Death of a Church

I was in a historical town today spending time with my wife and daughter. We were having a great time just going from shop to shop browsing mostly but also buying a few items on the spur of the moment. It was then my wife brought up to me if I would like to go by the church in town to pick up some coffee. Now you might be thinking, yeah our church serves coffee too, but here's the thing...the church was no longer a church, it was a coffee house. I had heard about this church before from other people and I must say as a huge fan of coffee and also as a called, ordained, licensed minsiter of the gospel having served in churches for the last 14 years, I was intrigued to step inside this church and take a look inside. This experience was quite bitter/sweet as I approached this building that looked just like a church on the outside with the whole stained glass windows and everything. As I entered the church building, it was full of young people and other individuals hanging out with their lap tops sipping on their prefered latte. I could not help but think "what happened to this church?" "when was it that this church lost it's saltiness?" "Did the church lack these same young poeple and impact on it's community?" As I sat and waited on my hot libation to be prepared, I sat back and thought, "without vision, the people parish." Well the coffee house had vision all right, and they did a good job of creating an environment in which to serve up their vision. Could it be that the church you are in today, could be changed into a coffee shop where the only signs of what Jesus did is a lonley little cross in a dark corner of the room? Or a T-shirt on the wall asking the question, "What Would Jesus Brew?" Let me end with this thought...if we as Christians will not be transformed, our churches will be...into coffee shops, bars and banks!

Way of the Pastor,
Joe Drew