Since I no longer have numerous Holy Week services to prepare for, I found myself in a neighborhood coffee house on the morning of Maundy Thursday. I wasn’t goofing off, mind you; I was just using this coffee house as my office for part of the morning. While I was there I posted the following status update to my Facebook page:
At a neighborhood coffee house. It’s amazing how busy this place is, in the middle of a work day—it’s jammed!
After I posted that update, I started to wonder, What lessons might the church be able to learn from the coffee house phenomenon?
A friend saw my update and remarked about it. I responded saying something about the fact that 1) it’s too bad our congregations aren’t that busy on any given day of the week (even Sundays?) and 2) that most congregations would kill to have that many people in worship later in the day for Maundy Thursday.
So I offer this post without any conclusions, only a question: What lessons might the church learn from the coffee house phenomenon?
Tell us what you think. Is there something to be learned? I don’t think it’s just a matter of learning to serve better coffee. 
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Center for Renewal
Dwight DuBois
Mark Davis
Erik Ullestad
Richard Wehrs
Gary Van Wert
The Church can learn hospitality! As I travel throughout the country worshipping with a different congregation almost every week, I am astonished by the lack of basic courtesy and welcome. One of my favorite workshops to offer to various groups is on this subject of Christian hospitality and welcome. Ease of access, parking, directions to the gathering place. Genuine smiles. A warm greeting. A non-threatening environment. A completely open & welcoming table fellowship. So many opportunities for us to apply the coffeeshop experience to congregational life.
Many sales folks, and others who work independently use the coffee house as their office. It gets rid of the isolation of the in home office, and the small 1 man office such as in strip malls. Many find the environment an efficiency boost, its not quite co-working, but it does fulfill an aspect of human need during the workday. Its also amazing to note the number of pastors that use the coffeehouse as a place for sermon prep.
I think Beth hit a biggey on the head with the non-threatening thing, it’s a big problem, both from within, but also from outside.
From an inside aspect, how many would go to church, just to sit and read, or meet a few friends? It just doesnt seem right in our culture to do this, instead it’s the coffee house, local restaurant or old time gas station.
From an outside aspect, how many of us would pull up to an unknown church and go and crash them? (when I traveled a lot, I did this, and its cool, but its a seemingly bold thing to do, and failure is common, ie doors locked, no one around). Imagine what would happen, if churches really opened their doors, physically, as well as spiritually?
I need to go blog on this, or I’ll end up being a comment hog LOL
I wonder if Ron’s insight could be used meaningfully: What would it take to make a church somewhere that people go “just to sit and read, or meet a few friends”?
Even the busiest churches tend to be centers only of “organized” activities – worship, classes, AA, concerts, etc. Some churches have planted coffeehouse ministries, but what if we went a step farther and tried to create or transform churches so that people would just “stop by”?
[...] over at Center for Renewal had a cool entry on the coffeehouse phenomena, where he noted the activity, and wished for the same [...]
Thanks, Ron, for your insightful comments on your blog about this post. You’ve put up some serious food for thought!