Jump directly to the Content

Word to the Y's

A new breed of church planters is discovering it's smart to stay at the YMCA.

Nontraditional meeting space has become a standard utensil in the outreach toolbox. Restaurants, school auditoriums, theaters, community centers, even bars and pubs have been put into use for Sunday services. In addition, these "third spaces" (not homes, not workplace) are perceived as safe zones where people can engage the Christian community without full exposure to organized religion.

Leadership has watched with interest as congregations take over innovative spaces for worship. But we have been particularly intrigued by a developing movement that is thinking beyond Sunday morning and has found a unique venue that is both a meeting place and a mission field—the YMCA.

We were introduced to the Y church movement in 2008, when I interviewed Pastor David Newman, whose church meets in the Countryside YMCA in Lebanon, Ohio. "Antioch the Church of the Y" began meeting there as a temporary solution until they could afford to build or buy a permanent facility. But within a couple years, they ...

March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
Rocking the White Citadel
Rocking the White Citadel
A review of "The Next Evangelicalism"
From the Magazine
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Controversy over Bibles in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany reveal the divide between the sacred and the relatable.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close