Coffee Lounge's In Church Lobby's

[Pastor Matt]

I have noticed a growing trend of coffee lounges showing up in church lobbies. I believe this is done for a few reasons:

1. So that people will come early for a service.
2. Fellowship among brothers and sisters in Christ.
3. People stay awake in church. lol

So a couple of questions.

1. Does your church do this?
2. If so where do you have the coffee?
3. What are your thoughts on this?

[HappyChristian]

We don't have coffee in the lobby, although for a while we had a couple of coffeepots at the snack shop counter for folks coming in early to go on their bus routes. It didn't take off (I think everyone was in the habit of bringing their own or not drinking it at all), so it didn't last.

 

We do have a snack shop (as mentioned above) in the multi-purpose building, open after the services on Sun and Thurs pm(it's open other evenings, too).  There is more than coffee available there.    We (meaning me and the other teacher in the 3rd grade class, not everyone) treat our Sunday School kids for their birthdays. There's ice cream, but most of them choose french fries. 

 

The church we were members of before we moved here has a coffee area, but not in the lobby. I'm thinking maybe the lobby isn't the best place for it - it becomes the focus upon entrance, IMO.  I think where they have the area (come to think of it, last time we were there, it looked like it was gone) is good.  There is plenty of room to fellowship, yet that isn't the first thing folks see - so the lobby doesn't look like a cafe.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with offering coffee and fellowship...

[Bro K]

 

I have noticed a growing trend of coffee lounges showing up in church lobbies. I believe this is done for a few reasons:

1. So that people will come early for a service.
2. Fellowship among brothers and sisters in Christ.
3. People stay awake in church. lol

So a couple of questions.

1. Does your church do this?
2. If so where do you have the coffee?
3. What are your thoughts on this?

 

1. No

2. N/A

3. If our hearts and heads are in the right place before arriving at the church house; coffee would be a nonfactor. Many years ago there was no eating/drinking in our churches and kitchens would have been considered as an abomination.

[TheSword]

Our church has a K-5 Christian Academy/School and in the gym/lunchroom area there's a kitchen that looks out into the common area. Someone will usually come in a put out a couple of those tall self-serve coffee tanks so people can get a cup of coffee on the way to their Sunday School/Adult Bible Study. I think it's great. It doesn't detract from anything and people are happy to have some coffee in the morning.

[heartstrings]

God was with the disciples, eating and drinking. He went to Zacheus' house to eat and drink with him. The 5000 ate in his presence. He was in the upper room supping with the 12...........and we will eat and drink with Him in heaven. So I believe eating and drinking with our brothers and sisters at His house, in His presence is in His will.

 

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. Luke 12:37

 

It's all about fellowship......

Our coffee pot is in the fellowship hall. You can come back there and get some whenever you want...if you can stand the stuff

[heartstrings]

1. No

2. N/A

3. If our hearts and heads are in the right place before arriving at the church house; coffee would be a nonfactor. Many years ago there was no eating/drinking in our churches and kitchens would have been considered as an abomination.

Many years ago, down here in Florida, they had "dinner on the grounds" with the ants, gnats and flies. Yuck!  I think it was probably because most rural churches couldn't afford fellowship halls. I don't miss those days.

[Bro K]

God was with the disciples, eating and drinking. He went to Zacheus' house to eat and drink with him. The 5000 ate in his presence. He was in the upper room supping with the 12...........and we will eat and drink with Him in heaven. So I believe eating and drinking with our brothers and sisters at His house, in His presence is in His will.

 

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. Luke 12:37

 

It's all about fellowship......

Our coffee pot is in the fellowship hall. You can come back there and get some whenever you want...if you can stand the stuff

For those who comes only to the preaching service; they can stop off and get their coffee and biscuit/gravey and eat while the Preacher is preaching (or whatever he does).

[DaveW]

Not a coffee lounge, but we have an urn and the fixings for tea and coffee set up on a table at the back. But no-one gets coffee until after service, and not everyone does after. And it is free.
coffee and fellowship.

every church I have been to does this...... for the past 30 years.

