Welcome to the Coffeehouse

Welcome to Mission Coffee in Colorado Springs

 

We have the best atmosphere for work or talking

 

The kind of Baristas that help make your day.

 

 

 

Mission community from NY

In the National Prayer Examiner yesterday the topic was “praying as you plan and planning as you go.” This resonates with many Christian leaders who have started something. On Friday the Denver Front Range Examiner reports on areas where we can build community and that it starts from you. Ten years ago who could have imagined that social-media would play such a big role in bringing people together? The connections in social media have transformed the ways and resources of people who now have access to talent and management across the world. Linked in has become a community that if used to it’s fullest potential could bring together business, community and people and actually launch new ideas.

Paper Moon

FREX actually did a study while working on a media project that took all of our New York connections and put together resumes, skill sets and on paper built an innovative digital advertising; public relations; publishing and broadcasting dream team with 150 men and women. This of course is on paper and no talent was hurt in making this story. Connections can be powerful and when planning a business around peoples skills and talents, where they live, what they do and realizing that these people all have one thing in common, all of them are faith based entrepreneurs who want to see the message of the Gospel come from New York and that the message, the mission and the music originates here.

Give my regards to Broadway

“We looked at some of the greatest creative, financial, producers, and business minds in the business but also the most active in ministry and causes. We interviewed the best communicators, pastors, chaplains and authors. We discussed the concept with the best studio owners; ministry leaders; and advertising creative minds, who all would trade in their Wall Street; Madison Avenue; Greenwich Village  coffee houses and galleries and   Broadway credentials to work in community with others to produce a body of work that would bring New Yorkers the life giving message, walk the mission that they are called to; and create meaningful media and music.

Front Range and Center Stage

So what is the next step? Could a group of 150 people change the way the gospel is presented in New York? Herb Brooks, the late US Gold medal Hockey coach, once said that, “he wasn’t looking for the best players, he was looking for the team players,” when assembling his team that beat the Russians. Brooks emphasized the commonalities of community and that common goals and teamwork could bring strengths to weaknesses, fill holes where the gaps fit together. Community building is finding that group of individuals, married couples, and families who pool together resources; play a role in the planning and together are of one accord. This can happen in New York City, Nashville or along the Front Range of Colorado. And now social media is a tool to bring people together to achieve our common goals.

About FREX

FREX is the community building column of Five Points Media. If you have an interest in building community through evangelism, special needs ministry, media that feeds a hungry culture, praying as you plan and planning as you go, and community building, e-mail communityradionetwork@juno.com.

 

Riding the Mission Wave

In March investment banker Tom Strobhar stood up at the annual shareholders meeting at Starbucks to ask a question of CEO Howard Schulz. ‘In the first full quarter after this boycott was announced, our sales and our earnings — shall we say politely — were a bit disappointing,’”

“We want to embrace diversity – of all kinds. If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38% you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares at Starbucks and buy shares at another company. Thank you very much.” The exchange can be seen in the accompanying video to Wednesday’s Denver Media and Culture examiner column.

Starbucks mission of diversity cause

An agitated Schulz seems to not care about boycotts in making social and political statements. While championing the “civil rights” of Starbucks diverse workforce, Schulz is willing to alienate a good portion of Satrbuck’s customer base. Brett Bixler of Mission Coffee Roasters based in Colorado Springs and who has been instrumental in starting cafes in churches is more than happy to welcome any of the former Starbucks customers who Schulz doesn’t want. “Our name is Mission Coffee Roasters for a reason,” Bixler told me, “Really good coffee with a mission, is more than a branding statement, it is indeed what we want our guests to experience.” Bixler’s coffee goes a long way to support Christian causes, through fund raising and consulting churches to be the best cafes in their communities. Better then Starbucks? “We roast great coffee and we treat people right, that’s the business model.” Bixler is constantly telling his Baristas to “make it right” when there is a question from a guest. Yet it is the freshness and quality of the roast and each cup that is getting people’s attention in Colorado Springs.  Instead of boycotting Starbucks because of their stance against traditional marriage why not start  a “Church coffee, at your church?” You get a better product, align with causes you believe in and join in the fellowship.”

