Are food and drink permitted in your church assembly area?

You can bring water in my Church.
Faithgirl

 

Take a look at the times Jesus taught. Jesus spent a lot of time with people eating.

The modern-day worship service is nothing like the house churches of the NT.

 

Sometimes if the service goes late, I wouldn't mind ordering out KFC.

 

There is nothing holy about a church building. Some people confuse "church" with a building. That's not the church. The church is the assembly.

But if you have nice carpeted floors and padded pews, you probably want to limit the food and drink to the lords supper. I don't see anything wrong with drinking water during a service, especially during hot months.

In our sunday school classes, we have breakfasts (donuts, coffee, chocolate milk, etc...). But when we go into the "sanctuary", you would rarely see anything beyond water.

 

Agree -- The church are the people, not the building.

Disagree -- There's nothing "holy" about the building. Sorry, there should be. The sanctuary is set apart for worship.

The argument of not eating and drinking during worship services is more than just protecting the assets. That's the least of it. It has to do with the focus of worship.

We are to be an active participant in the worship of our God. We sing hymns. We pray. We read the Scriptures. We actively listen to the Word. It's hard to do that with a donut in one hand and a cup of coffee in another. We are not there to sit and be entertained.

Yes, there is a time for fellowship, but not during worship. Before or after though, please pass the coffee (no cream or sugar for me) and pass the donut (only one, but Krispy Kreme if you have those).

 

We have a combination gym/worship canter. Just got new indoor/outdoor carpet 4 months ago. They had a children's program and served that good old Baptist standby, red punch. Needless to say, they spilled it all over the carpet and so far, we haven't been able to find anything to remove the red stain.

 

Wally,

you might have to pour red punch all over the rest of the carpet so it all matches!

 

Oh, Wally....our Baptist standby is powdered lemonade (blech!)

 

Saggy, I would add to your post. Just a suggestion.....how about.....recliners for everyone with a big gulp holder built into them?

Cindy

 

Good idea. Who declared that the seating should be hard and uncomfortable?

I usually bring a drink of some sort to sip on and no one has told me I cannot do so. I do not drink during the sermon because i am to busy taking notes.

 

Not a fan of food in the sanctuary.

I understand that this isn't the Temple, where cleansing rituals are required, but it just always seemed a little disrespectful to me.

Now, having said that, sometimes I'll hide a little bottle of water when I'm singing.

Yes, I'm a hypocrite. I know.

Many years ago, I attended Fountain of Life in Burlington, NJ, on the side.

When they built their new sanctuary in '88 or '89, it was unbelievable. It was just insanely beautiful.

It wasn't one month before I started to notice little stains on the new pews from where people had brought food and drinks in.

Fortunately, Pastor Graban (Sr.) put a stop to that.

Of course, not long after that, the production company I was with at that time produced a show with Charlie Peacock and Buddy and Julie Miller (believe it or not, at that time, nobody knew who Buddy Miller was...he was just there backing up his wife) and nearly destroyed their brand new, beautiful sanctuary, including two pews.

 

Originally posted by Mike McK:

"Of course, not long after that, the production company I was with at that time produced a show with Charlie Peacock and Buddy and Julie Miller (believe it or not, at that time, nobody knew who Buddy Miller was...he was just there backing up his wife) and nearly destroyed their brand new, beautiful sanctuary, including two pews."

Ummmmm.....I still don't know who Buddy Miller is...

 

Saggy, you made me laugh!

Some of our choir members will bring bottled water...I know I need to because I sing so much on Sundays. Other than that, there is usually no food or drink in the sanctuary.

 

He's a songwriter and singer who's one of the biggest artists in alt.country and Americana today.

He just took home a bunch of awards at the Americana Music Awards last week.

Back in the late eighties, he would back up his wife, Julie, when she had her career in CCM. She had hits like "What Would Jesus Do" (which started the whole WWJD craze) and "Dear John Letter to the Devil".

In the past couple of years, he's been EmmyLou Harris' music director and just produced Robbie Fulks fine new album, "Georgia Hard".