Stories of Faith
26
AT HOME UNDER THE GOLDEN ARCHES REDEMPTIVE FELLOWSHIP AT “MCCHURCH” BY REV. SARAH HOWELL-MILLER PHOTO SHARED BY REV. CHIP WEBB
Comparisons between churches and fast food restaurants are usually disparaging — from criticism of a “Have it your way” attitude that can undermine unity in worship, to the metaphor of grabbing spiritual fast food to the detriment of deeper discipleship — but for Rev. Chip Webb, pastor of Brookstown United Methodist Church in Pfafftown, the McDonald’s golden arches have become a symbol of redemptive fellowship. “This is really a Fresh Expression that found me,” Webb told me when we talked on the phone about the ministry at the McDonald’s on Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem. The fellowship found Webb through Gray Martin, the former Worship Committee chair at Brookstown, who coined the term “McChurch.” Martin was an older adult who worked at Quality Oil and, as Webb put it, lived at McDonald’s and went home to sleep. Before he died of cancer several years ago, Martin introduced Webb and
others to the unconventional but profoundly transformative community of McChurch. The Reynolda Road McDonald’s is an intersection of several different worlds — from Wake Forest students and faculty; to senior adults stopping on their way to and from doctor’s appointments (Webb found it was a great place to do pastoral visits with church members); to transitionally homeless or marginally housed persons who frequent the nearby public library branch, live in subsidized housing adjacent to the library, or visit a food pantry down the road. While health-conscious middleclass Americans like myself might eschew “unhealthy” fast food whenever possible, for vulnerable people, McDonald’s is a source of affordable, calorie-dense nourishment. It is also a safe place to rest and find community. The Fresh Expression at McDonald’s mostly manifests as
