Cartoon of a guy eating a sub sandwich in a church pew while a disapproving elderly woman looks on. the caption reads, “It all began when they allowed coffee in the sanctuary…”
I thought of this idea when I saw a lively forum discussion about allowing or refusing coffee in a church’s sanctuary. Some were vehemently opposed to such nonsense. Others were insistent that all parts of the church should be welcoming and as long as it wasn’t a distraction, why not?
Personally, I bring my coffee with me into the sanctuary. There was a time this was a no-no in our church. But we let go of that controversy years ago. I haven’t seen anybody bring a full meal into the sanctuary.
When I was younger, I thought of having a pizza delivered into the sanctuary (That would have been a major faux pas then). Hey! if it’s good for the youth group, it would be good for the rest of the church, right? Fortunately, young love and marriage kept me from such foolishness before I had the money to try such a stunt.
It does amaze me how little things like this can get people worked up. We focus on these little irritations because it is so much more difficult to focus on the difficult issues. It’s much more difficult to love your neighbor than to have an opinion on coffee/church etiquette.
I drew this for the February, 2014, Church of God E-newsletter.
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