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A young boy in a small Brazilian village. A local homeless man making a fresh start on life. An elderly Biloxi woman devastated by the hurricane. These are just three individuals who share an unlikely bond – their lives have been touched by the love of Christ through a coffeehouse tip jar. For the staff and patrons of journeys coffeehouse in Midland, Michigan, the missions jar is just one aspect of what an intentional third place can do to fund causes locally and globally.

Located inside Messiah Lutheran Church, journeys is uniquely positioned to service the faith family as well as to reach out into the community – even if that outreach happens on the go via the drive-through window. journeys is a third place for people to gather, connect, share, relate and let life happen. The joy of being an independent third place is that we are free to impact the world for Christ in all we do in our business and mission… that is right, there is more to journeys at the end of the day then slinging coffee. We have the great privilege of being able to fund causes with every dollar that journeys as a small business generates. From the moment of of conception we knew that revenue from the sales would go to fund the mission of Jesus in this world through the faith family of Messiah Lutheran Church but we get to go beyond that. It was not until opening weekend, when several customers asked whether we had a tip jar, that God presented the idea of funding outreach in that way.

Each month a mission organization is selected and signage is hung to promote the cause. As time goes on we have patrons asking questions about each mission as well as asking what the next one will be. It is not uncommon for a customer to ask about the mission, receive back their change but then offer back a five dollar bill to be placed in the missions jar. How great is that? The compassion of our customers has now transformed what the world sees as a “tip” jar to an offering to Christ and His Kingdom.

Now that is a bit about the background, but where does the coffee hit the cup? Shortly after journeys opened, our faith family was sending hurricane relief teams down to Biloxi, MS to help clean up the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. That mission trip was the first beneficiary of the monthly mission offering. So every dollar that came in was sent along with the relief team to fund aid in Biloxi. We also have used the funds to send a group of youth to West Virginia on a construction mission trip, aid in the relief effort in Darfur, and support mission teams working in an orphanage and medical mission in Haiti. On a local level, we have had the honor of using the offerings to support a men’s crisis center, donate funds to a Christian radio station, and provide holiday blessings to families at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

One of the greatest months for me personally was the month that we collected the necessary funds to sponsor a child from Compassion International. We wanted to be very intentional about this and the impact this would have so we did a little research through our coffee supplier. Then we went to Compassion and asked them to find us a child in the very spot in the world where the beans we use each day are being grown and harvested. Now we have an even more compelling story to share with every guest at journeys: “Did you know that we are financially and prayerfully supporting a child in the very place where these beans are coming from?” This child’s father, mother, grandfather…could be the very people growing the beans that we use. Wow – to me, being able to share a connection with a child and touch his life with the love of Christ is very cool.

I’ll close with one other story of how we have seen our customers fully embrace a mission. Recently, we funded the purchasing of tooth brushes for a medical mission trip to Guatemala. We not only had customers giving through the missions jar but also bringing in toothbrushes to have sent down. By the time the month was over there were nearly 300 toothbrushes donated and enough funds to purchase 1000 more. What makes the story even better is that a large toothbrush manufacturer matched our funds, thereby doubling the toothbrushes purchased to 2000! We even had a dentist in our faith family offer to cover the shipping charges.

When God moves through His people, awesome things happen. Around the world and in our backyard, the staff and patrons of journeys are showing God’s unfailing love – one cup of coffee at a time.

Note: The above is the full length version of an article posted as “end notes” in Sept – October 2008 issue of Worship Facilities Magazine.

I am stoked to tell you all about a great initiative that Third Place Consulting is launching.  This goes to the bottom line of one portion of what we created journeys for to fund causes.  We can change the world one cup of coffee at at time.

Message In Hand

Ever heard the phrase that ‘for the price of a cup of coffee you can change the world?’ Well, it might actually be true, but you don’t have to give up your cup of coffee to do it. Just USE your cup of coffee to change the world!

Message in Hand is an initiative to create conversational coffee sleeves that will share the message and bring awareness to great causes. Through the exposure to these messages, people will become aware of ways to be active in supporting or becoming involved in efforts, causes, and plans to bring support to children in underdeveloped countries, provide mosquito nets for families in Africa, help aid homeless families, etc. The average person spends 45 minutes with their coffee drink, and this is a way for a cafe community to reach beyond itself and make a difference in the world.

Our current Message In Hand is in collaboration with the Junky Car Club and Compassion International. This year Junky Car Club set an ambitious goal of supporting 500 children through its network, and we thought this would be a great way to launch Message In Hand.

How can you and your café become involved in this initiative? It will involve simply ordering Message in Hand sleeves for your café. These sleeves are similar in price to the sleeves that cafés are already purchasing and are made by a reputable company in the coffee industry. Why not leverage your purchasing power to get the message in the hands of your customers?

volunteer: a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service

servant: a person working in the service of another

I was struck yesterday by these two words will listening to teachings by Pastor Chris.  He was teaching on a prayer of making us servants.  The key background was from John 13.  The part that really struck a key with me in relation to journeys was the difference between a volunteer and servant.  I have to say now that I don’t want any volunteers in this ministry, that is right, we don’t want volunteers.  If you have a servants heart and have been called by Jesus to serve him through the ministry team of journeys then welcome aboard and let us release you to do what the Lord is calling you to do.

I have from the beginning tried to not call the staff that gives freely of their time volunteers but staff.  I made this a very intentional effort to let everyone know we were one as a team.  I will be changing that statement now, I feel that we are all called to be servants in the ministry team of journeys.  I believe that for all of the servants currently serving.  It is more than a cup of awesome coffee, it is about a changed life.

Thank you to all of the servants who serve.  I have a tough question though, if you are a fully devoted follower of Jesus and you are not serving, are you fully devoted to the cause of Christ in this world?  I urge you to seek your heavenly Father and ask Him to place upon your heart where He would have you serve for His kingdom.  I also pray that you don’t volunteer to fill a position but to serve as our Savior did.

journeys received a little press this month in a Leadership Network article.  The article summary is simply:

Today’s churches are strategizing in ways that are innovative, intentional and missional to reach a group of people who might not be churchgoers, but  who are attracted to a nonreligious venue for coffee, lunch, play dates, workouts or concerts—where followers of Christ are also hanging out.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This is another little bit from my time at WFX (Worship Facilities Expo) last week.  One nigh over dinner I was blessed to hear how the Lord is moving through Central and South America and the current rapid growth of the evangelical church in this area of the world.  This area of the world is known for having business deals that are not ethical and down right deceitful.  The churches of the area have no choice but to deal with the builders since there is no other option a high percentage of the time.  An acoustics / sound company based in the United States has been working with these churches to dramatically increase the usefulness of the audio and video that is being used.  Interestingly, these locals will trust an American Gringo more than they will the local contractors.  Okay, so why am I sharing this all with you all?  That is a good question and it comes down to one statement that was made about business and faith in the Jesus.  We need to operate in terms of “kingdom economics”, that is to place others values at or above our own and trust that the Lord will take care of us.  So weather we are talking about a business transaction or just serving another I challenge you to place the value of the one you are serving at or above your own and have the faith that the Lord will take care of you.

God Bless,
dl