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Some welsh cakes I made - image (c) Ryan Cartwright CC:By-SA

Could something as small as a cake make a difference to your church?

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Gal 6:9-10 NIV

At the weekend just passed and in honour of St David’s day I baked some welshcakes for our church. Baking cakes for church is something my wife (mostly) and I (occasionally) started doing on a weekly basis during Lent 2011. It was part of an attempt to revive the coffee time that happens after the main church service on a Sunday and inspired by what became the Give up bad coffee for lent campaign. I posted a photo of the welshcakes and it seems this inspired others to make some to take to their church.

Growing up in church in the (ahem) 1970s I recall that homemade cakes were often a feature of the refreshments/social bit after the service. I’ve visited many different churches over the years and have noticed that in the past ten years the cakes have disappaeared. Usually replaced by a tin (or even paper plate) of biscuits which may or may not have some rubbery ones at the bottom. There’s nothing wrong with biscuits but I’d like to encourage you to think about making (or even buying) a cake to take to church. Why not do it for lent? I wonder if cakes were dropped in an attempt to move away from the twee image the church has acquired, images of a victoria sponge with green teapcups spring to mind. There’s nothing wrong with moving with the times – indeed the GUBC4L campaign is to encourage churches to do that by serving decent fresh coffee – but don’t overlook the power of a cake in generating some coversation and fellowship.

As an example I’ll mention that the refreshments time at our church was generally well attended by about half the people there. They’d stay for a drink and then drift home afterwards. Once we introduced fresh coffee and then cakes, more people stayed and stayed for longer, conversations continued and spread. Fellowship happened. I’ll be honest I did not expect that making fresh coffee and baking a cake would have this effect and it would be wrong of me to say it was all down to that. Much of the credit should go to the people at our church who start and have the converations and when we started baking the cakes it was mostly because we just thought people like some cake with their coffee – which it seems they do (who knew?). People are definitely the key here but sometimes we need a bit of a nudge to just tip the balance between dashing home and staying a few minutes longer for a chat. Fresh coffee and cakes are good at that bit.

Sometimes we need a bit of a nudge to just tip the balance between dashing home and staying a few minutes longer for a chat. Fresh coffee and cakes are good at that bit

So, as part of an encouragement to show some gospel hospitality – why not bake a cake this week. It doesn’t have to be a complex one. We’ve found that tray-bakes work really well. Most people don’t want a great slab of cake but a small square of iced sponge or a choclate brownie or a welshcake always seems to go down well with a cofee (or tea). Also another tip is that cakes that can be held in one hand without falling apart and not too sloppy are better. Be aware of allergies and things but if you do have people with something like a gluten intolerance making one they can eat too is just a question of googling for a recipe. Also while we like to try different cake recipies out, I’ve noticed that nobody complains if a tray bake turn up on a regular basis.

Finally- having done this for year – I can tell you that sometimes you just don’t feel like baking, this where the scripture above comes in and don’t forget that there will be others who can make a cake as well. You don’t have to go so far as a rota (if two people make cake there’s just more to eat!) but it’s a great way for people to contribute. Also people bring cakes in on or near their birthday, sometimes leftover cake is brought in. If you can’t bake then look in the cake aisle of your supermarket. A lot of them will do generic “celebration” tray-style cakes now which are cheap and serve this purpose very well.

How’s the coffee at your church? Do people stick around because of it or in spite of it? Does it come with conversation or just a digestive?

Last year – along with some others – I launched a campaign called Give up bad coffee for lent (GUBC4L). Inspired by conversations about posters half-heartedly slapped on church walls, too-cheap-to-be-any-good washing up liquid and of course naff, tasteless (and usually inagreen teacup) instant coffee, the campaign aimed to put a little generosity back into our churches. This is the reason for the questions above. Don’t ignore them, they’re as valid as questions about what songs you sing, Bible version you use or style of preaching you deploy.

Following Lent the GUBC4L name seemed inappropriate so we renamed it to Entertaining Angels. Another term bandied about is Gospel hospitality.

Whatever it is called the idea here is that people coming into God’s house (for whatever reason) should be treated as if they were coming into our own.

