10.31.29

The other evening, we discussed:

How can you be assured of your salvation?

A couple questions you can ask yourself:

“Are you in constant pursuit of Christ?”

“Is there conviction in your heart?”

As our adult pastor points out, “Proof is in the perseverance.”

10.29.25

The Gospel According To Starbucks

They say hospitality is dead, but I’m not so sure about that. I think people have just forgotten what it means to be present.

The other day, I walked into a coffee shop. You know the one. It’s the one where the baristas wear a green apron. Yeah, that one. The smell of coffee hit me right as I stepped inside, but the barista behind the counter didn’t even look up. She was glued to her phone. I stood there for a good thirty, maybe forty-five seconds before she finally noticed I was standing at the counter. She looked up, smiled, and said, “Good morning, welcome in,” like I had just teleported from another dimension. I shrugged it off, took a seat with a group of friends, and we hung out for about an hour. On my way out, I stopped back by the counter to grab a coffee to go. And guess who was standing there? Yep, you guessed it… the same barista. She looked right at me, smiled again, and said, “Welcome in.” At this point, I wasn’t mad. I was just amused. Because all I could think about was when I worked at Cold Stone Creamery. Back then, we had to sing every single time someone walked through the door. “Welcome to Cold Stone!”

Every. Single. Time.

Didn’t matter if you were mid-scoop. You stopped and you greeted people.

If an ice cream shop can figure that out, surely a coffee giant can too. And to top it all off, when I finally got my coffee, the name on the cup wasn’t Daniel. It said “Dave.” At that point, I thought, maybe God’s using customer service to keep me humble today.

But as funny as it was, that moment stuck with me. It made me realize that hospitality isn’t about saying or even doing the right thing. It’s about being present. You can say “Welcome in” all day long, but if your attention is somewhere else, people can feel it.

That moment reminded me of one of my favorite stories in Luke chapter 10. It’s the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus shows up at their house. Martha’s doing everything right. She’s cooking, cleaning, serving, staying busy with all the good things. But in the process, she misses the moment to simply be with Jesus. Mary, on the other hand, sits at His feet. Fully present. Martha gets frustrated, asks Jesus to make Mary help, and Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better.”

That’s it right there. And maybe that’s the whole point. When we slow down long enough to be present, God starts opening doors we didn’t even know were there.

Later that same day, I went back to that same coffee shop. Same place. Same crowd. But this time, the story went a little differently. A different barista walked up to me and actually started a conversation. “Hey, what are you reading?” he asked. Let me be honest for a second, I’m not the kind of person who’s great at one-on-one evangelism. I’ll talk about my faith all day long, but starting that kind of conversation? That’s not exactly my strong suit. Still, I told him what I was reading, and he said his favorite book was Romans and another one that he “couldn’t quite remember”. That told me he was mostly making small talk, which was fine by me. I nodded and asked, “Are you a believer?” He said, “Yeah, pretty much all my life.” So, I asked him a question that I didn’t really plan on asking:

“What does that look like for you day to day?”

And right there, the whole conversation shifted. You could feel it. The air changed. It was like the room got heavier. He hesitated, took a step back, and you could tell he started looking for a way out. He mentioned something about being a good person and that “we all struggle”. That was about it. I asked him if he had a church home, and we talked for another minute or two, then we went our separate ways. Like I said, I’m not great at evangelism. It doesn’t come naturally for me. But that moment… It wasn’t me. That was the Holy Spirit.

There’s a verse in 1 Peter 3:15 that says, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” And 1 Corinthians 3:6–7 says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.”

That moment wasn’t about me saying the perfect thing. It was about obedience. About showing up. Because every time we step out in faith, even awkwardly, it matters.

C.S. Lewis once said, “My prayer is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.” And maybe that’s where the fight really happens. Not just in churches but in everyday conversations. In moments that test how we live out our faith.

That brings me to something else that’s been on my mind lately:

The great “Christmas Break” versus “Winter Break” debate.

If you live in Sumner County, you know exactly what I’m talking about. On one side, people are saying, “It’s death by a thousand cuts! By all means, it has to be Christmas Break!” And on the other side, people are saying, “Let’s be inclusive.” Some might disagree with me and maybe even call me a left-wing liberal, but here’s the deal… It shouldn’t be that big of a deal. We’ve got over a hundred homeless kids in Sumner County going hungry right now, and we’re busy arguing about what to call a two-week school break. Meanwhile, we keep expecting the government to carry the burden of the cross. That’s not their job. That’s ours. We, the Church, are called to carry the cross of Christ to those around us. We keep waiting on systems and institutions to reflect our faith when Jesus called us to reflect His. Maybe the question isn’t what we call it. Maybe the real question is, “How do we live it out?” 

A friend of mine said something that really stuck with me: “Is this worth flipping tables over?” And honestly, that’s a good question.

At the end of the day, maybe hospitality isn’t dead after all. Maybe it’s just buried under distraction, division, and a culture that’s forgotten how to look up from its phone. We’ve forgotten how to look past our own selfish wants and needs. It’s the all-about-me mentality. Me, me, me. I, I, I.

But when we slow down long enough to be present, God shows up. Sometimes it’s in a conversation with a stranger. Sometimes it’s in a debate about a school calendar. Sometimes it’s just holding the door open for someone. The world doesn’t need louder opinions. It needs better examples.

And that, my friends, starts with us.