Soma Church self-identifies as an "interdenominational family of neighborhood churches" that is independent and autonomous, though you can get some sense of its theological foundation by looking at its partnerships - The Summit Network, the Sojourn Network (not to be confused with the far more progressive Sojourners), the Southern Baptist Convention, and Fellowship Associates.
A good summary, as provided by their own website, is "We are a Jesus-ruled, elder-led, deacon-served, and congregationally-responsible church."
Soma Church has three locations in Indy - this location along with a downtown location that meets at 2325 East New York Street inside the Westminster Services offices, and a Northwest side location. I've now attended services at both this location and the downtown Indy location (which is really more Near-Eastside, but I digress).
They also offer a surprisingly large number of small groups, called Missional Communities, throughout the week on most sides of town. As this is a church that seemed to pop up out of nowhere, you can really tell that quite a bit of effort and pre-planning went into their church planting.
I've yet to attend a Missional Community, though I've seriously considered it and know of a couple within my own neighborhood.
The service at this location that I attended is in an old church that became an office building - then, Soma appeared to have acquired the building and it's back to being a church. They have two accessible parking spots along the East side of the building - a level sidewalk goes up to a ramp that will take you into the rear entrance of their contemporarily designed sanctuary. The ramp is likely not ADA compliant - it's lengthy, but the grade may be a bit challenging for someone with upper body weakness. I will note that I saw multiple people and was greeted well before I'd made it in the building. The service offered a sort of pop/rock worship along with a key speaker along with involvement of others. The sanctuary itself is pretty wheelchair friendly, though I think children's programming is upstairs and there's not an elevator. The congregational leader I met seemed somewhat concerned about my experience with access, though it was a bit better than I expected and significantly better than the Midtown location.
The Midtown location is located in a more urban neighborhood. The office building is fairly new and has a nice, concrete ramp into it (with an easy grade). Though, parking around here completely sucks and is definitely not wheelchair friendly. There's some street parking, a non-paved lot across a small street (lots of rocks/gravel), and another lot that is better paved but requires you to access broken sidewalks. It works in good weather, but would be very difficult in poor weather. Once inside, however, things are fine. This service was a little more laid back - at Midtown, I also did run into one person I knew.
Both services tend to run longer than the usual drive-thru, one hour service (75-90 minutes for both). The messages tend to be a bit longer. Both locations skew toward millennial age - younger families with some exceptions. All elders are men, though women do participate in worship including music, readings, announcements and, of course, children's programming. They do also have women in operational leadership roles.
As one might expect, the downtown location tends to be more diverse - at least in terms of race, while downtown also seemed to have more kids. They both offer 9am and 11am services - I attended the 11am at both locations. The Northwest location only has a 10am service.
Overall, there's much to love here. My gut is that Soma leans a bit more conservative than I am, but there's an openness to discussion and to simply being human that I really appreciate. I found both locations fairly friendly - I was greeted by leaders in both spots; definitely greeted more warmly by attendees at the downtown spot even before my friend showed up. It also didn't feel "artificial." It wasn't like everyone came up to me, but a handful did and they engaged in more than the usual "Hi" and "Welcome." It felt genuine.
As I am most looking for a "community" where I am free to both live into my gifts and be "disabled," my gut tells me I'd lean more toward Midtown despite my love of urban ministry. Despite some accessibility concerns at both spots, my sense is once people really identify your presence that access becomes easier because you become part of the community.
Given my accessibility concerns, I can't quite go the 5-star (as I never did for my previous church home that I attended for several years) but this is a marvelous, communal, and growing church and I really like the missional community idea that offers options for connection throughout the week. Young families and singles will enjoy the spirit here, though those of us a bit older, including myself, won't feel awkward or out of place. read more
