I love third places. There is something about being around people, you can feel the energy. Today I was reminded of something that has been lost in our culture – natural connections. I don’t really like to plan that much, I prefer last-second connections. Yet in our culture if you don’t plan you won’t see people. We are truly disconnected from one-another.
This morning I was working at Thunderbird Coffee and I ran in Charles Whitmire & Nate Navarro. We got a chance to catch-up, share some stories and hang-out. Maybe for a total of 10 minutes; but those are big moments as essential information was shared in a short span of time.
This is why I love third places. This is why the people of God have to continue to fight for community and connection and against individualism & isolation.
I definitely forget (often) to be mindful of my surroundings, especially when focused on work.
I taught on third places this past Sunday. I preached from John 4:1-42 (we’re going through the book bit by bit) and the first half of the sermon was about modern-day wells: places where communities gather. We meet in a bar/restaurant, so it really hit home for our people. The second part of the story, of course, is to be like Jesus in His conversation with the Samaritan woman: to meet people where they are in those modern-day wells and to boldly proclaim grace and the fact the He is the Christ alone. Short story: I talked about living missionally.
I’m really wrestling with leading our people on making “natural connections” an everyday part of their lives in those modern-day wells, instead of it being forced.
Good post.