Does a Grande Pumpkin Spice Latte Really Belong in a Worship Service?

It’s a humorous exchange, and one that I thought of when I read about a recent tweet from Minnesota pastor John Piper that, for some reason, went viral. On September 30, Piper <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnPiper/status/1708240310495527147" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">posted this on X</a> (the platform formerly known as Twitter that makes me think of Prince every time I type this disclaimer): Can we reassess whether Sunday coffee-sipping in the sanctuary fits? “Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” Hebrews 12:28 I don’t follow John Piper (or anyone else) on X, having deleted my account nearly a year ago, so I didn’t see it when it was first posted. In fact, I would have never heard about it had it not caused a firestorm of response from the wing of the Church that clearly considers coffee a sacrament. This, as you would expect, caused a similar firestorm of counter-response from those who support Piper’s view. At first, I considered the whole thing a tempest in a coffee mug. It seems like there are a few more pressing issues facing the Christianity today, such as plummeting church attendance, splits within denominations, and an increasing number of people who don’t even believe in God anymore. Given all that, I put the question out of my mind and moved on to writing a… <a href="https://paulcombs.medium.com/does-a-grande-pumpkin-spice-latte-really-belong-in-a-worship-service-61f88fc33b5c">Read More</a>