Bakery as Church

Hello friends -

Grace and peace to you this day from God our Creator and God's Son Jesus Christ.

I wonder. I've been wondering for the past few days, actually. Well, make that weeks, months. I don't know. I've been thinking on this lately. Reflect with me:

What would a church without a building look like? 

Scary question, right? What would it look like for the church to disband the congregation from it's normal sense of building and place and be the hands and feet of Christ in wholly other spaces, places, and times? Oftentimes we're so tied to building, to budget, to program, that, from my experiences, the very act of doing church and living our lives together can seem and feel stifled. It's worth asking ourselves, "Where is the Spirit moving in this?"

I've been thinking, as a baker - wouldn't it be neat to run a bakery and use it as a "church"? To have a place for people to gather on Sunday mornings, start baking bread at 6am with interested parishioners, and then do corporate, traditional Lutheran liturgical worship around a table, around the ovens, around yeast and flour and salt and wine and earthy loaves? What would it look like to break bread around that table, to literally tear the loaves apart and go around to each person and say "This is the body of Christ, given and broken for your sake?" To pass around the wine and say much the same thing - "This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of all sins?" What would it look like to do worship as a pastor dressed not in an alb but a floured, stained, messy shirt with an apron and a stole? What would it look like to have passerby's come along in the street and welcome them through the doors of your "church" and pull them in right front and center and preach and proclaim Jesus Christ, Bread of Life?

What would it take to do this? What spaces could be created by this that aren't available in traditional church? Is this stupid? Is this crazy? Is this just some pipe dream of a millennial pastor-to-be that's yearning for something different? Think of the different avenues this could take. Hunger ministry throughout the week, done right in house. People would be saying, "Come on down to the bakery on Thursday's - Pastor's doing Bible Study!" Something totally different. Something life giving. Something that embodies God's mission in a wholly radical way, that we as God's people can proclaim.

Anyway. Just my normal musings.
God's peace, my friends!
Dean