THE FRONT ROOM, by Frontier

Sip, Study & Shared Story — More than Coffee.

A Third Space Concept for Our Church & City

THE VISION

At Frontier, we believe the church should be more than a Sunday gathering — it should be a vibrant, everyday presence in the heart of the city. Inspired by models like o3 Space, we are envisioning a unique, community-owned ‘Third Space’ in Pasadena: part café, part co-working hub, part creative venue — and fully alive seven days a week.

Our Third Space will not just host church services, but also concerts, art shows, neighborhood events, and a daily stream of people working, meeting, dreaming, and discovering community together.

It is our answer to a challenge many urban churches face: waiting for someone to ‘give’ them a building, or renting space for Sundays only — leaving no open doors for hospitality, connection, or daily mission.

Instead, we want to model a new way — combining faith, creativity, entrepreneurship, and sacrifice to build sustainable spaces in expensive cities, where the beauty of Jesus is renewed on the frontiers of modern culture.

This isn’t just about one building — it’s a prototype. We believe this Third Space can become a sending model to plant more churches in places where rents are high but the Spirit is willing. We won’t wait for a landlord’s gift — we’ll step out in faith, using our gifts and our grit, to trust God to establish something lasting, open, and beautiful for our city and cities to come.

THE HEARTBEAT

5 Anchors of Our Vision

1. Hospitality Beyond Sundays

  • A seven-day space for connection: coffee, study, work, art, conversation.

  • Open to everyone — no church membership required.

  • Becomes the new “local third place” for people who’d never step into a traditional church building.

2. A Sustainable Footprint

  • A creative business that helps shoulder expensive urban rent.

  • Every cup of coffee and membership covers not just overhead but mission.

  • A space that earns its place in the neighborhood economically and spiritually.

3. A Platform for Creative Community

  • Host pop-ups, open mic nights, local bands, gallery nights, film screenings, poetry.

  • Partner with local artists, students, and entrepreneurs.

  • The building itself becomes a canvas for the community.

4. A Church That Plants Churches

  • A replicable model: café + co-work + worship + mission.

  • Plant new communities in cities where schools, theaters, or short-term rentals have been the only options.

  • Inspire other churches to think like builders and entrepreneurs, not just tenants.

5. Faith, Grit, & Shared Sacrifice

  • We won’t just wait for a donor or miracle building — we’ll build one together.

  • Requires entrepreneurial faith, wise planning, and radical generosity.

  • A living testimony: “God didn’t just drop this building from the sky — he stirred our gifts to plant it here.”

How This Guides Practical Steps

Our vision naturally shapes:

  • Design: flexible, inspiring, beautiful — good enough to draw people in who don’t care about church (yet).

  • Community Ownership: encourage your businesspeople, creatives, and givers to co-own this mission — with time, ideas, skills, resources.

  • Partnership: local artists, student groups, freelancers — not just church people.

  • Replication: keep all learnings, budgets, floor plans, branding, and missional framework to export to new neighborhoods.

  • Missional Presence: daily invitation into the life of the church without a sales pitch — because they’re literally living life around you.

What is O3 Space?

O3 Space is a creative “third place” concept that combines:

  • A high-quality café,

  • A flexible co-working/study space, and

  • A community hub for events, gatherings, and inspiration.

It’s designed to be a place where people don’t just grab coffee — they stay, work, connect, meet new people, and build community.

Key elements:

  • Memberships: People pay a modest weekly or monthly fee to access the space 24/7, get perks, and belong to a motivating environment.

  • Public café: Anyone can come in and enjoy the vibe, even without a membership.

  • Flexible use: It’s a living room for freelancers, students, artists — with book nooks, ambient lighting, little surprises like treehouses or vintage cars.

  • Sustainable model: Memberships + café sales help cover the cost of prime urban rent so the space stays open daily.

In short: O3 makes connection possible by blending hospitality, work, creativity, and community in one place.

How Does This Inspire Frontier ?

At Frontier, we see the same need — and a bigger calling.

Like O3 Space, we believe people today crave places where they belong, linger, and connect. Not just “another café,” but a Third Space that feels like a home away from home — inspiring enough to work in, warm enough to talk in, open enough to create in.

