Cream and sugar, bread and wine

I visited a church on a recent Sunday morning, and the first thing I noticed when I walked in was a big coffee bar right in front of me in the foyer. I know that many churches these days are serving up cappuccino and coffee on Sunday mornings, but I had never seen it firsthand. My home church does not have a coffee stand, and to my knowledge it has never been considered.

When I saw what was going on with the “coffee fellowship,” I had a strange sensation. I found myself struck almost simultaneously by positive and negative reactions, which stayed with me for a little while that morning.

First, my immediate reaction was one of excitement. I saw about seventy-five people who were alive, awake, talking, and enjoying one another’s company—at 8:15 in the morning! I thought that was kind of cool. A church is a body of Christians who share their lives together, and that seemed to be what was going on.

But I confess that at almost the same moment a twinge of disapproval came to my mind. Why? Was there something wrong with what they were doing? I forced myself (mentally) to articulate to myself why I felt this disapproval. And I guess my answer was two-fold: (1) It was something I wasn’t used to, and therefore it seemed abnormal—i.e. “that’s just not the way church is done”; and (2) somehow it seemed inappropriate and irreverent to be having a cappuccino party in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s day. I quickly resolved that as for reason (1), I needed to just get over it, and for (2), maybe I was being too harsh. After all, in a few minutes everyone would proceed inside the sanctuary to worship God corporately.

As I sat down for the worship service, I began to notice others shuffling in and finding their seats, coffee in hand. As the congregation sang, then sat for a brief time of welcome and announcements, I observed several people get up, go out to the foyer for a refill, and return. And this is where my negative feelings started to flare up again. This is God’s house. We are here to worship the eternal, holy Creator and Savior of the universe. It just seems a bit casual to be doing so while sippin’ a cup of Joe the whole time. It is my opinion that there is a qualitative difference between what we do in a worship service and, say, listening to a lecture at the local college, watching a movie, or quietly reading a book at Barnes and Noble. Worship service at church should be as reverent, respectful to God, and spiritually meaningful as possible.

Now, before any of you jump all over me for being overly critical, let me say that I had another change of heart and I left that morning with very positive feelings about that church as well as my worship experience there. Despite my above-mentioned concern, there were many laudable aspects. The congregation did seem to have a sense of community and togetherness. And hey, the coffee seemed to help—I didn’t see anybody falling asleep. You can’t say that about all churches. To top it all off, the sermon was excellent. The church observed communion that Sunday, and the sermon was on the subject of communion. I found it to be very meaningful. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard a sermon on the subject. The congregants were instructed as to the meaning and significance of communion, and how each must prepare his or her heart beforehand so as not to participate in an unworthy manner. Then we proceeded to take time for introspection, and took the bread and the cup together. The richness of the sermon led to a rich communion experience. So despite my mental calisthenics over the “doctrine of cappuccino,” I truly feel that God was honored in the way communion was taught and observed that morning.

And as I left church that morning, I found myself thinking less about the coffee, and more about the significance of communion. I was truly struck thinking about what Christ did for me, and how I will spend eternity with Him.