Barnum & Bailey Church

The church where my family and I worship is an interesting one to say the least. It's a relatively small congregation that rates itself "not on it's seating capacity, but on it's sending capacity." They do that well. The church is like a revolving door of missionaries both locally and abroad.

The church does great things in the community that help people's basic needs (laundry, transportation, meals). It has a very active recovery ministry that helps people utilize Christ's transforming grace to heal them from their hurts, habits, and hang ups. There is also a thriving Hispanic congregation that is very much an important part of the church.

Here are three descriptors to help complete this picture: the church is only 8 years old, 90% of those attending Sunday morning worship have none or very little Church background, we meet in a little white warehouse in a pretty hoopty area of downtown Lexington.


No one ever knows what one will encounter on any given Sunday morning. Yesterday was exceptionally comical...

There was the obligatory infant crying.

There was a guy in the second row was commenting (throughout the 50 min sermon) both with hand and face gestures as well as, yes, audibly. The guy was actually answering rhetorical questions, vocalizing the preacher's implicit points, and saying things that were supposed to be funny.

There was the cell phone ringing. Oh yeah, the person answered the phone! Fortunately she didn't carry on a conversation, but she attempted to discretely tell the caller "I'm in church!" just before she hung up the phone.

There were some former member who had moved away some time ago and came back to visit yesterday. The preacher carried on something of a brief conversation with the couple before he introduced them to the congregation.


Through all of that, God was clearly present in the worship service. And that's the beauty of this church! There is always something going on, there are always people talking and making noise, there are always "those weird people" there, and rarely does a week go by without some kind of surprise. The only thing that keeps it from being a circus is the lack of hay on the ground and live animals.

This church is not for the faint of heart. But it is for those whose heart is fainting. For those who live in circus conditions all week long.

With my graduation and my family's impending relocation at hand, I must admit that I will deeply miss our little Barnum & Bailey Church.