. It is a purely external project. I think it’s great ”
Charles I nearly made the mistake of commenting, on your comment., but the more you reveal about yourself, the more I doubt you would understand. may God bless.
Laymond —
Was that a riddle?! 🙂 I completely have no idea what you are saying.
“I truly love this idea. One thing I like about this idea is the lack of features to attact “church members”
I took for granted that Charles meant “attract” and not “attack”,
And I was going to ask just who this “WE” is that he refers to.
” This is not a Christian coffeehouse, which WE would enjoy, but an enterprise that WE do not even have personal use for. It is a purely external project. I think it’s great ”
JMF
If this doesn’t give you any insight to Charles’ thinking, then I guess it would be a riddle
JMF–
I think Laymond was just commenting that he nearly commented on my comment, but decided not to comment because I wouldn’t be able to understand his comment on my comment, if he were to comment, which he apparently didn’t. Comment, that is.
I think Laymond’s whole no-comment comment is somehow connected with my apparent moral bankruptcy and/or my abject lack of understanding of things eternal. There may even be some question about my salvation, but this would be a total inference on my part. That statement wasn’t actually in the text.
Then Laymond asked God to bless me, which frankly I think I need at this point, after all that other stuff. So, we’re all good here.
I think that about clears it up… ;^)
I decided not to comment on this comment either. except to say I believe you are more aware of what you write than I gave you credit for.