On a Sunday morning in January, 20- and 30-somethings packed the chapel inside Temple Ohabei Shalom, a historic synagogue on the main thoroughfare of a quiet residential neighborhood near Boston. Stained-glass windows and stage lights cast a kaleidoscope of colors across the dimly lit space. The congregants were part of Grace City, a nondenominational church that began meeting in the synagogue last fall after outgrowing their previous meeting spot at a coworking space downtown. The church started in 2019 with just 50 people, but after Covid, attendance surged.
The service opened with a Christian worship song backed by drums and guitar, and people kept trickling in, scanning for open seats. Volunteers hurried to set up an extra row of folding chairs. At the entrance, attendees picked up small hourglass-shaped containers of grape juice and crackers for “bread and cup,” a contemporary take on communion. Some sat cross-legged on the floor, notebooks and Bibles propped open; others stood, cradling coffee mugs. As the band got louder, a dad slipped noise-canceling headphones onto his baby’s head.
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