One Cup At A Time
We are planting a church in the South Loop of Chicago, but we’re doing it relatively differently.
We felt God call us to open a coffee shop, and through that a church would form.
It’s not just any coffee shop, but a coffee shop that is “changing the world one cup at a time.” The way we do that is by buying fair trade (direct trade coffee and products), and focusing on social justice.
What happens then is that our customers, who may or may not be Christians, come into the shop and ask us why we even care about fair trade, human trafficking and other justice issues. And I get to share that I care about it because Jesus did first and still does. That brings up tons and tons of faith conversations.
We have a Sunday service starting this fall. We also have a discipleship group that we lead right now. I feel like what’s been happening has been like John the Baptist, paving the way, building relationships, and now we are ready to go into some depth with more spiritual direction.
Connecting Passions
There’s a next-door neighbor of ours, a really great guy, who comes into the shop quite often. He’s very, I suppose, suspicious of us. He came to me one day and said, “I have some questions.” He began to ask some really leading questions — stuff like, “So, is this like a Christian recruitment camp? What is this?” I said no. He continued to ask questions. “How can you be Christian but have tattoos?” Lots of conversations like that with him.
A few months had passed, and we kept talking and building a relationship. We would ask him, “So, what do you want to do with your life? You seem to be inspired by us and intrigued by what we’re doing. What is the thing that you want? What inspires you?” He would never tell us.
One random day, my wife was on a bus and ran into him and started up a conversation. She doesn’t remember what exactly she said, but the next day he came into the shop and said, “After our conversation on the bus, I’m ready to tell you what I want to do.”
He said, “I want to open up a burger joint on the north side. I need your help. You’ve done this.”
Since then, we’ve been to his shop and have done some consulting for him. One of my staff even went to work for him at his request. Since then, he’s opened up two other burger joints. I called him a while ago to ask him how things are going and also to ask for a recommendation from him. He said, “I’ll tell you exactly what I’m going to write: ‘—– Burgers’ would not exist if it were not for Brandon and Amanda.”
So there you have it: My output as a church planter in Chicago has been…a neighbor starting two burger joints.
[bctt tweet=”My output as a church planter in Chicago has been … a neighbor starting two burger joints. ” quote=”So there you have it: My output as a church planter in Chicago has been … a neighbor starting two burger joints.”]
Setting Captives Free
Another thing we are involved in is anti-human-trafficking initiatives, the idea of setting captives free. The direct trade/fair trade products lead to a conversation about setting people free from sexual slavery, financial slavery and things like that. As we’ve had conversations, we’ve developed partners and have a traffic-free forum. Chicago is a major hub for labor trafficking and sex trafficking of minors.
One of my customers works for the City of Chicago, and he knows what we do. He sent in one of his aides to our forum to get information for a hearing. So these stories are getting out, and now the politicians and the city are involved and interested and are starting on some legislation. So that’s all sprouting out of our coffee shop and our commitment to the issue.
Free2work.org is a great website that lists and grades companies based on how they produce their goods. We use it to decide how we purchase things. On our website, overflowcoffeebar.org, we are creating our own holistic resource page as well. We link to resources on everything from spiritual direction to environment issues, poverty issues, and fair trade. That shows people that while they are all separate issues, they are really interconnected and play off each other.
This fall, we’re renaming ourselves Overflow Faith Community and starting weekend services. We have found our place within our community.
Brandon Neely – Pastor, Overflow Faith Community (Chicago, IL)
