June 27, 2007
By Jon Kaplan

BATAVIA, Ill. – Batavia United Methodist is a church on the move-literally.

The thriving downtown Batavia congregation, 45 miles west of Chicago, has outgrown its historic building and 11 parking spaces. So, out of sheer necessity, the 850-member church has embraced a unique community outreach concept called "church in a box."

Each Sunday, in addition to holding three worship services in Batavia, the congregation sends a missions team with a 24-foot trailer to the nearby family-oriented community of Aurora. Inside the trailer are wheeled containers filled with an altar, hymnals, musical instruments, audio and video equipment, signs and even a coffeemaker-everything needed to provide a worship service, Sunday school classes and a nursery.

Substituting brick and mortar for teamwork and elbow grease, volunteers and worshippers convert the auditorium of Herget Middle School into "church" in just minutes.

"Church in a box allows us to quickly set up a place of worship in a place where you wouldn't have worship," explains the Rev. Jeffry Bross, Batavia's associate pastor.

Batavia calls its portable worship space "Flowing Grace," and Bross is the modern-day circuit rider in charge. The plan is eventually to take the worship experience to other locations.

The ministry began last March, and Batavia's senior pastor, the Rev. Mike Stoner, says Flowing Grace is helping to keep the anchor church vibrant and welcoming.

"If you're in an old building that has no parking, you're landlocked," he says. .".. The central message all along was this was about going to where the people are. It really embraces the United Methodist passion for going where no one's been."

A different way of thinking

Not everyone embraced the concept at first. "I was leery," says long-time member Jim Hansen, "but once we visited, I can see why we needed to do it."

"We had to overcome the notion that we were going to become two different churches and that we'd just be one church worshipping in two sites, and I think we have overcome that," says Hasana Sisco, another member.

One church in two locations is a concept that more and more United Methodist congregations and other churches are adopting. Batavia purchased its "church in a box" resources for $85,000 from Portable Church Industries of Troy, Mich. The company's Web site lists close to 1,000 clients.

Flowing Grace volunteer and lay member Joanne Mendicino understands the appeal. "We're able to minister one on one a little bit better in the way that people need it," she says.

"It's great to take the church to some place else as opposed to keeping the church here," adds Batavia member Rodney Sisco.

Thus far, Flowing Grace is averaging about 100 attendees each week and has added 11 members since March. Batavia members are encouraged and excited about the blessings.

"I see more personal growth at this location, providing more opportunity for people to get involved and engaged than I had at the standard site," says Flowing Grace member Mike Harvey.

"A lot of people that are participating are experiencing changes in their personal faith journeys," adds Joanne Mendicino.

Church and lay leaders alike say the ministry has allowed church members to use gifts and talents they didn't realize they had and to develop as leaders themselves. They believe the potential is limitless.

Says Stoner: "I would dream of having some people from Flowing Grace who have caught this vision, to go do it at another place and then another place."

United Methodist News Service
Jon Kaplan is a freelance producer and writer in Chicago.