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The worship services at St. Luke's United Methodist Church were packed, the church needed to add another service—but where? And associate pastor Linda McCoy felt a growing call to reach people in Indianapolis who preferred rock to Bach and had little interest in things churchy—but how?

Then a couple offered their business for the church's use on Sunday morning—the Beef and Boards Dinner Theater. Church in a dinner theater—could that work?

Seven years later, McCoy says yes. And the 800 who attend three non-traditional services at "The Garden" back her up.

"Two-thirds of those who attend here had no prior church experience," McCoy says. "And many of the others had never had a real experience of God's love through Jesus Christ. Many had dropped away because it wasn't relevant for them."

Relevant is an important word for McCoy. She wanted to create a service that dealt with the real issues of life, that offered authentic relationships for newcomers who "didn't know the secret handshake," and that sounded—in words and music—like the world they live in. The result is worship in everyday language, with drama and video and a band that plays the same songs as the popular secular radio stations. One of the owners of the theater is the worship director.

That it takes place in a theater was a happy accident, "definitely a God thing," McCoy says. "People can slip in anonymously if they want and hide out at a back table while they develop a trust level." What they find are little groupings of people from many backgrounds: families, married, divorced, people in recovery programs, a variety of ethnicities.

Gathering at tables is an essential part of The Garden experience. Drinking coffee and eating Danishes as the service begins, the regulars form what McCoy calls "mini-communities." "They're able to connect in groups of four or six or eight." Or reconnect: "I've had families tell me that's the only time in the week they sit down together."

The Garden, which calls itself "a blossom of St. Luke's," maintains close ties, although it is largely self-supporting now. The mother congregation is very different from her daughter but very proud. St. Luke's, a traditional, mostly white, suburban church supplied about 75 members to McCoy to assist in the first year of the new plant. And about 90 percent of the mother congregation has visited its non-traditional offspring. "They very much feel like this is part of their mission," McCoy says.

Now, The Garden is experiencing the same overcrowding that forced its birth, which means McCoy and her team are now scouting another location across town to start yet another non-traditional service. Health club church, anyone?

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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