One of the coolest things about the cafe is just the atmosphere and the
people who make it what it is. As you walk in you can grab a scone, grab a cup
of coffee, very casual, very comfortable place to be. I see a lot of young families
coming in, sometimes even with their kids, which is really a cool dynamic of the
cafe. One of my great joys and ministries is that I get to host one of our
worship venues. We call it HCC cafe. It's really a casual contemporary place to
worship God. If you make your way into the cafe, which is in the fellowship hall,
what you experience is kind of an intimacy that maybe you don't get
anywhere else in our church. It gives a great chance for folks to get to know
people's names that they otherwise might not have been able to do and the cafe
provides that for them. The reason why we come here on a Sunday is that we just
gather a bunch of people who are in the same boat as us and respond together as
one community and we want to be passionate about our response to God.
And with the energy that the band has, it's a wonderful environment and it's a
blast to be a part of. My whole motive in leading worship for the cafe is can the
congregation experience God in only a way music can? What I notice about people
who come to the cafe is they're passionate about singing to God. What
people sense is that we're just worshiping God in here through music and I
think people are attracted to that. When we launched the video cafe we were afraid
some people might see it as an overflow service but in fact many people have been
able to find that this gathering of 300 people has really become a community.
It's amazing how intimate it feels even when you're watching a video of a live
sermon that's happening across the hallway. Pastor Joe is such a dynamic
engaging speaker that once the video goes on you're locked in. He's able to
relate to that new believer and he's able to relate to that rooted Christ follower
who's been walking with Christ for years and I think that's such a unique
gift that he can preach on a Sunday morning and that wide range of people
can draw things from what what he teaches us on a Sunday morning and it's
the kind of thing that people can relate to week to week. We love it. It's a
casual comfortable place to be and yet at the same time we don't in any way
compromise the majesty of worshiping God. It's just an authentic time where
people actually engage and understand that what they're singing is is to God
and not just a collection of songs to sing before we hear a message. They're
experiencing him. That's what it's all about here in the cafe.