The media’s handling of the Starbucks meltdown

The media has reported the Howard Schulz issues stance by trying to vilify Strobhar. The gay blog, “The slowly boiling frog” reports, “Mr. Strobhar, who probably owns all of one share, intimated the threat of a boycott” which was not the case. “Strobhar’s question was embarrassingly greeted with the applause generated by two or three people,” the blogger judges from the video.  Strobhar’s action website Corporatemorality.org quotes him as saying,  “Unfortunately for Starbucks and their shareholders, in the first full three month reporting period since the annual meeting, Starbucks’ earnings, while strongly positive, came in below analysts’ estimates and even below Starbucks’ own guidance. This last point being perhaps the most concerning factor – it suggested Starbucks was unaware of the problem. The stock declined over 10% after the announcement (of supporting gay marriage), giving Starbucks its worst one-day loss in over a decade.”

“The only statement we need to make”

In Colorado Springs, Bixler has made his cafe into a community center. “There are people who have studies upstairs, ministry meetings and a lot of people who use our facility all week long and all have felt welcomed. “The fact that we roast fresh and can ship anywhere in the world while serving our guests in the cafe is the only statement that we need to make. The rest of it is just treating people the way they would like to be treated with quality, value and care.” Throughout the years Bixler has supported Christian Film Festivals, The Daily Audio Bible and Compassion International without a lot of fanfare or bravado. Mission has added jobs and a viable export business, supported Fair Trade Coffee Farmers, while concentrating on providing the best experience for the community. “Every church could reach out to their communities by starting a cafe that goes far beyond the effort that Starbucks makes in serving the communities they have shops in,” says a Mission customer. Outreach is a much louder statement than a boycott-and it could cause a quality breakthrough of Vente’ proportions.

If you would like to start a cafe at your church or ministry or if you would like to try  Mission Coffee for your existing church cafe, please e-mail missioncoffee@juno.com, or order coffee and supplies at http://www.churchcoffee.com/.

The Nones: Throwing relationship out with the Baptismal water

 

Flushing meadows New York

In the process of reporting on the reason to support and get involved in The National day of Prayer which took place yesterday, May 2, there were articles and “religion” pages that were written ripping denominations while sadly undermining key parts of the body in the community. A group called “The Freedom FROM Religion” is emerging faster than the “emergent church,” movement and they are louder, articulate and educated but play a polarizing role in dividing community.

“Nones and habits”

In part the “Nones” as they call themselves, are lacking in solutions and are primarily anti-social in their words and actions. By anti-social they are a small minority who wax philosophical by isolating themselves with books and poetry like Thoreau at Walden Pond. “Nones”  pray confined to a prayer closet, they write and attack people they view as “religious,” and they have a hard time with the common sense letter written to the Hebrews that underlines the thesis of community- “Don’t forsake the fellowship.”  We need each other and though the “nones” point of “freedom from religion is well taken, it is never good to throw relationship out with the baptismal water of religion.”

New York, NY

In a meetup group in New York City, there are groups that are either non or inter-denominational, that study, build relationships, and do a weekly outreach in the community. One such group is a group that works on projects related to rescuing women and children from Human Trafficking. In Flushing, Queens and other neighborhoods the “melting pot” takes on some pretty dark characteristics. Too many people are isolated in their own “meditation” that proves the thesis “when the community forsakes the fellowship the results have ramifications worldwide.”

Flushing out the traffickers 

In Chinatown, in Flushing on the community Front Range story about the Freedom Mile the neighborhood had a New York melting pot feel to it.  It was surprising the number of young and old women who in broken English solicited men, and then there were the men sticking flyers and following men down the street. In reporting on community the issue of Human Trafficking has come up before and our research of the neighborhood revealed that Flushing is a hot spot on the road up in Human Trafficking up and down the interstates and turnpikes.

 In a media program on church impact in NY neighborhoods the irony  of the Freedom Mile where the freedom of faith was conceived was sobering. This is where church communities could and should be in fellowship, should be praying regularly, and should be raising awareness and rescuing women and children.

