Church in Starbucks clothing, literally!
Hardly 2 weeks since I wrote the previous post “Church in Starbucks clothing” I had this experience…
A local church has an extension which it uses as a coffee shop. They brew Starbucks coffee which happens to be free. They even have the “We proudly brew Starbucks” sign. One Friday a month they open up the coffee shop to local musicians to an open mike and also book a main local act.
Now I invited a friend from work a while back to one of these coffee shop concerts and she loved it, she talked about it at work and I was excited because more people from work would come. But of course when she was at her first concert, she saw the hallway at the back of the coffee shop that led to the main sanctuary, the chairs, the cross and even a stray bible and Christian art in the coffee shop itself and she knew it was a church that was behind the coffee shop which did not seem to affect her much.
If that wasn’t enough, there were other signs for even the visually challenged. Some of the open mike’s did worship songs. A few of the church folk in the audience raised up their hands and closed their eyes in worship. My friend knew she was in a Church, in Starbucks clothing.
However my experience begins here, I just had to give you a little background. Fast forward a bit. Another concert was about to come up and I asked her at work if she were going to come. She said yes. A co-worker who was nearby asked where this was and out of my friends mouth comes “At a church”.
I guess she saw through the flimsy Starbucks front. Darn. I tell you, those unbelievers are pretty smart.
Just an example to illustrate that we as a church cannot ask big questions and take small steps. We cannot dream big and only back it up with cosmetic changes. If we ask the big questions, think the radical thoughts then we have to back it up with radical action. If not we’re just making more people mad with church.