Servant of the Bean

Greetings Dear Reader,

This past month our church opened a new venue to facilitate the outreach to the college campus and it is going well. It is astounding to me that amidst the beauty and grace of our new venue which is also a bar, that there is a complaint I have heard every week.

It seems that the venue decided not to serve coffee as is done at the primary church site. The intent is that we patronize the local coffee bars that surround our site. This, in my opinion, is excellent thinking. We get the opportunity to build relationships and show Christ’s love to a whole new set of people.

Still, every week I hear people complain that they are not getting the convenient free coffee. Every week someone returns from Starbucks with a negative comment about the walk or the cost. I wonder what it is that makes us so coffee focused. I love coffee. I do not have to have it to be happy and I can pass it by at will. It does; however, seem to be one of the vices that the church has embraced with abandon. Almost all of our social events include coffee in one way or another.

What is it that so easily deters our attention from the purpose of being gathered with other Christ followers? For our household I suggested that we not begin spending six dollars a week on coffee and I started making a fresh pot when I get up on Sunday morning. I consider that we can get served coffee occasionally but if we do it every week that is conservatively about $300 dollars annually for hot water passed through beans. From that perspective it just does not seem wise.

It also occurs to me that no one has privately stepped up to offer providing coffee for the church. There are people who attend who could. It just seems to me that putting such emphasis on coffee is not focusing on the main thing. If we have to have something to be at our best, then we are connected improperly to it. It is my understanding that I am not to be addicted to anything but God. I wonder what would happen if the leadership provided a sermon on the bean?

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a home owner. He brings new and old things out of his treasure store."