Front Range Rising

What most people are against is not Biblical, Systematic and Evangelical relationship with God. Reading comments about the article in the Washington Post shows that people want “freedom from religion.” What trips them up is that they want to stew in their own thought-process and call it “god.”  They want to be cafeteria Catholics; they work towards ushering their own emergence; they look for people who are as progressive as they are, as tolerant as they want to be, and claim that there are many ways to God.” They love Jesus but they don’t really believe what he says. They attribute their thought process to the two greatest commandments in “loving God with all your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as you would like to be loved. “The church is not perfect- but God’s love is.” ‘There are many ways to describe love,’ so many say, but the ultimate truth is that “God is love.”  Jesus Christ showed us what love is. As we look into the women and children’s eyes who have been sold into sexual slavery, it is not hard to see the cross. This is the love that we are called to in our churches and our communities. “What ever you do for the least of these, you do for me.” The message is to not forsake the fellowship  at home in our marriages; throughout our families. Community is showing love and compassion and offering a relationship to the slave where we work, on our commute, as we go to the  marketplace. Is Christ glorified in your community? Are they invited? If not that Christ is not invited either. It is okay to want “freedom from religion” but don’t tear down the faithful in relationship!” When we do that we destroy true community and in Flushing, NY that choice has world-wide ramifications.

Really good coffee with a mission- Mission Coffee Roasters is open and ready to support and raise support for your mission. e-mail us at missioncoffee@juno.com.

 

Mission found in disconnections

In range-on range

Waking up on the range there are so many sounds and signs that seasons are changing. There are few places that people live in that don’t have a distinct rhythm yet  in some ways many of our devices blunt the effect of subtle changes or even large structural road blocks that suddenly crept up on our daily routines that we wonder how we missed them. Have you ever taken inventory of people on the bus, or train and even on the block where you live? That friendly man with the cane and the brief case who use to get off at the Bowling Green stop every morning, the woman who sat near the door so she could run up the flight of stairs in Times Square; or what ever happened to the guy who always gave that old lady with the shopping cart a seat? On the Front Range this morning, you may wonder when did that development get developed? Why is the flag at half staff? What ever happened to the church that was at the corner of Sherman and eleventh? And then, “Why haven’t I seen the sunrise reflect on the hill that way before?” If media is designed to keep us connected, why do we feel so disconnected?

Community building

What we invest in seems to tell our story. This is partially a financial thing but mainly it is about time, and timelines. When morning comes and a community wakes up are we truly awakened? Or are we connected to devices that take away our sense, like nicotine makes the tailor lose the sense in his fingers. Like sandpaper eroding our shoreline, it just is little by little and before you know it, something is missing. Entire communities change in New York, and as you come home again, good neighborhoods become crime infested; and what once was Times Square becomes a neighborhood that at any given hour of the day has 33,000 people gathered from thousands of places around the world.

Study, relationships and outreach

Did you ever figure out when people stopped reading and studying the Bible? Have you ever wondered what happened to that group of men that use to drink coffee and discuss their life issues, their work and their families?  We have traded away regional impact for consistency, Family business for franchises; congregations for audiences; and back yard conversations and front porch picking to dog doors for barking canines, and neighbors who are working in the confines of home. Our connections are  broken. Our priorities are displaced. Our worship is between two ear buds. Our community is found at homeowners association meetings where they collect complaints; and dues.

Bean town and all around

The fires on the Front Range gave people pause to pray, and to get to know the neighbors we barely waved to. 9-11 gave us pause to pray for people we didn’t even know but we identified with their loss. Boston this month was a place where so many of us wanted to bring healing. In the heart of a New York Skyline there is a tower that rises up where a hole in that heart once was, “It’s called the Freedom Tower.” The man on the train who is fixed to his I-phone looked up from his computer game, “How did I miss that going up?’

The Front Range Examiner column is the Friday column on community building. It originates from the Front Range but goes beyond in community building. Mission Coffee Roasters in Colorado Springs is a place to gather your thoughts, your ideas and connect with friends. Don’t miss it- it’s on Ridgeline and Voyager Parkway, just North of Interquest in Colorado Springs.

 

 

Community Chest : Boston on Lockdown

 

It is never pretty though it is inevitable. Confrontation of neighbors, friends and family members is hard, but it is a necessary step in real community building. The main thing is to do it in love. But how does it work when we live in a culture that often confuses love for hate and hate for love?

Boston on Lockdown

At this writing, the entire city of Boston is on “lock down.” A suspect in the Boston Marathon terror attack is on the run and his brother dead when he strapped an IED onto his body and was confronted on the campus of MIT. Legalism and privacy statements often prohibit real communications in our culture, yet what led to the bombings at the finish line at the most famous of running events and what happened before in the lives of two young men may not have happened if only a neighbor or a friend might have taken one or both of the young men and lovingly confronted them.

