Yesterday I had breakfast with Greg Koukl from Stand To Reason who was in town speaking at Twin Lakes Church. While we were at the restaurant, I picked up the local entertainment weekly paper that is the popular one in our town. I heard that our church's coffeehouse The Abbey won the "Best New Coffeehouse" award and the paper that came out yesterday listed the winners.
I found the description of what it said about us in the paper and it read:
"Friendly baristas, expresso drinks that pack a punch and plenty of plush sofas and chairs to crash on have made this shabby chic cafe an instant hit with a cadre of Westsiders who come here to study or just gab it up.
And though it's in a church, it's a hippie church, and the evangevibe blessedly under wraps."
A hippie church! (Is it is hippy or hippie?) I never would have imagined being called a hippie church. But I did find it interesting that our evangelical beliefs (evangevibe as it was written) are known to be there - but for the coffeehouse it is "blessedly under wraps". That has been our hope and heart as we opened up the coffeehouse. It was amazing at finals week seeing what must have been 70 students crammed in there studying for finals. The coffeehouse is actually part of the church building itself. So people are coming in.
Sara, the manager of the coffeehouse shared in a staff meeting how over the past 3 weeks she has been in worship gatherings on Sundays and seen people whom she met in the coffeehouse who don't go to a church - come to the worship gatherings. I also met a young girl after a morning gathering who told me it was her very first time at one of our gatherings and first time ever in a church. That she isn't a "Christian" but became curious about what we are doing and the church after being in The Abbey for a while and finding it a space she could relate to and that she enjoyed talking with the baristas and trusted them and the place. So, if we are a "hippie church" that is OK by me - if people are experiencing some trust in "church" and "Christians" and stereotypes broken.
