The Third Place

At RE MIX with Mike Frost last month, he referred to an interesting sociological concept called "the third place". According to Ray Oldenburg, an American sociologist who coined this term in his book The Great Good Place, third places are "distinctive informal gathering places”. The first place is home, the place of the domestic. The second place is work, or the place of production. The third place is where people can regularly go to take it easy and connect with friends, neighbors, and just whoever shows up. It is the social place. The subtitle of Oldenburg’s book says it all: "Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts and How They Get You Through the Day."

Oldenburg’s point is that these third places are vital to healthy society, and suburbanization of North America has really destroyed the opportunity for the development of and regular involvement in these community forming venues. Frost’s point was that not only are cities loosing their third places, but as missional Christians, we are not taking advantage of these places to connect with others and engage in meaningful conversation. Too often the Christian’s replacement for the third place becomes the church or other ‘Christian’ spaces that further our withdrawal from the world, rather than our engagement with it. But to live this way is not acting as ‘sent ones.’

So what has this got to do with us? Well, one of the things that makes downtown Vancouver special is the purposeful encouragement of third places. Larry Beasley, the planning guru for the city of Vancouver has stated that the goal of neighborhoods like the one we live in is to make the sidewalks of the community the living room of the community. I think this is why a sidewalk café can be a great missional place. People have an innate desire to connect in this way, the city is eager to see these places develop, and as a Christian, what better place could there be to engage my community in meaningful conversation in an environment they accept, enjoy and appreciate? That’s why I’m dying for Paul and Wanda to start their coffee shop across the street from my home.