Isolated Incidents

Think of the most heinous acts that the world has witnessed in the last decade. how many have been committed by people who were involved in their community? On the other hand how many of the most heinous acts in history were committed from an isolated state; where community was not the priority but instead was the enemy. Religion can be deadly especially when the philosophy is drawn from isolation and fellowship and relationship building is void and null. Satan is religious and he wants us to be religious too. Isolated, in religion and self-fulfilling prophesy is how the devil works in young minds. Think Timothy McVeigh; think Lee Harvey Oswald; Sirhan Sirhan; think Kleibold and Harris; and now:

American Friends

“I don’t have a single American friend. I don’t understand them,” slain terror suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev told a reporter. An uncle who lives in Maryland calls his nephews “losers.” The family is spread throughout the east coast according to news reports. A sister in New Jersey, and the uncle in Maryland are cooperating, coaches and teachers of the two men are at a loss to what happened. “It comes down to this,” one investigator said, “There is more than two people involved in this plot and those people used the two young men to be the pawns in a terrorist act to deconstruct community as terrorist organizations often do.”

Confronting Evil

There is little doubt that family or community involvement could have helped to prevent the loss of life and the lingering rehabilitation of the injured people in Boston. Confrontation was inevitable in this case and yet so many innocent people are affected by this act of terrorism and hate that it could take years to rebuild the community. It is going to take prayer; trust and courage to step outside comfort zones in Boston again. Confronting evil is the best way of conquering fear. And that is a big part of community building.

 

 

 

 

Digital Ticket: Study,relationship building and outreach

Study, Relationships,outreach

The first quarter of the digital age at Triology, the ministry of leadership and communications has been a three prong exercise in  raising awareness; launching businesses and practicing the act of communications. Everyone who learned how to pull shots on an espresso machine, froth milk and weigh out beans this month as well as bag coffee for mission coffee roasters found that the more digital the technology the purer the heart of handcrafting each drink means in our communities. Handcrafted communications in the creative process, the production and the distribution and tracking of niche audiences; new believers and readers, listeners, viewers and doers helped Triology Digital Publishing launch with five subjects in one daily column; the first book “Friends and Fellowship: A Guide to Friendship in your church,” 7 BLOGS and an advertising coop called “Likewise.” “Our job is to create, publish and produce, and distribute and we can’t do that if we don’t have ways to create revenue, raise funds, and have people understand the giving, growing and guiding principles that will allow us to continue to evangelize with house churches; plant Friendship Fellowship; help to feed better media to a hungry culture; gather leaders at prayer point to brainstorm plans that include prayer; and to build communities,” says one of the founders. “The best thing we did in the first quarter is to integrate the five points of influence that as an organization; as individuals; and as married couples we each have on our communities.”

Study-Relationship and Outreach

A media that is dedicated to feeding a hungry culture cannot do it by entertainment alone, nor diversions. There has to be an edification quotient; a vibrant change in business model; and a point in continuing a proper balance in time, influence, and in planning. In the latest study on marriage; family and community building from the Ministry of Leadership and Communications, the group which tests studies, relationship building and outreach in Biblical, Systematic; and Evangelical Theology found that through thinking, discussing and social interaction, and focused outreach projects; are happier; more likely to not only stay together but also to thrive in their marriages; and make a big difference in their communities by doing small things on a regular basis. “It is the theory of loving God and neighbor and all the political issues; all the life and death; marriage and lifestyle issues; child raising; and economic issues and living them out on a daily basis that overshadows all the arguments.” The best way to change people’s opinions is to show your own heart change. “Yes we associate with people who have different opinions, but we also waive the right to argue the points in circular; ad-nausea; debates when you argue absolute truths and relativism.” In media and in culture everywhere from conservative  Fox News to  liberal CNN and NBC, CBS, and ABC, the “shout over” is increasingly annoying people and feeding no one.

Digital Tickets

The scenario in many subjects is to publish books, produce audio and visual that will be found in gathering places across America. The meeting room, the coffee house, the library and the community center are places where Studies, Relationship building and Outreach can happen between married couples (defined men and women) can actively be involved. The ticket is the digital resource and from $1.99 to $4.00 you get a workshop-leader; worship leader; resources on area outreach projects; and a cup of freshly roasted coffee and tea. They will begin testing this out at Mission Coffee Roasters in Colorado Springs. If you are interested in a Wednesday night group e-mail Missioncoffee@juno.com. The first digital study is Friends and Fellowship a guide to studying; relationship building and reaching out to adults with special needs in your church, or community. To buy a copy please  http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/289017-friends-and-fellowship. The group will start in mid-April in Colorado Springs.