Since this idea started we’ve heard stories of churches where people turn up just for the coffee afterwards, where the aroma of fresh coffee (and the lure of a home-baked cake) have sparked conversations and strengthened relationships. In our own church a couple of cafétieres/french presses were donated and we started baking cakes. The result is that the coffee time is popular enough that we have to turf people out as we’re locking up. Hospitality counts, it matters, it doesn’t (or shouldn’t) require an edict from the church leadership and it has the potential to revolutionise church life.

Get involved

If you want to join in then by all means comment here or alternatively show your support by adding the Entertaining Angels Twibbon on your facebook or twitter avatars. You can also use the twitter hashtags #EntertainAngels or #GUBC4L.

The Entertaining Angels (GUBC4L) twibbon.

The Give Up Bad Coffee For Lent twibbon.

This is a follow-up post to the one on Give up bad coffee for lent (which increasingly becoming a misnomer). It’s been good to see support for churches showing their best in their service. I’ve heard reports of churches experiencing increased activity and participation in their post-service refreshments time (or whatever you call the time coffee is served) just by serving fresh coffee. Indeed some have reported that they have people turn up after church just for the coffee! It’s amazing how the smell (and taste) of good fresh-brewed coffee (and maybe the prospect of some cake) can get people together and it’s important to ensure visitors and regulars alike can share in this most vital but oft neglected part of our church service.

But again it’s more than just serving coffee and cake. We have to be welcoming in all things. This does not mean (as I recently read about) “ushering” first-time visitors into an office to await an “official welcome” by the church leader. Neither is it inundating the poor souls with repeated questions about their personal life. The trouble is in our attempts to not do these things we can often go too far the other way. A friend of mine on (and off) Twitter, tweeted the following:

@Kneewax RT @revmaryhawes: Visited a church. Stayed for coffee 15 minutes later no one had spoken to me <<< #gubc4l it's all about gospel hospitality

The first part was @revmaryhawes experience and the second part the response of my friend @kneewax. I like that term Gospel Hospitality so I’m borrowing it. I did a bit of digging around on it though and found some useful articles. One in particular stood out in the context of GUBC4L. Written by David Black in 2005 and entitled ‘Gospel of Hospitality’ it says:

This Gospel of Hospitality invites people to come with their hopes and failures and questions to a place where they will be unconditionally accepted and, over time, brought to an understanding of their failings and God’s forgiveness. It is a place of refuge for the weary traveler. It welcomes the stranger, the neighbor, the pilgrim. Our only motivation is the fact that, being ourselves recipients of God’s hospitality that made us members of His household, we now have the joy of becoming conduits of His hospitality to others. (emphasis mine)

There’s a lot more to that piece so do go and read it. As you’d expect it also quotes 1 Peter 4:9 regarding hospitality “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling” _{1 Peter 4:9 NIV}. Other versions speak of doing so “cheerfully” or “without complaining”. Again though I’m going to come back to The Message and widen the context slightly:

⁸Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. ⁹Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless – cheerfully. ¹⁰Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: ¹¹if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything – encores to the end of time. Oh, yes! _{1 Peter 4:8-11 MSG}

Serve coffee as if your life depended on it? Well yes. Because it’s not just your life. Making somebody welcome could mean a big difference in their life. As Mother Theresa said “We cannot do great things but we can do small things with great love” and “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”.

So how do we respond to newcomers?

Many – better than I – have tried and failed to answer this trickiest of questions so I’m largely ducking out of it here too. Mostly that’s because the how depends upon the where and the who. It’s something we should “play by ear”. We should respond to people as people and not just another new face. They’ve come through our door for a reason, they may not wish to share it but if we are to make their visit worthwhile then how we treat them is vital. This should be a no-brainer but sadly it’s not. All too often we can be too busy running around doing stuff that we forget the people the stuff is for.

