So I was at Starbucks this afternoon. The woman making my coffee behind the counter was someone I'd recently struck up a friendship with. She asked me what I was up to, and I told her I was taking a couple of hours to read and pray about church planting. As she handed me my coffee she pointed out another patron in the shop who was an Episcopal priest launching a new church plant himself.
Of course, this was just too interesting of an opportunity to pass up. I pulled up a nearby chair and began to engage the priest in an interesting and animated conversation about church planting and Overland Park. Maybe ten minutes later another person sitting nearby had joined out conversation. A couple of minutes after that two high school juniors joined our conversation to tell us about the Saturday bible study they had started last weekend. Before the conversation was over, even one of the baristas had taken their break, grabbed a coffee and pulled up a seat to tell us about his church experience. It was the Kingdom come, right there at Starbucks on a Thursday afternoon.
So here's the encouragement for today - next time you're hanging out at your favorite coffee shop (like "It's a Grind" on 151st), make sure to keep your eyes and ears open. I know it's awesome to power up the laptop, fire up iTunes, pop on some great headphones, left-hand clutch a double-mocha chai and get lost in a good book. That's some goodness, but it's not worth missing a Kingdom moment. So heads up!
