A new project at Phoenix's Sun Valley Community Church may pack more visitors into its multisites, or not. Either way, it provides food for thought for designers as ministries evolve into post-pandemic physical and virtual hubs for worship.
Beginning in spring 2021, Sun Valley Community Church announced the kick off of a post-Easter series of talks with what it called "a healthy dose of self-reflection and humility." The series, titled "Church People Are The Worst," explored the label "Christian" and why it can evoke both positive and negative connotations.
Sun Valley Community Church, Phoeniz, AZ
Sun Valley staff shares the following about the project:
With over 2.5 billion estimated Christians in the world, most people can likely picture someone they have been around who does not quite practice what they preach. For many outside the faith, that person may be the only representation they have of what a real Christian looks like.
"All kinds of people have identified themselves as Christian," says Chad Moore, lead pastor at Sun Valley. "People like Mother Theresa, Justin Bieber, and Kim Kardashian have all claimed to be Christians, so what does that mean? What is a 'Christian'?"
Find the series microsite at http://www.
churchpeople.org.
Each weekend throughout spring 2021, the church highlighted a different topic, including where the term came from, when the big-C Church has gotten it right and gotten it wrong, and what it would look like for Christians today to embody the representation of what Jesus himself intended. The church also ran a digital billboard along the Phoenix's Loop 101 to draw extra attention to the series.