Update on Likewise

Likewise advertisements are part of the content.  When the content provider does a feature on an author; a musician or a service or a co-op of local counselors; we can add a paragraph and ask the reader, listener or viewer to tell them where you heard about the product or service. That author, publisher, musician or service provider; agrees to send a certain commission for sale, lead, booking, or contact.  Want to find out more? Go to sweetspotaffilates@juno.com.

Mission community and wrap around porches

 

The idea of community building and practicing interactive relationships is what Frex is all about. Frex is the column that wraps up the week of writing and communicating, ministering and leading. Front Range expressions begin through invitation. All week long Brett Bixler has been inviting people to come down to his newest cafe and roaster. Brett was invited to leave his east coast business and bring it to the Front Range. Brett, his wife, Jennifer and their two children, loaded up four cars, trailers and made the trek to Colorado Springs after buying a house, finding the right space for both the roaster, warehouse and cafe. While invitation is the best place to start, there is the ebb and flow of encouragement, that flows with instinctively being aware of when you need to give people space.

Ah Wilderness

Community building is nothing new to the Colorado Front Range, with the pioneer spirit, westward expansion and the challenges that face the brave souls who make the trek, even today, the harshness of the dry climate; the tweaks in machine and diet to deal with the altitude; and the steep learning curve and western attitudes all need adjusting to. One of the goals of this column is to start by building communities that are evangelical and mission minded; geared to recognizing and reaching out to special needs families and caregivers, creating, producing and distributing a healthier menu of media that feeds a hungry culture, from the community of writers, authors, songwriters and producers; a community that gathers to pray and prayer walk in their communities and business people who pray as part of the planning process.

Defining Community

The Front Range Community stretches from the tip-top of Colorado above Fort Collins and comes down Interstate-25 following the path of the old and new Santa Fe Trail (as well as the Goodnight-Loving Trail) In recent years the population from the foothills to the eastern plains has grown. On the east coast the spread of little villages and neighborhoods within bigger towns make up faith, marriages and family community, that is the way they were founded and incorporated.

 

Wrap arounds

The wrap around porch, the piece of land, the work, the home and the neighborhood happily integrated. Not that everyone had to agree on everything but the common union that holds communities together in an organic, healthy way are people who “love the Lord God with all your heart and your neighbor as you would like to be loved.” The Denver talk show host Alan Berg called talk radio, “The last neighborhood,” and perhaps it was. Yet new builders began putting wrap around porches where families gather and someone picks a guitar and friends and families sing. Sadly and tragically white supremacists groups gunned Berg down in front of his Congress Park home. Something he said on the radio angered these monsters enough to murder the man, ironically in a close knit neighborhood.

50,000 watt neighborhood

There are always obstacles in community building. Homeowners associations often force people to express their faith in God in a “church zone” and tolerate their neighbors, as long as they water the grass and don’t have a barking dog.”  The thought of a man getting gunned down in front of his home, in a neighborhood who called the little mic that he spoke into everyday to solicit and encourage conversation, “the last neighborhood” is ironic. The neighborhood reached in the evening with the “50,000 watt  blowtorch”, this compound in the Pacific Northwest where unstable domestic terrorists planned to drive to the Congress Park neighborhood to kill their neighbor. Or at least our neighbor.

The brain behind the gun

The well connected, the Tommy Generation is upon us. People unaware of the surroundings fill their ears with ear buds; connected to their screens and even driving while texting. “Put on the eye shades, stick in the ear plugs, you know where to put the cork.” People are connected just not to each other. In the words of the singer-songwriter John Prine, “So if you’re walking down the street sometime, and see some hollow ancient eyes, please  just, them by and stare, as if you didn’t care, say hello in there-hello.”

Mission Community

In Colorado Springs the Ministry of Leadership and Communications can be found sharing espresso drinks and watching the roasting process and meeting neighbors, friends and learning what community building is. One of our common unions is the love for coffee and fellowship. Brett Bixler and the people who work with him, invite you to get a coffee drink and when you say, “I am part of The Front Range community,” and show a picture on your cell phone of the Front Range, get a 5% discount. Mission Coffee Roasters located at Voyager and Ridgeline (three blocks North of Interquest), with a great view of the Front Range. Open at 7 in the morning Monday thru Saturday, “really good coffee, with a mission.” For more e-mail missioncoffee@juno.com.

