I will speak tonight at another emerging church. This one in Karlsruhe, Germany is called Kubik - They meet every Friday night for church in their underground coffee shop. Same old thing, not much different from others - the typical set up - modular couches everywhere, coffee shop, the DJ spinning, no pulpit, blank walls for video projection, the CANDLES, the talk about monasteries, the community upstairs, the alternative worship, and . . . the speaker (thats me) who has been asked to share his life with the 80-100 young people that will come tonight. Seen this before. Done this before. But I have to say that the Germans generally do things well and this is no exception.
I also have to confess - this is a lot better than the coffee shop based church service i set up in 1989 in Portland, Oregon- a feeble attempt at best, and one that never had decent coffee . . . But that was a long time ago.
Shannon Hopkins is still traveling with us and helping out with the kids. She was involved in starting Soul Cafe in Texas back in 1997 and is looking forward to tonight.
Some of these young people, says Marc Reichmann, have become believers in Jesus recently and have never seen another church. They would like to hear about other groups around the world - so i will probably weave some of those stories into what i have to say . . and tell them that this is EXACTLY how churches around the world look, and they are just another BORING OLD EXAMPLE. I will no doubt have to challenge them to think differently about church and start being creative enough to allow some new forms. . . . ha ha . . am i mean or what?
No actually, i will just talk about Jesus like I usually do.
This is the pastor Marc. He and his wife Nadine (pouring coffee in photo 1) have been looking after our family for 3 days while we get our broken down vehicle sorted. God is obviously punishing them for something. Marc is also one of the leaders of Jesus Freaks.
Photos lifted from Steve Collins' Small Fire and stretched by me.
