Coffee shops are like churches or at least they can be (it's not what you think)

A lot of coffee shops have a lot of things going on. They offer great music. They create environments that could be another place to find happy times. There are special events and community mobilization. These and many other amenities draw all sorts of people to come to these dazzling coffee shops. But what fundamentally makes a coffee shop a coffee shop? Can it be a good coffee shop without these trappings? What is the irreducible, core principle and need to be a good or great coffee shop? It would seem that the central need is coffee. It is the foundation for any good or great coffee shop. These shops may have other elements, but never to the neglect of making and selling coffee. For if you took away coffee from a coffee shop, it would not only keep it from being good or great but it would fundamentally disqualify it as a coffee shop.
In a similar way churches often offer a variety of services and accoutrements. There is a live band, community involvement, inspirational words and lots of fun things to get involved in. There are no end of new and interesting ideas that people in church have about what services the church needs to provide. There is also a never ending stream of practical needs that break the heart of church goers and members demanding the church's involvement and attention. But what is true of good and great coffee shops is also true of good and great churches. Good and great churches must remember what is central to their existence and mission. They may have these other extras but they must be centered theologically and practically on their foundational need. It is not a principle and it is not coffee. It is the person and work of Jesus. It is the character of God and His activity that we celebrate and are fueled by. Having a live band is great if it makes much of Jesus. Community involvement is only good if it makes much of Jesus. All of these extra services and ministries are fine if they point to and glorify Jesus. But if they don't they need to be changed or scrapped. For if upon examination churches find that Jesus isn't really the whole point of what they are about from nursery to youth to preaching to parking lots, they need to repent and change by God's grace or close the doors. For if you remove the foundational person of the church, you cease to be a church.
A lot of people think that making churches more like coffee shops would be revolutionary and world changing. And they might be right. Coffee shops that keep or rediscover what is central to their existence can be good or even great. So can churches. As long as they don't make coffee the most important thing and keep Jesus Christ as the foundation and center of all they are. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Grace and peace,
Matt

Settlling and Seemingly Small Changes

There are times when life forces you to make some changes. They may not be what you want most or even at all. But the changes come nonetheless. A few weeks ago I had the flu for the first time in my life. It was just as bad as everyone said except it was worse since I had it! What was interesting during that week was the strong discouragement from the doctor over drinking coffee. She wanted me to get as much fluid as possible and too much coffee serves as a diuretic. So, for a week: shivering, burning up, aching all over and coffee withdrawals! What I found at the end of that week, besides being incredibly weak, was that I could live without coffee. Heresy I know but it was important for me to recognize. I had been wondering and pretty sure that I was consuming too much coffee. It wasn't usually for the caffeine but mainly I just love the taste and warmth of coffee. What had happened was my body had built quite the dependence that was actually hurting my body. Interestingly enough, that is often how our lives are. We form attachments to good, bad or somewhat neutral things as a normal course of life. These attachments create patterns that can lead to very beneficial effects but without Gospel guards they can have detrimental effects.
We are all people who are driven by love: we long to be loved deeply and we long to love deeply. But when we get our loves disordered, we begin to love small, weak things more than we should. It could be food, exercise, people, work; you name it. Many times we form these unhealthy and unholy attachments little by little. It is the day by day expressions of love and devotion to people, things or ideas that reveal what we really love. This is at the heart of what it means to worship. It is not merely something that we do at a religious service once a week, although it can be expressed there and should. It is the myriad of choices and the life we live that are the primary vehicles to express what we love most. Many times our life intrudes in to give us a heart check.
God in His grace grants sickness, sorrow, loss of job or relationships to let us see what we love most. God also works in a million different little ways each and every day to expose and encourage our love or to reveal where we have misplaced or overvalued certain affections. God's purpose in each day is to draw our hearts back to His. We are called to walk in step with Spirit and to set our hearts and minds on things above. Life may have come at you hard in huge ways this week or this last year or it may have been lots of little challenges or successes. Whichever it has been, there may be changes that God is calling us to so our affection for Him and His glory go up and our love for lesser things goes down. It may be considering what our schedule looks like. Don't just compare how long you read the Bible with other activities. Evaluate your time spent developing your worship of God in all the different ways that genuinely happen: prayer, in community with other Christ followers, serving and sharing in and through the Gospel. Then see how much time, money and attention you pay to other affections. You may find that things are going great and you are passionately pursuing Christ and seeking Him in all you do. But if you are like me, from time to time there will need to be some changes. They may seem insignificant but as Paul Tripp says often it is in these numerous, varied little decisions and actions that we really see growth and change that honors the Lord Jesus. These changes in real life show how impactful the Gospel is in all of life and how valuable Jesus is to us.
So whatever life throws at you, take a look at what you are loving in the midst of it. If it causes loss, you can see how much you really value something or someone. If it brings something new, you can evaluate how much your passion for that compares with your passion for Jesus and His Gospel.