I have a love-hate relationship with our church’s Sunday morning coffee time.

Sandwiched between Sunday school and morning worship, it’s 30 minutes of being dumped into the church fellowship hall with a warm drink, a muffin, everyone else in the congregation, and zero agenda. 

Bible studies and small groups are comforting in their predictability. You generally know who will show up and what the content will be. Stick to the lesson and the discussion questions, and nothing gets too awkward. 

But coffee time—or those minutes in the parking lot after worship or in line for the restroom—can be wild. It’s not easy to know where to look, whom to talk to, or what to talk about. That’s a feeling I hate. But it’s also an opportunity to get to know someone I’ve never met, to discover ways to pray, to be encouraged. That’s a feeling I love.

If you, like me, sometimes get slightly panicked on Sunday morning, muffin in one hand and coffee in the other, you’ll be grateful for Blake Glosson’s recent article about how to be a better listener. Start with eye contact and a smile, and move on to asking questions and making a point of following up later.

Perhaps the most important thing Glosson notes is the necessity of prayer:

Before you meet with someone . . . pray, ‘Lord, help me to listen well.’ This glorifies God, honors the other person, and puts your mind in the right place. And you better believe God loves to answer this prayer.

This Sunday, as I walk to the fellowship hall, I’m going to take Glosson’s counsel. I’m going to ask the Lord to give me a heart that loves others well by listening to them and an opportunity to put my listening skills into practice. Who knows what might happen?