Food Truck Church

The latest craze in food seems to be food trucks. Personally, I don't get it.  I have been to some of the most interesting restaurants around the world, and most places I choose, my friends won't eat with me. I love little hole-in-the-wall places that are locally owned.  Most of them wind up on the dirtiest restaurant segments of the news, but the food is good. So my friends won't venture into a place like that with me, but a food truck pulls up and everyone thinks...how great is this!!! Really? A truck? Just because it serves "gourmet" food, it must be clean.
I remember when the only food truck was Dots on the Dot, the little pick-up truck converted to cafeteria, driving from construction site to golf courses. Of course they didn't cook anything, but they delivered food from a truck. Now we take a converted UPS truck, install a kitchen and people go crazy.
It made me think of a new idea for the church. The Church Truck.
We can take our church on the road. Imagine the possibilities. What if we had church truck events where all the church trucks came to one mall parking lot on a Sunday and people got to choose which truck they went to. You could visit one truck for prayers, another for a fun, comical sermon, and another that serves freshly baked bread for communion. Advertising is everything, so imagine what the trucks would look like. You would need a catchy name, an awesome paint job, and of course great coffee.
Maybe this will be the next big thing for churches. Mobile church.
Now if you think about it for a minute, it's not such a wacky idea. We take the church into neighborhoods. Just like the ice cream trucks, we could play hymns from a speaker on top of the roof so people would know we were coming. Maybe that part is a bit over the top. Forget the hymns.
But the idea of taking the church to the neighborhoods isn't such a bad idea. What kind of truck would you drive?

Join MY Club!

Last week was bike week in Daytona Beach. I saw a motorcycle group on the road all decked out in appropriate motorcycle garb. Leather stuff with metal studs, boots, bandanas, etc.  On their vests was a cross and the name of their "club".  They were a Christian motorcycle club.  This made me think of all the "clubs" and groups we form as Christians.  Christian Skaters, Christian Bikers, Christian Surfers, Christian Business Owners, and many more you have seen.
I thought the only "Christian Club" we needed was the church.
How do these groups form? Do we as Christians get so tired of hanging out with non-Christian people that we have to make our own club exclusive of those who are not Christian? There are complete communities of Christians living apart from the "secular" world. The church calls them Hallelujah communities. Really? I think we used to call those groups cults.
Our church ran a promotion for Superbowl Sunday. If you throw a party and invite your neighbors, you can get a really good deal on 50 wings from a local restaurant. Sounds good? People asked why they couldn't get the deal if they invited all their church friends. Only 2 families participated.
In a leadership meeting, as discussions of events to reach the community took place, the conversation kept coming back to "but what are we doing for OUR people?"
This is where we are as the church today. It seems the church is frustrated with trying to evangelize the world. Let's just get together and talk about how hard it is to be in the secular world. I don't want to join   a motorcycle club with profanity and drinking. It would be too hard to be an example within that group. I know! I will form my own group of Christian motorcyclists. I guess it goes something like that.
As we separate ourselves from the world, the world separates itself from us. I think it is much more difficult to get someone to join the "Christian Biker" club, than the club founded by Christian people who set an example in leadership.
I am a restaurant owner who operates a restaurant as a Christian. It is not a Christian restaurant. (although that would be fun to design a menu for) It is a restaurant with family values and people who pray for the customers every day. You don't have to be a "Christian business" if you are a business run by Christians. One sounds exclusive, the other can be used to evangelize through honest relationships. A friend of mine who runs a missions organization promotes Business as Mission. For one example, in areas where you can't evangelize, they send in business owners who are Christian to buy coffee from farmers in remote areas. The business deals offer them a way to reach people and develop relationships.
We need to re-focus on going out into the community and stop expecting them to come to us. We can't reject the world and then expect them to believe how loving we are. Challenge yourself to go outside the Christian community. Invite a co-worker to Easter services this year. This is one of two times people go to church that normally wouldn't.  Don't put up a bunch of signs and expect them to come. Go and invite them.