How About Micro-Church?

One thousand square feet. It's not much space for a church. About the same square footage as two bowling alleys, to give you can idea. "Why so small?" you might ask. The answer is both economical and theological. Economically, our church is located in Brooklyn, and 1,000 square feet is what we can afford. Theologically, we've discovered that building big community happens on a small scale: 30 people around dinner tables, sharing a meal they've made together.

St. Lydia's, the five-year-old church where I am the founding pastor, is a Dinner Church. This means that we gather each week to share what we call a "sacred meal:" a worship service that takes place around the table. This meal is patterned after those shared by Christians in the first few centuries of the church, which evolved into our current day communion celebrations with participants sharing the bread and the cup. Our congregation doesn't need much space, but after renting by the night for five years, we've found we're ready for a place of our own. And so this summer we're moving to a storefront in Brooklyn -- the kind of storefront that might be a restaurant or a shop is instead going to be a church.