The Word from USA Today

In case you missed it in either USA Today or reprinted in the Mansfield News Journal, this article about church hospitality suggests that eating at church is the "next big thing," and likely to be a real healing influence.

I'm not sure why, but the coffee-and-cookies after church at GFC really doesn't work quite the way it's supposed to. I doubt if it's bad memories—few of the current members remember the awkward announcements when this idea first surfaced (coffee was free for guests but members were expected to pay). Maybe it's the lack of places to sit? Maybe it's the crowd around the window? For whatever reason, the coffee bar isn't fostering the congregational meeting and mixing that we need so much.

The USA Today article seems to be talking about much more substantial food, too—both quantity and quality. Starbuck's is a hard act to follow.

But that's another subtopic

I've always had a deep love for botany—no doubt beginning back in my Boy Scouting days, and nourished by college professors like Barry Commoner. Aside from my distress at (and, alas, complicity in) environmental destruction, global warming, etc., one thing that always strikes me when I look at a plant in its environment is that this is really good stuff! The way a plant or animal is put together and interacts with its environment is beautifully orchestrated, carefully adjusted, and extremely elegant. As a very minor illustration, the BBC website today had a video of octopus tool-making.

Somehow, though, when we Christians get together, our food, music, and most of our other preparations have to be last-minute, low-quality, unplanned, and slapdash, or they are not "of the Spirit." I'm not convinced.

Late-breaking comment

This morning (Tuesday, December 22) I looked back at this comment and sighed. Sunday morning was supposed to be a big, well-organized Christmas extravaganza. Dozens of people put weeks of work into it. And the worship team, whose job it is to lead the congregational singing, didn't get around to making a list of songs for the PowerPoint team until about 9 a.m. Two of the songs were new ones that nobody knew and nobody had the words. But of course, if you listen to the Christian radio station you know them anyhow, right? But hey, if you play guitar, you can't think things up in advance. It's just not spiritual.