Panera wanderings

Every Sunday morning, Beth and I arise and head to Panera bread before we head off to the busyness that Sundays are becoming in our house, with worship practice, Sunday School, leading worship, youth group and our small group. (If it's this busy this spring, I don't what I'm going to do when the Steelers play in the Fall...we might have to think about having youth some time other than Sunday afternoon/evenings!!). Anyway, we use an hour or so on Sunday mornings to catch up, talk about our joint readings, really listen and hear what's going on in each other's lives and drink coffee. Lots of coffee. This way, by the time we get to church, we're ready to roll, both because we're hopped up on caffeine and because we've been reminded how much we love each other. Last Sunday was no exception, but as we headed out of Panera around 9 AM, I realized something that I've never noticed before: There were a LOT of people in Panera, and unlike us, they weren't heading out the door on their way to worship. In fact, many of these heathen were simply drinking coffee, surfing the Internet, reading the comics, etc. Many of them had no idea that they were pagans.

Alright, I don't really think that people who sit in Panera Bread on Sunday mornings are pagans or heathen. In fact, as we left my heart broke for the people who were left in Panera because they didn't know what they were missing. As we headed off to worship the Almighty God, to fellowship with other believers, to be encouraged and strengthed and challenged by the Word of God, many people sat by themselves in Panera and had no idea that what they were missing. I wonder why people show up to Panera by themselves on Sunday morning. Do they realize that they need fellowship and connection with others, but the best place that they can find it is sitting in a busy coffee shop? Have they been hurt by the institutional church in such a way that they'll never go back? Has the church promoted religion without power so that they don't even realize that their missing something? Have we offered people a watered down version of Christianity that means little, so little that people would rather hang out in Panera than encounter the God we pander?

I believe that a true, life changing encounter with God shakes people's worlds. I believe that when we understand God in the presence of ecclesia we are not the same. But many churches don't offer a life-changing encounter with God. Many churches don't know how to welcome new people into true fellowship. Many churches offer religion without freedom from sin and bondage. Many churches offer cheap grace that means little. Many churches have failed those people who sit in Panera on Sunday mornings because we have failed to remember that our programs are not God-instead they should be the witness of the power of God in the world. Too many of our churches have become a shadow of what they could be because we've forgotten to work with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, somehow thinking that we in ourselves have enough to offer. We've become a "dead sect," having the "form of religion without the power." And because of that, people sit in Panera bread on Sunday mornings not knowing what they're missing.

We can offer God. We can offer transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit. We can offer life-changing, situation-changing, sin-breaking, freeing power that comes through Jesus Christ. We can offer koinonia, true fellowship. We, as the people who bear the name of Christ, can offer something that would shake people from their coffee-loving, bagel eating seats. Too often, though, we're happy just to do our thing and forget about the people at Panera. Bishop Scott Jones says that our churches are ready to do evangelism-if the 1950's ever roll around again. We need to remember the people who need Jesus. We need to take seriously the call to make Disciples to all ends of the earth, even Panera. We need to believe that, because of Jesus, we have something to offer, and we need to live that out in our worship, our fellowship and our preaching. Let's shake people out of coffee-shops and cafes on Sunday mornings and show them something that can get them going, even more than outrageous amounts of caffeine-true encounter with God.