We go to a coffee house

Hillside Church / The Living Room Coffee House, Marysville, Washington
Is Twitter just the Hellmouth, or Hell itself? Turns out, when people have the opportunity to anonymously spew venom about a variety of topics, many will take it.

On the other side of the debate, I’ve seen some good things can happen on Twitter. For instance, Twitter introduced me to Andy and Hillside Church in Marysville, Washington.

I generally post links to our church visits, and after we’d been to several Seattle churches, he messaged me about getting together to visit the church he attends.

We arranged to meet at the church with plans for lunch afterward (somewhere he could watch the Seahawks). When we got to the door of the building, we were given programs and a woman approached us saying, “You must be Andy’s friend!” She introduced herself as Andy’s wife, Andrea, and told us they’d driven to church separately. Andy would be arriving soon.

While we waited, she gave us a tour of the building, starting with the Great Room, where the worship service would be starting soon. It had rows of chairs, but also couches and easy chairs as well as a few round tables around the edges of the room. Andrea showed us the classrooms (all with coffee-related names), and finished the tour in the Living Room Coffee House.

The coffeehouse is open all week long from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and it’s a central part of the ministry of the church. Mindy ordered decaf (there was drip coffee available for free), and we had some of the bagels and donuts set out for the morning’s service.

Andy arrived and we chatted for a bit before the service started. Actually, we got into the Great Room a little late because of the chatting.

Andy and Andrea have been part of Hillside for the last two years. Previously, they’d attended a small church in North Seattle, but they wanted to go someplace closer to home. They had been going to a small church in north Seattle but decided to go someplace closer to home, where they could see other people from church during the week and not just on Sundays.

Around the same time, Hillside Church moved from a strip mall into a church building. The challenge was to make the church building more like a coffee house. Andy’s comment about it indicates their success: “People find the church by going to the coffeehouse…That’s how we found it.”

When I went into the Great Room after chatting, the singing had already begun. We sang choruses, “Closer” and “Tremble” and then Brandon gave some announcements. He gave the word of the day, “Persevere.” (Though someone in the congregation had guessed aloud the word would be “Welcome,” the word on the screen and definitely appropriate from our experience of the church so far.)

Commenting on an event the next Saturday night designed for families with children at home, Brandon said, “So if you have a kid who puts things in the toilet...You’ll probably find another parent who can relate to that.”

The “Pause” time followed the announcements. People were encouraged to put their offering in the box in the back, along with their connection cards, and to get some coffee and chat with each other for a few minutes. Parents of small children had the opportunity of taking their kids to one of the classrooms for Sunday School. That’s when I had the chance to meet Mike. He and his wife Kim (who usually does announcements) are co-pastors of the church. He’s bivocational; during the week he manages a golf course.

Once everybody had sat back down, Pastor Mike continued a series on “Soul Food,” examining the ways we receive nourishment from God. He summarized the previous two weeks’ messages, mentioning that the “food” discussed then had been more what people expect: Scripture and prayer. This Sunday he preached on listening to God. He said prayer could be a way God speaks, but there are other ways we can listen to God.

He went to Matthew 4, the temptation of Jesus, and noted that living on the Word of God isn’t just about Scripture (though that is an important). Our problem, he said, is that we don’t believe God has something to say to us. God does have something to say to us, and whatever He has to say will not conflict with His written Word. We need to have back and forth communication with Him because that is the only way to develop intimacy.

In Jeremiah 33: 3, God says, “Call to me and I will answer you.” God wants that conversation.

Mike said that God will address us through circumstances, but at times we need to step back from our circumstances to understand what He might be saying. God speaks to us through our thoughts, logic, and our consciences. God can speak to us through other people, and not just through the best of people -- sometimes our critics have important things to say to us.

Sometimes people look for God’s voice in silly places (he mentioned The Bible Code craze when people studied Scripture using numerology).

Sometimes God speaks to us in unusual ways. Mike told a great story about his call to ministry, the only time God spoke to him in a big way. At a youth camp, the speaker had asked those who were called to ministry to stand. And he felt himself standing, even though he hadn’t known he was going to stand. He tried to sit down, and couldn’t. He looks back at this time as a direct intervention of God in His life.

After the service, I asked a few people about what they appreciate about Hillside Church. During the service, we’d enjoyed watching a couple of little kids, the offspring of Matt, who was sitting in the same row we were. Matt said he appreciated that the church is “community driven… I like that it’s small. It’s friendly and diverse, not a majority old or a majority young.” The church strived for a casual and homelike feel, and people appreciate that.

During lunch with Andrea and Andy at a nearby Bob’s Burgers (not to be confused with the animated series). Mindy enjoyed talking with their delightful daughters (she generally feels more comfortable with children). After our time together, I was especially thankful that, for all its flaws, Twitter had been the mechanism for a good thing. Thanks, Twitter! Even more, thanks, God!