May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
On September 9th we cautiously opened the door to a small coffee shop in Glenpool, Ok. Why you might ask? In all my new church planting research, I discovered that coffee shops have become the heart of the community. People used to move to a new community and look for a home, a school and a church. That is not the norm any more. Today’s family looks for a home, school and a coffee shop. The television bar “Cheers” showed us how a restaurant or bar could be a place of community and relationship. The lyrics to the theme song clearly stated “Where everybody knows your name, and their always glad you came”. Also, Glenpool has lots of churches doing wonderful ministry on almost every corner. So when I was looking for some need that we could meet, I realized that there is no place for people to hang out that is safe, drug and alcohol free. My friends who have been to AA have expressed their frustration with having places to go. So we have opened a non-profit coffee shop with the hope of being relevant in the community, giving people a place to hang out and offering people a place where they are genuinely cared for. When we have proceeds, we want to give them back to the community for projects such as the Backpack Program for hungry kids or the Free Healthcare truck that comes to town.
Living Water United Methodist Church does meet in the coffee shop every Sunday at 10 am. We have an intimate setting with jazzy music. It’s nice and we are filling up! My first church member, Ashley, visited other churches with me and helped me discern what type of church setting we would like to have. On September 9th, she came with her husband and brought me a gift. The photo is the necklace that they gave me with Psalm 20:4 on it. One year earlier, also on September 9th I had officiated their wedding. It was my first formal act as a United Methodist minister. I was amazed at how different things were in one year. My life had been full of new beginnings and endings. Ashley and Eric encouraged me and reminded me that God is in this. That when people question the vision or fail to see that new ways of doing church are necessary that their voices can not be more important than the work that God has called us to. I am constantly blessed by the people that are helping me in this adventure. Often I feel like they are my ministers. I think that God likes that.
by 
