A pastor wanted to break his church out of their formal traditions and nudge them in a fresh direction. He sensed that the congregation’s formality was discouraging the local community from walking through the church’s doors. So he began to take small steps to help them change.
One Sunday morning he replaced the lectern with a small, café-style table. Cup of coffee in hand, he walked to the platform and sat at the table to begin his sermon. He didn’t wear his customary jacket and tie.
“Christianity isn’t cleaning ourselves up to come to God,” he said. “It’s coming to God just as we are, in appreciation for what He has done for us. It’s being ourselves before a holy God. That will get people’s attention.”
John, Jesus’ close friend, wrote, “So the Word [Jesus] became human and made his home among us” (John 1:14). But what did His humanity look like?
Jesus was radically inclusive when it came to relationships. In John 2, we see Him enjoying a wedding feast and turning water into wine (John 2:1-12). Later, He threw merchants out of the temple and challenged the religious hierarchy (John 2:13-22). In John 3, He met with an elite religious leader and redefined reality for him (John 3:3). In John 4, He talked to a woman with a bad reputation and the “wrong” bloodline (see John 3:9), fearless of what others would think of Him. He may have even been provoking them intentionally (John 4:27).
The Christian life isn’t just “going to church.” It’s living an authentic life before our friends and acquaintances. Just as Jesus didn’t place Himself above us when He walked this planet, we should never distance ourselves from others. Everywhere Jesus went, He built relationships. That’s real church!
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Luke 11:1-13
More:
Compare how Jesus dealt with the educated religious leader in John 3:1-21 and the “bad girl” in John 4:1-26.
Next:
Do you attend a church? What’s its style? How does your church make people feel welcome? What can you do personally to help others feel welcome?
daisymarygoldr on August 8, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Interesting! So instead of church being God’s house where Christians come to gather around the Lord’s Table, this church is called the coffee house and has a café-style table. I can picture the Pastor observing: “On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took the cup of coffee saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and the caffeine-consuming community. Sip hot coffee; burn your lip and remember me.” And now that marijuana is legalized, I’m sure the coffee table will soon be replaced with a pot-style place to make people feel welcome into the comfy confines of the church. With corrupted consciences, destruction and misery are in their ways —as there is no fear of God before their eyes. Lazy gluttons whose god is their appetite and their minds are set only on earthly things.
The church style given in the New Testament encourages Christians to assemble (not attend) in one place at least once a week for: teaching of God’s word, worshipping, participating in the Lord’s Table, giving and sharing of material possessions, and yes, after the church’s prayer, believers also take time to fellowship with food and connect with each other.
When we obey the Lord’s instructions and follow His pattern, His presence in our midst empowers us to go out into the world, seek the lost and bring them into eternal relationship with God and His House. When Christians depend on caffeine and other gimmicks to welcome others it is a sure sign that God’s presence has been removed from that church.
Nowhere in the passage has John said, Jesus was enjoying the wedding feast. His curt comment to Mary does not indicate the Lord was in a merry-making mood. Rather He was mindful of the time to shed His blood which is symbolized by the wine. He displayed righteous anger in the temple, and did not sin in His anger. He did not make the elite feel comfortable but exposed his ignorance. And had He sipped a cool drink from the well, neither the Samaritan woman nor the entire village would have been saved. What’s the point? The humanity of Jesus was unstained by sin and that’s why He has been set apart from sinners (Hebrews 7:26).
Jesus came to show us the real humanity as God intended and we should follow His example. Church means to be called out and set apart from the world for the Lord to use us in the world. As the church, we preach and practice Christ to welcome others into His Kingdom. When we put on Christ (not jacket and tie or jeans and tees), it is Christ (not coffee) in you and me that will draw others to come to Him and have eternal life.