I have a confession to make – I love coffee. This may not come as a surprise to you if you know me at all. I have been drinking coffee for a long time. In reality I probably started way too early. Though It hasn’t stunted my growth like my mom said it would. I love coffee. Rarely do I go a day without drinking coffee in some form or another. Yet, my life was changed when I went to my first coffee shop. All of the sudden coffee was about more than caffeine. Now it was about relationships.  My wife and I had some of our first dates at a small coffee shop in our home town. The Coffee Trader still holds a special place in my heart. It serves as a distinct milestone in my coffee journey. It was here I learned what coffee could be. It was here I learned that coffee was about relationship. I learned that customer service means knowing your customer’s name. Since walking into The Coffee Trader for the first time I have sat in hundreds of coffee houses with a steaming cup of coffee in my hands and watched the people around me doing the same.

I not only love drinking coffee, I love the whole process. I have spent countless hours researching what goes into making a good cup of coffee. I have read about every stage of the process – everything from cultivation to harvest to processing the coffee cherries into green coffee beans to roasting. Making a great cup of coffee is an intricate, beautiful and interdependent process from start (in the field) to finish (brewing method). There is as much science as there is art and passion. I love all the different ways you can make coffee. espresso, drip, moka pot, vacuum pot, French press, cold brewed, chemex. They all bring out different characteristics of the bean. My current favorite way to enjoy coffee is straight espresso! I love experimenting with all the variables that go into pulling the perfect shot of espresso. I have been working to perfect this art. I am still a long way off. The great thing about practicing is when I get to share. I love watching people’s expression when they take a sip from the latte I made as they lick the sweet microfoam of their face. When you start the pursuit of great coffee you realize how rare it really is.

While I was in college I started a coffee business. The idea behind the business was to sell fresh roasted gourmet coffee online. Due to time and money constraints I was never able to develop this business to its fullest potential. In fact I think the only one who ever ordered coffee from we was my mom! The business I really wanted to start was a coffee shop, but I was in bible college to become a pastor. I couldn’t see how the two were compatible. That is until the pieces began to fall into place.

After having given up on both the the online business and the dream to start a coffee shop, I began to feel a pull toward church planting. I read books and listened to the stories of entrepreneurial pastors. Pastors that would go to a city and start with nothing but a burden from God, a love for the people and a drive to not give up. From listening to and reading theses stories I determined that there were three key elements to being successful at starting a church that reached its community. These elements are from my own observation; I did not read them from the latest Ed Stetzer book or from listening to a church planting guru. First, you have to know the community. You have to know the community values. You have to know the cultural and spiritual climate. You have to known the social, political, economic and ethnic makeup. You have to know what the struggles and weaknesses of the community are. You have to know the historical background. Basically, you have to be an expert on the community you feel God has called you to reach. Second, you have to know yourself. This may seem like a no-brainer, but this is, in my estimation, the area people overlook most often. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What kind of leader are you? What is your communication style? Where do you struggle? If you cannot be honest about your struggles, you have no business planting a church. You have to take an honest look at yourself. You may be able to adapt your personality (truthfully you most likely will have to) but you have to know your default settings. Third, you have to know the heart of God for the community. This may seem trite or unspiritual for me to have placed this item last, but it is vital and flows out of the first two. What God speaks to you about the community will flow directly out of a knowledge of the community and yourself. What all this boils down to: ministry success is local, personal and deeply spiritual. The people around the world who have been successful have been so by knowing their community, knowing themselves, and knowing God. It is never by copying the work of someone else. That’s not to say there isn’t great things to learn from those who have been successful before you. In fact, learning from others aids in understanding these three areas.

What in the world does all this have to do with coffee? We are in the process of starting a church in Louisville, Colorado. As I began down my own path of discovery, I began to realize that the process of starting this church was going to look a lot different than what I had seen up to this point. I studied (and continue to study) the community and found it to have a very open and accepting culture, yet the people were themselves are in a lot of ways closed. They are not eager to open up to new people. Everyone is generally very friendly, but they aren’t going to tell you their life story the first time you meet. There are many other things I could tell you, but this one cultural issue is what I want to focus on. When I began to look at myself, I also realized that I wasn’t your typical church planter-type. I am not a high “D” personality. I am quiet but not shy. I am introspective and serious. I have a sense of humor that is usually misunderstood. I was never the team captain of anything. I am very detail oriented, sometimes to a fault. I have a great memory. I love a meaningful conversation. I love wrestling through tough issues. I have always had a heart for the skeptic – those who feel that they have made up their mind about Jesus and faith. I am patient with people’s struggles and brokenness. Boulder County (the county Louisville is in) is a safe haven for the introspective skeptic. They will accept whatever lifestyle you choose, yet it is hard to quickly gain access into their lives. People who are skeptical want to know they can trust you before they let you in. Before they care about what you have to say they want to know that you care about them. They want to know YOU can be trusted This takes time and consistency.

This is where coffee comes back into the story. As I said earlier, I have dreamed of starting a coffee shop: taking all the things I have learned about coffee and combining it with my love for people.  As the first stage of beginning a church in Louisville, we want to start a coffee shop. Let me be clear, the coffee shop will be a legitimate for-profit business. It will not be a coffee shop church. We will not serve drinks with dumb churchy names (Jonah’s Whale of a Latte, Burning Bush Mocha, Lazarus’ Wake you from the Dead Coffee with a shot… to name a few). We will NEVER serve ΙΧΘΥΣ shaped scones!!! And most importantly we will not have KLOVE playing on the radio!!! The purpose for starting a coffee shop has many layers. A coffees shop provides a non-threatening social gathering for the community. It allows us to become a part of the community and define ourselves as a part of that community. It will serve as a source of income for my family and those who work there. The coffee shop will become a community gathering place due to its venue-based setting. It will become a cultural hub allowing local talent to showcase their work (visual art, music, poetry…). It will also serve as a place for discussion, both private and corporate. The coffee shop will invest profit back into the community and into social justice causes. The coffee shop will be the first phase in plans to start a church in Louisville. We are still in the early planning and dreaming stages of the process. We are looking for people who believe in what we are doing to invest. We are looking for many different types of investors. We need investments of time, wisdom, prayer and money. Right now we are looking at ways to start small. One of the things we are looking at is purchasing a small scale company (think kiosk in an office complex). This would enable us get our feet wet, gain business equity, show institutional investors that we have business experience. I have seen several around the area complete with all equipment for Between $6,000 and $18,000. Right now we are trusting the God who gives big dreams will provide for their realization. If you feel like you would like to get behind this as either an investor or a donor (sorry, since this would be used to start a for profit business we will not be able to give you a tax receipt) please contact me. The second phase will come as we have established solid relationships and developed trust within the community. Throughout the first phase we will be pouring into relationships, holding home bible studies, leading people into compassion ministry. We will be looking for core leaders within the community to become a part of our core team.  Once the people of the community know what kind of people we are and what kind of christian faith we represent we will begin the process of establishing a church. This approach is not all that different from the way a missionary to a closed country reaches people. Becoming a part of the community first will allow us the opportunity to know what the church needs to look like.

I look forward to hearing your feedback. Please feel free to leave comments below.