Church Café

Definition

A church café is a café space that a church sets up inside its church building or in one of its auxiliary buildings. It serves coffee, tea, and light snacks. It functions both as a place of fellowship where members gather before and after worship and as a point of contact where visitors can drop in without feeling pressured. Some church cafés are free of charge, while others charge at cost or set prices. Proceeds are commonly used for relief of the needy or missions.

Biblical and Historical Background

No passage of Scripture deals directly with church cafés. Churches that operate them, however, cite Romans 12:13 and Hebrews 13:2, which commend hospitality, as well as Acts 2:46, which describes the early believers sharing meals and fellowship in their homes. Conversely, those wary of buying and selling on church premises sometimes point to John 2:13-16, where Jesus drove out those who sold in the temple. In response, proponents argue that the church building of the post–New Testament era cannot be regarded as equivalent to the Old Testament temple.

In Korea, church cafés are reported to have multiplied since the 2000s, as coffee culture became widespread. A common arrangement is to convert a church lobby or part of an education building into a café or book café.

Practice in Korean Churches

Church cafés are run in different ways from church to church.

• Staffing: They are often staffed by member volunteers on a rotating basis. Some churches offer barista training to prepare volunteers.
• Purposes: They serve as meeting places for small groups after worship, as spaces for welcoming newcomers, and as places of rest open to local residents. Some churches open them to the community on weekdays as a channel for evangelism.
• Use of proceeds: Some churches are known to use fair-trade coffee beans or to devote proceeds to helping neighbors in need and supporting missionaries.
• Decision-making: Establishment and operation are generally decided by bodies within the individual church, such as the session or the board of officers. No official denominational regulations governing church cafés are known, nor are there any notable differences in position among denominations.

Church cafés have also drawn controversy. Some observers point out that charging the general public and operating as a business may be treated as a profit-making activity under tax law, raising issues of business registration and taxation. It has also been noted that space used as a café may be excluded from the tax exemptions granted to religious property. In addition, criticism that church cafés compete with nearby small businesses has led some churches to reduce service to outsiders or to serve only their own members.