Englewood Community Church, by being a good neighbor first, tries to live its faith

The circle is large for a parlor room chat 50 people.

They are seated in folding chairs in a room with a Jesus portrait on one wall and a woven picture of the Last Supper on another. One person speaks and then theres 15 to 20 seconds of silence, as if everyone is savoring the words just spoken. The silence is broken by another voice, then the silence falls again, and the cycle repeats. The group is discussing something fairly radical what their churchs Sunday morning services should look like and even whether to have one at all. Yet, theres no rancor here. Just an exchange.

Members of Englewood Christian Church have been gathering for these Sunday night conversations for 17 years, but theyve been holding regular Sunday morning services for more than a century. In the 1970s, the church bused in folks from all over town for the Sunday morning service that would attract 1,100 people. Today, 200 may come on a really good Sunday, and in this circle of friends, that doesnt bother anyone in the least.

More interesting to just about anyone you speak with at Englewood is what goes on around the church for the 166 hours a week other than Sunday mornings. And thats quite a lot. So much, in fact, that the Sunday morning ritual that is the staple of American Christianity is now almost an afterthought.

Sunday service is still held, said lifelong Englewood member Jim Aldrich, 62. But it may be the event that is most not a part of what Englewood is now.

Still, the event, as Aldrich calls it, is the one constant that has remained at Englewood through the 118-year lifespan of the church. It was there when the church was born in the late 1900s in the middle of the citys newest streetcar suburb. It was there in the early 20th century, when a pastor was fired for not allowing the Ku Klux Klan to meet in the building. It was there during the booming mega-church years of late 1960s and early 1970s. It was there during the long, slow decline of both the church and the Near Eastside neighborhood that surrounds it.

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But today, Englewood looks at its mission as one of almost communal living with its surroundings. The churchs focus has morphed into improving neighborhood quality of life providing housing, offering quality child care, creating jobs. What happens for two hours a week on Sunday morning seems almost inconsequential.

Some people think if you dont have Sunday morning, if you dont have a worship service, you dont have a church. I think we are beyond that now, Aldrich said. If we didnt have Sunday morning we would still exist as a church. And thats the best thing you can say about where were at right now.

Where Englewood is right now is more firmly tied than ever before to the Near Eastside, an area that has been decimated by factory closings in the past 40 years and the abandoned houses that followed, a place where many residents still struggle to get by in an area where crime is always a looming concern.

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Englewood Community Church, by being a good neighbor first, tries to live its faith