You are right Valerie. Cafes are a good place to promote fellowship. I just wished that fellowship was more about spiritual things than it is temporal goings on. Now our cafe is pretty swanky. Special comfortable and stylish furnishing with the special coffee machines and such. When I am around that environment I keep thinking about how those monies may have been used and still provide a nice, less extravagant place to fellowship.Valerie wrote:A legitimate concern- different 'opinions' out there on all these things- Neil & I served for 8 years in our cafe at our previous church. Since we were there in the initial meetings- the reason the cafe was added was to encourage people to stay after church to help build relationships & fellowship- it was very effective for this- I know in other churches they have agape meals or something else after church somewhere in the church to provide the brothers & sisters to congregate & fellowship- maybe to get to know visitors better, etc- because our present church also has a cafe, we have been able to sit down with people & have coffee and get to know them better- so it's really not just for enjoyment- but fellowship is enjoyable- some people believe Church buildings give God glory- different opinions on this- I can see both opinions as legitimate- the motive of the heart is what God always sees. I cannot always see into hearts in some of these things as Jesus could.Sudsy wrote:
What concerns me about the big dollars flowing in many Christian churches today is the amount kept for our own comforts -
cafes, fancy buildings, extravagant eating, large pastor salaries and the such.
I remember in my youth that we would spend hours fellowshipping after church. Sometimes after mid-night on a Sunday evening. But food in the church ? Not allowed. Today that same Pentecostal church, largest church in the city, not only has a cafe and childrens indoor playground (like MacDonalds) but allows you to bring your beverage into the sanctuary. In our MB church beverages too are transferred into the sanctuary. I suspect next will be theatre seats with drink holders and perhaps foot stools and ushers selling pop corn and such. Perhaps we may have gone a bit too far in this ? What do you think ?
One argument for this is to make outsiders feel welcomed and comfortable. But if the Gospel gets preached according to the scriptures, this comfort will be short lived. Our church gatherings should be quite uncomfortable to an unbeliever, is how I think the scriptures suggest. I still really believe evangelizing was and is primarily meant to be outside the local church. Lead people to Christ where they habit and then bring them in to be discipled. However both my parents gave their lives to the Lord in a local church setting where they became very convicted of their sin and repented. Perhaps I'm being a bit too narrow minded here.
Whoops wandered off topic.