I would say that whenever I have been to a church for the first time the coffee time is the place where I have been able to get to know more about it than at any other. The friendly churches are not those that have “newcomer spotters” who prey upon strange faces. The friendly ones are the ones where you are engaged and involved in a non-threatening way. More oftne than not that will happen over coffee making it a decent cup means you have given value to those to whom you are serving it. Serving is where we will “entertain angels unawares”. But we shouldn’t serve our best just on the off chance that this is an angel in dire need of a latte. We should serve our best because the people we are serving are God’s children and because like it or not we are His representatives at that moment, in that place.

You can show your support for Give Up Bad Coffee for Lent via the Twibbon on your facebook or twitter avatars. You can also use the twitter hashtag of #GUBC4L but above all you can show support by being generous, serving your best and showing some Gospel Hospitality.

The Give Up Bad Coffee For Lent twibbon. (c) Ryan Cartwright CC:By

So if you haven’t heard I seemed to have gotten involved in the start of a movement. Okay that’s probably a little over-dramatic but following a rather frantic twitter conversation the other day there has begun a genuine call for change in the Church (particularly the UK). It’s called ‘Give Up Bad Coffee For Lent’ and is named after a joke I made on Twitter. For more information on the birth of this campaign and a great summary of what we’re all on about you’d be better to go read the excellent blog post by @Twurchsteward. Come back here afterwards though

Following the flurry of tweets and the above blog post I decided — in a sudden burst of unilateralism — to create a Twibbon campaign. For those who don’t know a Twibbon is a way of displaying a small logo on your facebook or twitter avatar/profile picture to show support for a cause. To my surprise it has been taken up by several outside of our initial group and for that I thank you. It did also raise several questions and it struck me that the name alone might need some clarification so here are some FAQs:

What do you mean by “bad coffee”? To be honest it varies from person to person but this is about doing our best in service and hospitality. So it’s about taste and quality but not necessarily at the expense of fairtrade etc. So it’s not about particular brands or even types of coffee so much as it is about the attitude behind the provision of coffee. See the next question for more.

Why coffee? It’s not really about coffee but that is a focal point because it’s an area where many a Church needs improvement.This campaign is really about serving people with our best effort. It’s about combating the idea that while we’re happy to get and do the best we can for our own use, in Churches there can be too often an approach of “that will do – it’s just for Church”. What this campaign says is That will not do. as @Twurchsteward says..

> The Bible is fairly clear on the subject of hospitality – my current bible study plan covers passage after passage in the OT commanding Israel to offer the best of their hospitality, to welcome all comers with the very best they have to offer.

and…

> The bible exhorts us again and again to treat others with the generosity, love and welcome that we would wish to receive – why ? Because when we honour each other we honour our Creator – because “when you do this to the least of these, you do it to me” .

But we already serve good coffee? That’s great but does your Church show it’s best in all matters of hospitality? How’s the cleaning, the flowers, the toilet roll? This is about so much more than coffee. It’s about love. If we show our best then people may stick around but honestly if you go into a shop and get treated in a sub standard way — how often do you go back?

So you’re saying the Church should pander to visitors rather than attend to more important things? If you want to put it that way, yes the Church should “pander” to visitors or as you might rephrase it: make them feel welcome. This is God’s house and we are His family by adoption. When people enter your house do you not expect your family to make them feel welcome? Serving decent coffee/tea/biscuits may seem trivial but it adds to a welcoming atmosphere.

What happens after Lent? The Lent but is just an accident of timing. This is really a rallying cry to the Church. In the words of many of my school reports this campaign simply says “Hospitality: must try harder”. Also don’t think this is the responsibility of Church leaders, the hand and the heart serving the cup is as important (if not more so) here as the liquid inside the cup and the person buying the beans.

To end I just want to go back to @Twurchstewards quote about honouring God as we honour each other. It puts me in mind of Matthew 5:14-16 which speaks of us as being the light of the world and not hiding our light under a bushel. Personally I like the way the Message puts it:

> 14 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. 15 If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. 16 Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven Matt.5:14-16 MSG

Isn’t that what we’re talking about here? Let’s be generous with our hospitality. Let’s shine. Let’s give up bad coffee…and not just for lent.

If you want to join in then by all means comment here or alternatively show your support via the Twibbon on your facebook or twitter avatars. You can also use the twitter hashtag of #GUBC4L