Common Grounds Coffee House

The Vision

1) First and foremost this will function as mainly and solely a coffee house. To be missional >> to give the Germantown/Mt.airy area a free coffee house
>>place for local musicians and artists
>> Safe place for people in Germantown/affordable as well
>> For the community
>> Not going to be marketed as Christian at all
>> But we want people to know that we follow Jesus through our conversations with them and the people they meet there
>> We want deep spiritual conversations to happen naturally and organically

2) Gives people of Calvary a tangible place to be missional.
Instead of always having to try to bring people to church, this provides a place to be missional, to go out among the lost. Go have a cup of coffee and listen to them, find out what the gospel means to them. Gives a perfect example of what it looks like to be missional for people at Calvary and us.

3) Functions as a place for hope Re-Found to meet
-helps give us validity in neighborhood by having no hidden agendas as a coffee house
-but people will trust us and when we let them know about our services and other things, they will feel comfortable, b/c relationships will be developed >> relationships are key today
-helps us reach those who would not come to church
-we are trying to reach a disillusioned generation
-many see no need of a traditional church

4) Creative ministry approaches through our Friday night coffee house
-once a month on a Friday or occasional Saturday nights we will have creative ministry nights to further engage the community in a deeper presentation of the gospel
Examples>> worship nights, movies, creative ministry approaches, doubt nights, dialogue nights, connections with arts community to talk about arts and God

The vision for the site at Wayne Ave is for Hope Re-Found and Calvary as a whole to have a tangible, on-going, relational way to be missional. The vision for a coffee house God placed on the heart of Pastor Andrew and was confirmed by the core members of Hope Re-Found and God working in their hearts. It made sense in terms of an ongoing mission to be a part of. To impact a community, to impact the arts/music community with truth, beauty and goodness, a place for people to go to have deep, meaningful, personal conversations about God with friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Also this will serve as a place to connect with young adults and serve as the new meeting place for Hope Re-Found.

This vision fits the God-given talents and gifting of a lot of the people in Hope Re-Found. This vision has also excited a lot of other people as well, who realize we need new creative, ways to reach people where they are at. It helps connect with people who would normally never be reached on a Sunday morning. In the words of Mark Batterson in the book UnChristian on page 146 says “So why did we build a coffeehouse instead of a church building? Because Jesus didn’t hang out in synagogues. He hung out at wells. Wells weren’t just places to draw water. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture. Coffeehouses are postmodern wells. To borrow sociological term, our coffeehouse is a third place where the church and community can cross paths.”