Ron Williams is the pastor of Church at the GYM in Sanford, Fla. As the Baptist church’s name implies, Williams’ congregation meets, well, in a gym.
Williams said the goal is to remove the “stained glass barriers” for people who might not be comfortable in traditional church settings.
“I think all the trappings of traditional religion can make it difficult for people to start coming,” he said. “You can invite someone and they will say, ‘I don’t have any clothes to wear to church.’”
To make people feel more comfortable, Williams wears jeans. In the warm Florida climate, some members wear shorts.
Sanford native Sandy Adcox, 38, had not been to church in 18 years before she attended Church at the GYM last March.
“I’ve never in my life felt more comfortable in a church,” she said.
Comfortable is becoming common as churches take advantage of new, nontraditional spaces in movie theaters, skating rinks, strip malls and old warehouses, among others.
Aaron Coe, vice president for mobilization for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, cited several factors for the shift, including a move away from traditionalism and the economic advantages of leasing space instead of building a church.
“We’ve seen everything from art galleries to schools,” he said.
After meeting in an intermediate school for three years, leaders of Celebration Church, Hoover, in Shelby Baptist Association, realized that God was calling them “to a greater concentration of people.” So the church moved its adult and children’s services into two theaters in Rave Motion Pictures.
“Many times a traditional church building is a turnoff to unchurched people,” Pastor David Bradford said. “So if a church can begin meeting in a building that is frequented by people all week long, it is not such a hard step to worship.”
The word unchurched is used to describe those who have no church home.
Fred Muse, pastor of CrossWay Baptist Fellowship, Pelham, in Shelby Baptist Association, also sees using a nontraditional building as a matter of stewardship. His congregation meets in the Pelham YMCA.
“As a church plant with limited resources, we couldn’t afford to build a building, but it helped us focus on what the real Church is,” he said.
They may not have steeples or stained glass, but the nontraditional churches say they are finding success tapping into a segment of society that may otherwise have been lost. At these churches, attendees often are greeted with coffee and doughnuts.
The Bridge in Flint, Mich., set up in a strip mall anchored by a grocery store. “We do a lot of things that are really different,” Pastor Steve Bentley said.
Perhaps the most different: The interdenominational church recently opened a tattoo parlor. “We want to be relevant to people’s lives,” Bentley said.
The church uses video clips to illustrate its messages on Sundays. “We break with tradition, but we don’t break with Scripture,” Bentley said. “It’s all about presenting the information in a different way.”
Bradford said Celebration Church is similar in its worship services.
“Because we are a movie theater church, we are heavy in videos and graphics,” Bradford noted. “We try to be very culturally relevant and culturally mindful of the people who are unchurched and where they are in life.”
Church at the GYM is an outlet of Sanford’s Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church, which Williams described as a contemporary service that appeals to the baby boomer generation.
The new church is a more modern interpretation — an experiment that aims to encourage attendance among the under-40 crowd, he said.
Celebration Church is seeing success in reaching this generation.
“Most times, the people we reach are usually 35 and under,” Bradford said. “We’ve only been meeting here for a month full time, and we’ve found we had a few guests come in the front door ready to watch a movie and (then) see the church and come to church instead.”
Muse noted, “It takes different types of churches to reach different types of people because we are commissioned to reach all people for the gospel. … We really want to get back to the heart of the Christian mission and that is reaching people for the cause of Christ to build the kingdom of God and make disciples.”
A 2010 Gallup Poll found that church attendance was on a slight incline: 43.1 percent of Americans reported weekly or almost weekly attendance. Older people were the most likely to attend, while 18- to 29-year-olds were among the least active.
“As evangelicals, we don’t believe the building is the Church; the people are the Church,” Coe said.
“The building itself has taken on less importance.”
Meeting at the YMCA provides CrossWay members opportunities to minister to families and children already connected to the facility.
“Sometimes churches have to leave their buildings to do missions work,” Muse said. “We meet in a facility where we can do missions in our own backyard.”
Bradford said it all comes down to reaching people far from God. “We simply want to see changed lives for Jesus.”
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