Zach Kerzee is one of
my new coaching clients this year. This past summer, Zach set out to do
something that should be almost impossible: to plant a church, from
scratch, in one of the most church-averse parts of the nation. On top of
this, he had no team ready to help him. It was what we call a parachute
drop church plant. I agreed to coach him, thinking to myself, "Bless
his heart."
Three months later, something remarkable has happened. Simple Church has been born next door to an organic farm near Worcester, Massachusetts. As he began to meet his neighbors, he discovered none of them were interested in attending a new worship service. However, as he kept listening, he discovered that they wanted to explore spirituality and that they longed for connection with neighbors. So, he coined an idea called dinner church. (The idea had been pioneered by many including Lydia's House in Brooklyn and Root and Branch in Chicago - but Zach had not heard of any of these places.) In this particular dinner church, the idea is that they would grow the food next door and then serve it fresh, farm to table, on Thursday nights.
Church planters often labor
for years in this part of the world to gather simply a handful of
people. Zach launched dinner worship about two months after arriving in
Worcester, and they hit 45 worshippers by week 3. Further, Simple Church
is already planning to launch a second weekly dinner church experience
within his first year, and to replicate it again and again across
central Massachusetts.
Granted Zach Kerzee is
a bit unusual. As pastor of Simple Church, he is committed to simple
living. He sold his car and rides a bicycle, because the Pope
recommended it as a good way to move slower and meet one's neighbors.
"This bearded guy on a bicycle came by today, and it turns out he is a
preacher." Multiply that conversation a couple hundred times, and we see
another side to how he managed to gather this many people this quickly
in a community of people who are not even looking for a good church.
But any church can do
this. In fact, it is hard to imagine a good reason not to do this. Not
to have a weekly potluck with church members, but to create a new kind
of gathering designed for the people who never show up at the regular
potlucks or the regular services. Where the ownership is handed to the
people in the neighborhood. Each time someone asks, "Can I bring
anything?," Zach gives them an answer. "Cold Slaw." "Rolls." "A pitcher
of tea." It is tempting to say, "Oh no, be our guest; you don't need to
bring anything." But when we actually count on first time attendees to
bring stuff, we treat them as owners of the movement - and when the day
arrives, they actually show up. "We have to go tonight, dear. We are
bringing the potato salad."
Dinner church. Last year I
coached Root and Branch Church in Chicago, doing a similar thing with
young adults in Logan Square neighborhood. This is one of the most
promising models of faith community that I am seeing in North America. I
believe it can work almost anywhere.
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