Vineyard Xtreme, Lomita CA. This church was much further away than I had expected. I knew that they had there Sunday service in this coffee shop and became intrigued at the outreach possibilities if the church “was” the coffee shop and not just renting Sunday morning space. Alas, I didn’t get a chance to find out. But it seemed like a really cool idea. Talk about really being a functioning part of the community. I remember hearing last summer that one of the local mega-churches, Crossroads, had a really great coffee house on their campus and that that in itself drove “traffic” to the church. So coffee house church, that was the cool thing. Alas, being a bit far was only one reason why I’m not so sure about future involvement.

I hate to admit it, but given my “experience” with long beach vineyard, I am more than a little sensitive about “small fellowships.” I don’t know what it is, but I told a friend that I was feeling tired of being in churches whose “glory days” were in the distant past. Maybe it’s the “shrinking universe” syndrome, and perhaps that’s a result of always being attracted to “under dog” churches. So, the coffee house churches, besides being small, seemed to be mostly one demographic, in this case late twenty-somethings. It’s funny, especially being a long standing solo unattached rogue, but the thing I look for is how many whole families are involved. Ack. Onward and upward. JBB