Church Outside The Box

The Story Behind “Church Outside the Box”

When the pandemic struck in 2020, the way churches everywhere approached ministry changed.  Our church was no different.

Since we don’t own a building, we lost our meeting space. At first, we met online only.  But that got old fast, especially for the kids.

The loss of in-person community life showed us experientially what God says in his word – that people belong to something much bigger than themselves, like a church family.  We can’t be the church sitting on the couch by ourselves.

After a few months, we decided to meet in person outdoors every other week in the backyard of one of our members’ homes in King of Prussia who had the space for it and the hearts of hospitality to welcome us.

It was fun.  We set up tents, brought our camping chairs, and chased ducks around the yard.  They had a trampoline and a tire swing the kids loved.  But after our musicians’ couldn’t feel their fingers in the cold weather, we thought it was time for a change.

We adjusted a third time to meet on Sunday evenings in another church building but that did not work as well because we still couldn’t be in Conshohocken and the evening time slot was not as good for families.  We prayed about it, and politely asked if we could come back to our space. Thankfully, they said yes.

In November of 2021, we got back to meeting in person again where we had met before at 1001 Conshohocken State Road.  But we took the last Sundays of the month off to give our volunteers, staff and finances a year to adjust.   Meanwhile, in addition to small groups, we continued to meet in homes once a month for worship and prayer – something we’ve done regularly since we started the church in 2014.

At the end of 2022, our leadership team decided it was time to get back to meeting every week again, but we still wanted to give rest to our volunteers who serve so faithfully and continue to offer people the monthly prayer and worship kind of experience.

So on the last Sunday of January 2023, we tried something a little different.  For that Sunday service, we flipped the script to create more space for worship, listening to the Holy Spirit, spontaneous prayer, and sharing with each other in smaller groups.   It felt different, but God showed up in a way that was unexpected.

One of the newer attendees, having never experienced something like that before, told us he really liked it, calling it “church outside the box.”

Every end-of-the-month Sunday service format will be a little bit different, although worship, prayer and scripture will always be included in some way.  We ourselves might not know what to expect exactly – but that just keeps things interesting.  Since we’re not streaming online on the last Sundays of the month, you’ll need to be there to experience it for yourself.  And we’d love to see you there.