 

Mission Journalism

Who do you trust? Many people can remember the days when journalists were known for the “most trusted people in America.” Walter Cronkite, no matter where he stood or sat on political, environmental, life or issues of war and peace never tipped his hand while he was on the air, on the set of CBS News. This morning National Public Radio broadcasted a story about Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual “State of the News” report. The findings are a quantitative survey of how and why people’s habits have changed in consumption of news and how news outlets have responded.

Breaking News

Overall TV News viewership is down. Newsroom employment at newspapers is down 30 percent since a peak in 2000 and has gone down 30 percent for the first time since 1978. Newsweek is gone and time continues to cut staff. Local Sports, weather and traffic now account for 40 percent of the content of the average local TV news. Pew Research acting director of the Excellence in Journalism called that statistic “a recipe for future erosion.”

News-Next

Only 42 percent of adults under the age of 30 counted themselves as regular local news viewers in 2006; however last year that number was down to 28 percent. Cable news is increasingly Talk-tv. Over the last five years, CNN has cut back on produced and live event coverage, according to the study. During the presidential campaign, Pew found that reporters were merely “megaphones instead of investigators.” “More stories are simply reporting verbatim what candidates or partisans are saying, rather than using those statements as a starting-off point to explore the issue.” While there are more news outlets and places for consumption, many readers, listeners and viewers are leaving once prominent news sources because they are not getting what they want.”

Truth-finders

It is a good sign that people are looking for other sources that are looking for “truth in journalism.” This is an opportunity for evangelicals to press on with asking the right questions, pointing out the ironic and giving people news that affects their marriages, families and communities. “Of the people who left mainstream news outlets,” the study found that, “61 percent claim that news stories are less than complete than they have been in the past.” “We are at a point,” Mitchel says, “where we have to get back to quality and think about what we are giving people.”

Trusted Reporters

News gathering and reporting with the truth factor in the nature of journalism is seemingly the missing quality of what is happening in media overall. This gives an opportunity to take a higher road for evangelically minded journalists. The writer of Proverbs 13:17 writes that while a “foolish messenger brings trouble, a trusted reporter delivers healing.”   In speaking to a group of journalists who work at a media ministry in Colorado Springs the message from Pew is encouraging. Recently the news team from Citizen Link, a news source from Focus on the Family changed from a news feature that had the quality of preaching to the choir to a new feature that doesn’t tell people what to do but asks better questions instead.

Affiliates, Alliances, Associates

This report from Pew is an encouragement that the changes from Family News in Focus  but in hindsight affiliates are reporting traction and increasing listener-ship with the new Citizen link feature- and in the motive, the approach, the quality and the power of truth in journalism, listeners are turning it up. This is the same thing with the social media and viral appeal of the Stoplight feature. Stewart Shepard, the host of both media features has been branded “the worst person in America” by the snarky host of the Daily Show, Jon Stewart, and “a true patriot” by Fox News talk show host Bill Reilly. The branding change from Action and Public Policy to the truth and interactive components that Citizen Link has rolled out gives evangelical minded journalists better places for news consumers to find what they are looking for- bottom line, unfiltered truth. http://www.citizenlink.com/stoplight/

The Mission is more than coffee

Brett Bixler and family are both officially and unofficially open for business in Colorado Springs. Mission Coffee Roasters is locally roasted and brewed at the cafe on Ridgeline and Voyager Parkway (three blocks North of Interquest). On Saturday many of the readers of examiner.com and the East Coast Cafe Blogs showed up. Coffee-houses in Europe and more recently in the USA have been places where people can talk issues and start, support and sustain relationships and quite frankly get their news! Training of Baristas began and mission people are empowered to dream-dreams, schedule meetings and devotions and drink “really good coffee with a mission.” Church coffee houses are buying coffee and free consulting for their in-house coffee bars at their churches. Mission coffee sponsors great evangelical; special needs ministries and media and culture reports from this pastor, reporter and media professional, and is a prayer-point ministry for the National Prayer Examiner and Front Range Thinking community groups. Come in, buy a specialty drink and get a free tall cup of dripped gourmet coffee for free. To find out more, please e-mail Missioncoffee@juno.com.