But for us, it’s not just about good coffee and cozy booths.

Our vision is to build a Third Space that:

  • Blesses our city — anyone can come, whether they’re curious about faith or just need a good desk and latte.

  • Demonstrates the heart of Jesus — not by pushing religion, but by practicing radical hospitality every day of the week.

  • Houses our church community — we gather for worship, discipleship, and prayer in the same space people use for work and creativity. Church and café life weave together naturally.

  • Sustains mission in expensive cities — instead of waiting for free buildings or Sunday-only rentals, we step out in faith to build something sustainable that stands open Monday through Sunday.

  • Seeds new churches — when it works in Pasadena, it becomes a model we can take to other neighborhoods and cities: beautiful, local, self-sustaining spaces where church isn’t just an hour on Sunday, but a place for life all week.

The Bottom Line

O3 Space shows it’s possible to run a vibrant café and co-working hub that covers its own costs and brings people together. Frontier Church’s Third Space takes that same idea — and reclaims it for the kingdom: a creative, everyday doorway for people to taste community, beauty, purpose, and the hospitality of Jesus.

The Cultural Void Third Spaces Like O3 Space Are Filling

In cities like Auckland, Melbourne — and places like Pasadena — the “local café” used to be more than a place to grab a latte. It was an unofficial community center:

  • You ran into neighbors.

  • Students pulled all-nighters.

  • Freelancers made it their office.

  • Artists and thinkers debated ideas.

But as cities got busier and rents went up, cafés became fast turnover shops.

  • Customers buy coffee, sit with headphones, stay isolated.

  • No incentive for owners to let people linger for hours on one cup.

  • Many chains feel sterile — designed for quick transactions, not community.

Meanwhile, co-working spaces like WeWork promised connection — but often felt corporate, expensive, and transactional too. You rent a desk, but don’t always find a sense of belonging.

The Deeper Void

So people are left with a missing middle:

  • Not home.

  • Not work.

  • Not church.

  • Not just retail.

A place that’s open, inspiring, safe, and relational — where people stay, bump into each other, and build micro-connections that slowly grow into community.

Sociologists have long called this the Third Place — the spot between home and work where real community happens. In a lonely, mobile, digital-first world, these places matter more than ever.

How O3 Space Innovates on This

O3 Space saw that gap and designed a place on purpose to fill it:

  1. A beautiful, ambient café — people come for the coffee, but stay for the vibe.

  2. A functional co-working zone — reliable power, Wi-Fi, desks, booths, quiet corners.

  3. A living room atmosphere — bookshelves, art, vintage details that invite lingering.

  4. Events & pop-ups — movie nights, club meetups, board game evenings, student parties.

  5. An integrated app/community system:

    • Members join via an app.

    • They check in, earn O‑coins for hours spent there.

    • They can redeem coins on food, drinks, or merch.

    • The app fosters connection: people can see who’s around, join interest groups, and sometimes organize co-working or social meetups.

    • Loyalty rewards encourage regular visits and organic relationships.

    • It’s community + perks + belonging, gamified.

So O3 doesn’t just look like a cozy café — it operates like a living social network with real-world impact.

What This Means for Frontier’s Vision

By drawing from O3’s model, Frontier’s Third Space won’t just be about good coffee or rent coverage. It’s about designing a place where belonging is built in:

  • The café invites strangers to linger.

  • Membership invites them to stay.

  • Events invite them to participate.

  • The church community invites them deeper — without pressure.

  • An integrated digital layer (whether it’s an app, a simple online portal, or group messaging) can help people discover each other, share ideas, post needs, or plan micro-gatherings.

It’s a way to weave hospitality, technology, and spiritual community into a real place people can touch. It’s not just Sunday church — it’s an open table, all week.

Put Simply

  • The void: Modern life is relationally thin and commercially shallow.

  • The opportunity: Third spaces like O3 prove that people will pay for a place that feels like a living room for work, conversation, and belonging.

  • The next step: Frontier’s Third Space does all that — plus it stays rooted in a vision to show what the kingdom of God looks like in daily life: open doors, deep welcome, creative expression, everyday mission.