In San Francisco, the cool place to be is in church. That is to say, a church that caters to unbelievers. Not to convert them, but to accept their unbelief. This may be the next frontier in church growth strategies.
The New York Times has published an article entitled In Counterculture San Francisco, a Church Has Become the Place to Be. It tells about the venerable Grace Cathedral, a gothic structure built in 1912, the seat of the Episcopal diocese of California that dates back to 1849, before the city was incorporated.
The church hosts light shows, trapeze artists, drag queens, and carnivals. Twice a week, the church hosts yoga classes, which have become so popular that it has become difficult to fit all of the yoga mats in the sanctuary. Celebrities, such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Kanye West have been showing up. Bobby McFerrin, of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” fame, has become a regular songleader.
Says the article, “Others are finding community and joy at the cathedral by packing monthly sound baths, where they nestle into their sleeping bags to listen to musicians play by candlelight. They are dancing in the pews at tribute concerts to Sting, Queen — and, of course, Taylor Swift.”
That theme of people finding community, joy, spirituality, and peace in the goings on at the Cathedral goes throughout the article, which interviews participants who say they are not religious or have been put off by regular churches.
The point seems to be that the trappings of church–the stained glass windows, the gothic architecture, the habit of gathering together with other people–are giving them that sense of community, joy, spirituality, and peace without any kind of religious content whatsoever.
At least that’s how the pastor seems to be describing what is going on. The article quotes him:
“Crazy San Francisco! Isn’t it great?” joked the Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, the dean of Grace Cathedral, who regularly ditches his collar for a T-shirt and shorts at yoga class.
The groundswell of interest may seem unlikely in a city known for its counterculture and where organized religion is not a focus of many residents’ lives — except on Easter Sunday when they pack the hills of Dolores Park for the annual Hunky Jesus contest. . . .
Mr. Young said he was heartened that people of all religious stripes, as well as those who are agnostic and atheist, were joining the fun at the cathedral.
“We always say you can belong before you believe, or you can belong and never believe.”
One might consider Grace to be performing effective outreach, connecting with the local community and engaging with people where they are. And yet, the strategy seems to leave them where they are.
The church is not converting the unbelievers; rather, the unbelievers seem to be converting the church. (A “Hunky Jesus” contest?)
There is much research that shows the mental health value of having a community and all of these other things that a church can provide. But is that what religion is? Is the church just a social club or a therapy center? Yes, the church is a place for sinners. But is it a place for those who “never believe”? In the terms of the Very Reverend Malcolm Clemens Young, is belonging more important than believing?
What Grace Cathedral is doing seems to be a synthesis of mainline liberal Protestantism and the evangelical church growth movement. We’ll see if this is the wave of the future for both traditions. In essence, though, this is “holding the form of religion”–a gothic cathedral, stained glass windows, group singing, a sense of community–“but denying the power of it” (2 Timothy 3:5; RSV).
Photo: The interior of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, by Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
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