Prayer Points will move to Tuesdays at Mission Coffee and Cafe

http://www.examiner.com/article/points-of-hope-peace-love-and-joy?cid=db_articles

Every individual and organization has five major points of influence in their community. Three of those points are common to all followers of Christ. At the Ministry of Leadership and Communications the goal is to recognize that God gives all of us various areas of “sweet spots” to operate with and thank God we live in communities with lots of personalities, character, and talent. At MLC we try to work with leaders in recognizing their talents and then guide them in ways to use their gifts in acts of worship that build up the community.

Common-Union

Both privately and publicly God uses people to reach other people. Corporately the community should fellowship together in areas of evangelism (communicating the message of Christ.) There is also the matter of planning through out-loud, prayer and praise. This accomplishes two things 1. We meet together and agree to bring our thoughts, needs and thanks to the table. 2. We listen for God’s direction in planning and in that way many a great plan has been tweaked and endorsed by God. This is the reason why Paul writes, “Don’t forsake the fellowship.” We need one another and when we meet in the presence of God prayer becomes a strong point in the process of building community. “When we get together in prayer and worship we can agree with one another and when we are honest with God and one another we are practicing good faith and the act of  “loving God with all our heart soul and mind and loving one another as we would like to be loved.”

Matt 22:40- Something to hang your briefs on!

Jesus says that “Love is the fulfillment of the law. “On it hang all the law and the prophets.” It gives that image from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury”  when the judge croons to the lawyers; “put your briefs upon the shelf- I will marry her myself.” In community building when you have people who love one another and God so much that they commit a routine of prayer together: good things happen!

Integration is integrity in action

When prayer becomes public relations and campaigning it is being manipulated through political means. The results  are often a case of “getting what you paid for.” God knows when you are praying your agenda and not so much your heart and mind. Yet when prayer is practiced in private and in public and it is integrated in your daily life at home, at work and in your community, it is a point of character development. It is a sign of leadership and more importantly servant leadership. It is also a sign of excellence in leadership. The praying leader, the praying husband and wife, the praying family, and the praying community integrates prayer (including God in the plans) in everything. By definition that is integrity. Show me a community whose leader’s private policy and public policy  align with God’s plans, and watch a leader with integrity and character emerge. 

Identify the solution

The Biblical standpoint,systematic theological living, and evangelical lifestyle are three sciences that we write and practice at MLC. While we don’t always get it right we don’t abandon the foundations. At Advent we wrote a study of the elements of preparing for the arrival of the baby Jesus. At Lent we prepare the elements of the risen Christ, and throughout our time of the year we prepare one another for his return. The elements of Advent are studying what God says about “hope,” “peace,” “love” and “joy.” As we wait in the waiting rooms of our culture, at terminals, hospitals, institutions, and car repair shops, we can choose to grumble at our delays, or we can recall the promises of God’s plan for you and me, “a plan of hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11), a plan of peace, “The Lord gives strength to his people” he sings, “the Lord blesses his people with peace.” (Psalm 29:11).  A law of love in a place where they say “you can’t legislate morality or immorality,” Jesus says our approach is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself ,” (Matt 22:39-40), and then there is the process of transformation in Romans 12 (“renewing your mind and heart as a living sacrifice), when we do that day in and day out we also fill and refill with the Holy Spirit which makes our joy complete. (1: John 14).

Likewise and Mission Coffee

At Mission Coffee we are meeting every Tuesday morning for Prayer Points at 6:30-8:20 in the morning. On Wednesday from 11:30 to 12:30 join us for the new Likewise interview program where we will interview community leaders, authors, pastors and others. On Wednesday nights from 6-8:30 Mission Coffee is hosting a new couple’s study, relationship and outreach series open to all area churches. On Mondays you can read about Evangelism, Tuesday, Prayer Points, Wednesday, Media that feeds culture, Thursday, Special Needs Ministries, and on Friday, Community Building on the Front Range.  Starting Monday, March 18, bring a copy of this syndicated column and get a free cup of drip coffee when you buy a handcrafted barista Drink at Mission Coffee Roasters. To register for Mission Coffee Gatherings please e-mail Missioncoffee@juno.com. Mission Roasters opens next week March 18 and is located on Ridgeline east of Voyager parkway and three blocks north of Interquest. For information and to order coffee for home, work or church no matter where you are please call  888-673-4069.

Mission Coffee Roasters near Colorado 80920

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Mission Coffee Roasters Inc

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• 11641 Ridgeline Dr
• Colorado Springs
•  (719) 203-5163