Doing Church at the Metro Stops

You don’t expect a church to meet in a nightclub in Washington D.C., a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill, and the movie theater complex at Union Station. But that’s what National Community Church does.

“We’re practicing orthodox Christianity in some unorthodox places,” says lead pastor Mark Batterson.

It began in 1996 when the church plant was told that the public school in which they’d been meeting was being closed for fire code violations. Within a few weeks, the flock of fewer than 50 arranged to meet in the theaters at Union Station. It wasn’t Plan A, but it did have advantages.

“Union Station is the most visited destination in the nation’s capitol,” Batterson says. “We’ve got our own subway stop, bus stop, train stop and parking garage. We’ve got forty food court restaurants right outside our meeting site. The theaters give us multiple meeting rooms with comfortable seats and screens” (which, he says, function as “modern-day stained glass, similar to how medieval churches used pictures to tell the gospel story”). The church even plays with its setting, using popcorn boxes to receive the offering.

“What more accessible and visible location could we want?” Batterson says. “I can’t imagine a better place to reach the unchurched and dechurched in D.C.”

The location removes an obstacle to anyone intimidated or threatened by a church building. The congregation is 75 percent unchurched and dechurched; 80 percent are single; and 80 percent are in their twenties.

The location fits well with the church’s core values, which include “expect the unexpected” and “playing it safe is risky.” Referring to Paul’s dialogues at Mars Hill in Acts 17:16, Batterson says, “Too many churches are boycotting the Areopagus. If Paul hadn’t been willing to go there, Dionysius and Damaris wouldn’t have their names written in Book of Life!”

In many churches, the common denominator is social and economic status, but not at National Community Church. A congressional staffer may sit at worship next to a homeless person. The unifying factor is people with passion for creating a new culture.

The absence of a church building has only fueled the creativity at National Community Church. Another core value is that “irrelevance is irreverence.” According to Batterson, “Anything less than relevant is being irreverent to the Holy Spirit, who speaks more than six billion dialects in calling people to God.” So in addition to the using theaters both downtown and in a second location at Ballston Common in Arlington, Virginia (and more locations are on the drawing board), the church holds monthly outreach events at Club Nation, one of the largest nightclubs in the area.

The church is currently building a coffee house, Ebenezer’s, within a block of Union Station. The relaxed coffee house atmosphere is a great setting for everything from coffeehouse concerts and communion services to variety shows and Super Bowl parties.

“The coffeehouse has become a vital part of our DNA,” Batterson says. It will be a forum for the daily building of relationships (with church offices located upstairs).

National Community Church now has its sights set on replicating itself and meeting in theaters near Metro stops throughout the D.C. area.

“We’re like the tabernacle in Old Testament times,” Batterson says. “We’re a mobile church, with flexibility and fluidity. We complement the ‘temple’ churches that have a permanent presence and a distinctive building.”

He’s become something of an evangelist to other churches, both those who own buildings and those who don’t.

“You don’t need a building or 500 people to go multi-site,” he says. “Wherever your ministry is based, let’s walk into the marketplace of ideas and compete for our culture!”

Adapted from the forthcoming book, The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations, by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird (Zondervan, April 2006 release). More information about National Community Church is available at the church website: www.theaterchurch.com.