on the search for a third space

I was reading a while back about the idea of the "third space." Interesting idea. The idea is presented that most people have three distinct places in their lives, distinct arenas, or stages where the drama of life unfolds. The first two are obvious, home and work. The interesting thing to me is the idea of the third space. In this final space, people, the theory goes, search for a place of belonging, a place to relax, to spend leisure time, to give their down time a context or meaning.

Third spaces are everywhere, diners, bars, coffee shops, book stores...the list goes on as endlessly as there are creative people who find places to belong. People need these kind of spaces, away from home and work where "everybody knows your name..." There is something about this sense of belonging that really drives people to be a regular at the corner diner or the neighborhood pub.

In many ways, the church is a third space. The church is a place away from home and work where people find a place to belong and gives context and meaning to life. Interestingly, the church is the only place that, should, attempt to dump those people back out into the wilderness of life to engage people in their own third spaces. In that sense, the church is really more of a 2.5 space, as it exists as a hospitable place of welcome and belonging, but so that each one might better live outside of the space itself. This is different than the coffee shop or pub. Those spaces equip you to stay inside and do nothing about life outside the space itself. The church challenges Christians to live well in other people's third spaces.

As a pastor, the challenge for me is that church is not only my place of belonging but also my place of employment. The past 2.5 months have been a search for another space, coffee shop, diner, library, some place that I might be a regular, so as to intersect lives with other people. The search has been frustrating so far, although that is probably due more to unreasonable ideals than anything else. But it feels to me like this is an important step for me. I need to find a place, not because I lack a sense of belonging, but because the gospel calls me to live well in other people's third spaces...the search continues.