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I didn't intend to be a once-a-week barista at our local coffeeshop. It happened like this.

One morning my wife was going into the local coffeeshop to interview for a very part-time job to help cover the cost of her return to college. Just before she walked out the door, without much forethought, I asked her to see if the owner would let me work one night a week with her. We were both surprised when he seemed to think this would be a good idea.

Surprised, because I'd never met the owner, didn't drink coffee, and couldn't tell the difference between a latte and a cappuccino if its frothy mug was staring me in the face.

Not surprisingly, after working there three years, I've learned a lot about coffee.

Somewhat surprising are the connections I've observed between the coffeeshop and the local church where I'm a pastor.

Our church is a highly structured and very busy suburban environment where spontaneous interaction with friends rarely happens. Just getting together with some folks is an exercise in long-range planning!

At the coffeeshop, however, I can count on bumping into someone who will be up for some conversation. It could be the Russian immigrant who is finishing up his computer science degree. Or the stay-at-home dad looking for some adult contact. Or a college student happy to be off-campus.

Our church offers a lot of really good things for its members. But as the church grows, it's hard to maintain the spontaneity that characterizes smaller churches (and coffeeshops).

If we believe the church community is the sum of its people, and if we believe that relationships are not something that can be programmed, then we do well to consider how to create margins in church life for spontaneous relational moments, similar to those that attract people to the coffeeshop.

Not only don't I know who I'll bump into at the coffeeshop, chances are, they won't look like me. While many churches tend to attract people who are similar, the coffeeshop doesn't have a target demographic. You don't even have to like coffee; we welcome tea and smoothie people too!

One night while working a couple months ago, I introduced one of our regulars to a friend from church. For the next two hours these new friends, one a twenty-something artist and the other a single mom of two college-age kids, sat at a table listening to each other's stories.

Where else do soccer moms mingle with Goth kids dressed for the Friday night show? Or young, upwardly mobile commuters interact with a homeless man? Or a local pastor (me) interact regularly with anyone outside the church?

The building at our church has been planned efficiently. After all, we want to be good stewards of our space. There are a couple of name-brand coffeeshops in our town that seem to have similar thinking: you enter, you find yourself in line, your order your beverage, and you head out the door. It's in and out.

Our little independent coffeeshop does things differently. Frankly, we're not efficient. We talk to our customers too much; catching up since we last saw each other. We serve our coffee in mugs (unless they ask for it "to go"), which seems to keep folks around longer.

And worst of all, we've cluttered the shop with comfortable sofas, armchairs, and coffee tables. It's hard to get out. It suggests customers are supposed to linger, talk, rest.

Our church activity centers around our once-a-week worship gatherings. A lot of great stuff happens on Sunday mornings that has been planned in advance. But there's one time, a no-man's-land, that I always look forward to for its very lack of planning. It's the time before, between, and after our services. This is the time when stories are told. When friends are introduced to new friends. When the visitor is invited to connect.

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