CREEDE HINSHAW: The waiting line wasn’t at the church

A couple of weeks ago, we worshipped at a church in Denver, Colo. The worship service was inspiring. But that’s not what caught my attention that morning.

It was our trip to the church that left me thinking. We had no car and a fierce Denver hailstorm had wiped out the city’s fleet of rental cars before we arrived. So we used Uber to get to church.

When we climbed in the car, the driver saw the address we were headed and guessed (wrongly) that we were headed to one of Denver’s most popular breakfast restaurants. The restaurant, Snooze, was right next door to the church.

What I couldn’t get out of my mind was that the Uber driver recognized the street address of the restaurant rather than the next door church. Granted, there are seven days per week when he could drive people to breakfast and only 1-2 days per week when he might get a fare for the church. Nevertheless, I was jealous! I wanted him to recognize that address for what it was: a vibrant community of faith!

When we arrived at the church, the first thing I noticed was that the breakfast restaurant Snooze had a line of customers that stretched down the street to the intersection and snaked around the corner. That was impressive! This retired pastor wanted to see that same kind of line waiting to get inside the church doors. The sanctuary held a scattered assortment of people, but nothing like what was going on next door.

After church was over, walking outside, the same length of line was still queued for breakfast as there had been an hour earlier. Three young adults were sitting in the church lawn and I suspected they hadn’t been in worship, so I sat down in the grass to talk to them. Yes, they were waiting for their breakfast reservations, holding an electronic buzzer that alerts you when your table is ready.

I wondered if the pastor had ever attempted to establish any kind of partnership with Snooze. It could have operated on a many levels. Maybe a church bulletin could get a restaurant customer a discount after church. Or maybe the church coffee, served in fellowship hall, could be sponsored by Snooze once a month. Or maybe, even more daring, customers could make their table reservation and then come to church, with the church, the customer and Snooze acknowledging that a customer, upon notification, might get up in the middle of the worship service. Who knows, maybe a little bit of church would be better than none at all.

We didn’t eat at Snooze; the line was too long. We were richly fed that morning right across the street and, if we return to Denver on a Sunday, I’ll worship there again. But next time I’m going to figure out a way to spend time on both corners.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].