John Piper has questioned whether it is appropriate to drink coffee at church in a tweet which has had over 2.5 million views.
His message on Twitter/X read: ‘Can we reassess whether Sunday coffee-sipping in the sanctuary fits.’ This was accompanied by a quotation from Hebrews 12:28, which reads, ‘Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.’
Piper has over one million followers, and his tweet generated a mixture of responses as it spread. Beth Moore, president of Living Proof Ministries, who herself has nearly 1million followers, sent a light-hearted reply, saying, ‘Brother John, I think you’d like us Anglicans. Ain’t nobody walking into [a] service with no coffee. We’d receive you gladly.’ David Fairchild, Lead Pastor of Christ Community Church, Houston, also saw the funny side, responding with ‘C’mon, “He-brews!” It’s right there.’
Others responded in a more serious tone. Jay Bauman, founder of ‘Restore Brazil’ bemoaned the standard of discussion amongst today’s generation in his reply: ‘I appreciate it when respected elders in the faith simply pose questions. Too bad most in our generation can’t handle questions, evidenced by the overreactions on here.’
Piper, the founder of Desiring God, seems to have stirred as much debate with his tweet about coffee drinking as he has done about deeper theological issues. It appears that ‘coffee-sipping’, in church anyway, is no longer a simple black or white issue.
