Rate This Article
Author: Eric Guy, eric.guy(at)iaumc.org
Iowa Conference Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries
Date submitted: February 15, 2005
(The material on this page is used by permission of the named author. It remains the creative property of the author. Permission is granted for use by youthworkers in their non-profit local ministry setting. Other use or publication should only be by permission of the author.)
I had a great cup of coffee last week and in the process was again challenged to rethink my idea of church. I met up with a friend that I had lost touch with over the last several years. He was back in Iowa and tracked me down. We met on a Sunday afternoon at a local coffeehouse and spent the next 4 hours catching up. We also spent 4 hours observing others who came and went, or came and stayed at this coffeehouse. I don't often spend 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon at a coffeehouse and I'm guessing not many of you do either, but maybe we should. We could learn a lot about the church - or at least what the church could be.
In the course of those 4 hours I saw 2 young men who arrived with their chessboard and spent the next couple hours playing chess and drinking coffee. I watched a young couple with an infant discussing their upcoming week's schedule over coffee. I saw 3 college students engrossed in studying and conversation and coffee. I saw a group of young professional women in a business meeting over coffee. Some people came in alone and read the newspaper, or a book, or listened to music.
In a recent article in SAM (Strategic Adult Ministry) Journal entitled "Cafés of Community", Billy Coburn compares the sense of community - a "third place" - that young adults, find in a place like Starbucks to what they typically don't find in churches. He asks the question, "Wouldn't it be awesome if our churches and ministry centers were automatic 'third space' places of community?"
Some are! Drop in sometime at Colony 320 - a new United Methodist ministry in the Easter Lake area of Des Moines. Stop by the "Holy Grounds" coffeehouse in Smith Chapel at Simpson College or at any of our four United Methodist related colleges where young adults gather. Wander into the 'faithspring' service - a ministry of Collegiate UMC and ISU Wesley Foundation - some Sunday night. Drop in at one of our Wesley Foundations for Sunday Night Suppers or Jazz worship, or Bible and Bagels or just to visit in a comfortable environment. In any of these places you'll find they offer community - a place to study, a place to gather, a place to have conversation - community of a different sort than in many of our churches.
When was the last time young adults came to your church just to hang out? When was the last time someone brought a chessboard to church or spent the afternoon in study and conversation or came to just read or listen to music or drink coffee?
If you're involved in that kind of church - one that provides that kind of community - let me know. That's the kind of church I'm looking for.