I've been contemplating the phoenominon of the coffee-house church (my personal name for them). What I mean by "coffee-house" church are these churches that you walk into on a Sunday morning, they have nice little coffee-houses at the front of them, everyone goes in, gets their coffee, stands around and chats, goes into service, does 15 maybe 20 minutes of singing, nice quick 20-30 minute sermon - few announcements and offering - and they're out of there...satisfied for having done their weekly duty with very little inconvenience and a nice cup of coffee to go all for the low, low price of $2.99 plus tithe (hopefully). We ran into this phoenominon quite a bit last year as we were looking for a new home church to settle into. Something pastor mentioned in church recently brought the idea back to the forefront of my thoughts, and I have to admit, it boggles my mind. I can see why an individual who wants to do their weekly duty by attending church but really doesn't want to be "inconvenienced" very much would find this style perfect, but I don't really see why all these Christians whom I know truly are serving the Lord enjoy going to the services that I experienced in those types of churches. Now, this is my own personal opinion, so please don't be insulted if you feel I am describing something similar to the church you attend, but so often I found the services to be trite, spoonfuls of milk and nothing of substance, and quite frankly, lifeless. How do people grow never mind thrive in their walk in an atmosphere like that? Perhaps I'm just missing something, and it's all in the small-groups or some such...I don't know. But it's been puzzling my poor, little brain for awhile now. Not that more traditional churches don't have their own issues, it's just that I've found these particular churches seem to fit into this picture of "fast-food" Christianity that I have seen an awful lot of the past few years...
Just some thoughts...
An addendum: In doing my devotions this morning, I was reading 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And I was reminded, yet again, of the grace of God as Paul, speaking in the Corinthian church who gave him all sorts of trouble, starts out his letter giving thanks for them and for the work God is doing through/in them. Good reminder!
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