Mugs Café will be opening soon in the Argenta Arts District. Our vision is to become Argenta’s “third place” by opening a coffee shop. We want to do this in order to create a place where the church and community will cross paths seven days a week.
“Third places” [a term coined by Ray Oldenburg in his 1990 book The Great Good Place] are informal gathering places where people in a particular neighborhood meet to develop friendships, discuss issues, and interact and network with others. They have always been an important way in which the community has developed and retained cohesion and a sense of identity.
The motivation is simple
Jesus didn’t hang out at synagogues. Jesus hung out at wells. Wells were more than just a place to draw water. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture. Think of them as third places. Jesus didn’t expect people to come to him. He crossed cultural boundaries and went to them. So instead of building a traditional church building where people gather once a week, we want to dig a well where people gather all day every day.
An important point
We will not be a church with a coffeehouse or a covert church operation. We neither want to be covert nor overt. We will simply be just who we are.
Mission by proximity
It is so easy for us to withdraw to the comfortable confines of our Christian sub-culture. But that is not the example Jesus set. He crossed every conceivable demographic and line.
By building a coffeehouse, we will be able to create a place where connections will happen week in and week out. We can only image how many people will walk into Mugs Café to get a cup of coffee and end up finding a church.
