What Are Third Spaces?

When we felt the Lord calling us to plant a church again in 2018, we intentionally took a year to prepare to plant well. In this year we decided that we wouldn’t take any concrete steps to plant a church unless we clearly felt the Lord asking us to take such steps. That year was a year of studying the discipleship principles of Jesus as well as the current culture that we are living in today. What we discovered of our current culture is that it is a post-Christian culture (explanation of that will come in another blog) and that 70% of unchurched Millennials and Gen Zer’s (basically anyone born after 1980) won’t go to church even if invited. Reasons for that is varied, negative perception of church, bad experience in church, no interest in church, etc.

If this is the case for the younger generations, and our personal experiences back that up, and since we want to reach younger people with the Good News of Jesus Christ, then it most likely will not happen at a church service or Christian event, because many will not go even if invited. So, we must think more like missionaries and reach them where they live, work, and play. Those 3 places (live, work, and play) are like the three places sociologist Ray Oldenburg describes in his book The Great Good Place. First place is where we live, second place is where we work, and third place is where we hangout outside of the first two places.

If the Church is going to reach the younger generations, we will have to reach people in these three places, but for this blog post I want to focus on the third place. The subtitle of Oldenburg’s book The Great Good Place, is Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through the Day. Those are examples of third places. A third place is a public setting that hosts regular, voluntary, and informal gatherings of people. It is a place to relax, a place people enjoy visiting. Third places provide the opportunity to know and be known.

Oldenburg list 8 characteristics of third places:

1. It’s a neutral ground, everyone is welcome, no requirements or invitations needed.
2. It acts as a leveler, people from all walks of life gather and there are no social or economic barriers.
3. Conversation is the main activity; talk is free to happen and often does on many different levels. 
4. It is accessible and accommodating. At their best third places are place to which one may go at almost any time of the day or evening with assurance that acquaintances will be there. They tend to be conveniently located.
5. There are regulars. There are people who go there on a regular basis.
6. They are often low profile. As a physical structure they are typically plain and unimpressive looking, often in older buildings as cost or rent is typically lower.
7. The mood is often playful. A third place is often a place with food, drinks, and games, where conversations abound, the mood is typically light and joyful, and anxiety can be released. This is often why people come back.
8. It’s a home away from home for some. It’s a place that people feel at home when they are there.

Obviously not all third places have all 8 of these characteristics, but you have probably seen a coffee shop, bar, hair salon, youth center, even a gas station and many other places as third places. A healthy community needs good third places for the community to gather, build relationships, and connect to one another.

For those of us who follow Jesus, it is a natural place for us to hangout and develop new relationships with the 70% who may never enter a church service or event. But through conversation and trust building may be open to the Gospel because of the story of your life intersecting with Jesus’ that they have heard, they may want to know more about this relationship with Jesus. This is why two people who currently don’t drink coffee are starting a coffee shop.