Occasionally the homeschool group will meet in some church facilities and many of them - non-IFB -have café setups.
not sure I like the full thing like that.....

[Invicta]

My wife and I do tea and coffee after the morning service.  Someone also does refreshments after the evening service.  We do not charge for it or for anything else for that matter.  We have a mothers and todlers group and we do not charge for that or for the refreshments.  The parents often ask if we can have a donation plate but we refuse, but the parents often bring biscuits, probably from the m,arket on their way, as it is the same day as toddlers.

[Invicta]

We once visited a church in France that had a coffee break in the middle of the service.  I thought that was strange, but soon after I visited a Baptist Church here that did the same.

[JerryNumbers]

One church I was with the 1st one to church in the morning would make a pot of coffee.

 

Usually it would be the pastor or I & we would be early. And we would drink a cup of coffee & have some wonderful Bible discussions, I miss that.

 

And after we got up to go to our Sunday school classes some would stop off getting a cup of coffee. I never notice that it did anything to take away from our services. If it had I would have objected to it. I believe other churches can do the same thing & it can work out OK. Yet if it ever starts to interfere with the church service in any manner it would be time to stop.

 

OH, never did I see anyone bring a cup of coffee into the sanctuary, I believe its a good idea to keep such stuff out of there. I just don't belie setting listening to the pastor & drinking coffee or anything else is a good idea.

[Bro K]

Is there really any difference between the sanctuary and a sunday school room?  Are both not used for the same purposes?  Some would say that the sunday school room is for teaching and the sanctuary for preaching. I believe that whenever and where ever the children of God are congregated the Word should be taught to them not preached to them.

[Invicta]

Is there really any difference between the sanctuary and a sunday school room?  Are both not used for the same purposes?  Some would say that the sunday school room is for teaching and the sanctuary for preaching. I believe that whenever and where ever the children of God are congregated the Word should be taught to them not preached to them.

 

I don't see a "sanctuary" mentioned in scripture.  In bible times the church met in houses, not in sanctuaries.  The holy place is the body of believers, not the building.

[Bro K]

I don't see a "sanctuary" mentioned in scripture.  In bible times the church met in houses, not in sanctuaries.  The holy place is the body of believers, not the building.

True. One of those words we use; just as we use the word 'rapture', which is not in the Bible.  I believe the body of believers is referred to as the church; which is also not a building.

[robmac68]

We have a small room at the back of the church where there is coffee and hot water.  It has been there for a little over ten years.  It doesn't cause any issues.  Nobody drinks in the sanctuary (auditorium) during church services.  Before I came, their sunday school was just another preaching service in the sanctuary.  I changed that and we now meet downstairs in the kitchen.  I make another pot of coffee, (because the one upstairs is decaf), we have danish or donuts and we use a sunday school book from Clearence Sexton or Paul Chappell (Tom Malone would be dissapointed).  The members get to discuss the lesson, ask questions and learn...more like "school" type setting. 

 

I have been to a few churches and they were always the come in, sit down, shut up while I preach and go home type churches.  Even sunday school was like that and I couldn't understand why it would be called "school".  All 4 services, SS, Sunday morning and evening, and even Wed. Bible study and prayer meeting was like this.  We couldn't ask questions because this would distrupt the Holy Spirit from talking to someone and a person wouldn't be saved because you asked a question.  Seemed very formal and cold.  Very rigid.  Could not find in God's Word where church was supposed to be like that. 

 

My sister and her husband went to a small church in Wheeling.  A couple asked to be able to put a coffee pot out front for people to enjoy before the service.  Soon, the service would start and people would still be drinking coffee and talking.  They would come in late and disrupt the service.  The pastor then removed the coffee pot.  This caused a big church split led by my sister's in-laws.  The in-laws left the church with 10-15 people with them and separated from my sister and her husband for a time.  Where did they end up?  The church where I am.  What did they do shortly after they got there?  Put in a coffee pot.  So a coffee pot could cause a split.