Building congregations around art galleries and cafes

From The New York Times (via the Post-Gazette)

The mural painted on the side of a building in this city's Deep Ellum warehouse district is intentionally vague, simply showing a faceless man in a suit holding an umbrella over the words "Life in Deep Ellum." Inside there are the trappings of a revitalization project, including an art gallery, a yoga studio and a business incubator, sharing the building with a coffee shop and a performance space.

But it is, in fact, a church.

Life in Deep Ellum is part of a wave of experimentation around the country by evangelicals to reinvent "church" in an increasingly secular culture, and it comes as the megachurch boom of recent decades, with stadium seating for huge crowds, Jumbotrons and smoke machines, faces strong headwinds. A national decline in church attendance, the struggling economy and the challenges of marketing to millennials have all led to the need for new approaches.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/building-congregations-around-art-galleries-and-cafes-668360/#ixzz2GXF5PWjJ