National Community Church- Oct 11, 2009

This past Sunday TS brought AR and myself to National Community Church, located in the Union Station movie theater in DC. Part of this trip was to experience a small group activity called In Service, in which people gather to make bag lunches for the homeless and hand them out to the community of homeless people living around Union Station, and the other part was to experience an urban church setting.
The In Service ministry is led by a previous intern of TS. A group of 15-20 people gathered together, prayed, and brought bag lunches to the streets outside of Union Station to hand them out. For the first few minutes, I was the spectator. I watched as the others, people who do this on a regular basis, handed out lunches to people left and right. The interactions between the volunteers and the homeless was something truly remarkable. Normally, church groups do what I like to call a "hit and run". They swoop in to a community, drop off some food and clothing, and then they leave just as quickly as they came. Sure they helped but their actions ended there. It was a one time thing and the impact they had on the homeless community was minimal. But the In Service group had engaged this homeless community in a genuine way. Volunteers called the homeless people by their names. They were friends and they shared in each others lives. This volunteer project has been going on so long that they are expected to be there every Sunday morning.
The National Community Church community had essentially merged with the surrounding homeless community. And the result is indigenous leaders; out of the homeless community, leaders had emerged. I caught whispers of stories of how homeless people had been taken in by the National Community Church community and had gotten jobs and housing. These same people are now part of the In Service Ministry. To me, the In Service ministry is a success. If National Community Church vanished in a day, I believe that the In Service ministry would continue to thrive. The church had taken it's community, merged it with another community, and fostered leaders out of that environment. Now, the In Service ministry has transferred from the church community to a hybrid of the homeless, previously homeless, and the church. It is a self sufficient and self sustaining community.
After the In Service project, we headed over to the theater for a service with pastor, Mark B. Just from walking in the front doors, I noticed the National Community Church community was much different than my church back in Howard County. My church is white; white and wealthy. The National Community community is diverse not only in terms of race, but economic and social class as well. Black, white, asian, poor, rich, homeless; these groups of people were all represented in one service of National Community. I felt as if there was no minority. I felt that instead of having red and blue M&Ms, which are easily separated, we had the entire bag. No single race or social class or any other "qualifier of society" seemed to be predominate. It was true representation of the body of believers.
Pastor Mark broke some hard news to the people attending the service. It turns out that the first time I visit National Community Church is the last time they meet in Union Station. The theater management had cut the lease the church had prematurely and stated they are shutting the theaters down immediately. National Community Church will need to find a new home. I feel that most Western Churches I have been a part of have a "leadership " aspect and a "congregation" aspect. In other words, there are a few selected people who do all the work and then preach and the congregation sits down for an hour every Sunday to get fed some message and then they leave. Mark addressed the congregation in a way of equality. There was no separation between preacher and preached to. He delivered this message in a way that said we need to be in this together, as a church and as a body of believers. He asked the entire congregation to fast and pray that God will provide a place for them to meet. The people of National Community have a sense of ownership of the church, which is something I feel that most other churches lack.
If you have any other questions or would like to know more information about National Community Church visit their website at theaterchurch.com