In my work as a coffee shop evangelist I carry a message. An evangelist is literally someone who brings good news. I used to assume that meant simply telling good news. But I have come to realise that the gospel - the good news - is not simply a set of propositions to be communicated. It is a story to be narrated, a way to be walked; the gospel can be lived and practised and shared as well as told.
This time last year I got together with two colleagues to brainstorm evangelistic ideas for Christmas and 'suspended meals' was born. You may have heard about 'suspended coffees', an idea which popped up on social media a couple of years ago. Starbucks, Lord love 'em, even ran a neatly corporate version of the suspended coffee scheme last Christmas. In Starbucks you could add an extra £2.25 to your bill which paid for 'a coffee' for someone else. The proceeds were donated to Shelter. This is good as far as it goes, but the original idea was that, after you had paid for a suspended coffee, someone who couldn't afford one could then come in and ask for a free coffee, paid for by your donation. Someone in need would get a free hot drink and then enjoy their gift alongside the regular paying customers. The possibility of conversation, connection, even community would be born.
Last Christmas we printed a stack of flyers, I was let loose on the coffee shop windows with glass pens and we waited to see if customers would engage with the idea. We provided some Christmas cards, too, so that people could write a Christmas greeting to the person who received their gift. But would affluent Leigh people trust us with their money? Who exactly would be claiming the free meals? The solution was to operate a voucher system; for every suspended meal bought, a voucher was issued to the local food bank or to HARP, Southend's homeless charity. These organisations would decide how to distribute the vouchers, based on their knowledge of the people with whom they were in contact.
And then the money started coming in. Over £1,300 during December 2013, representing over 100 free meals. We had priced it such that people who came in for a free meal could have anything they wanted on the menu. And the customers seemed to love the idea. What pleased me most was that, while some of the meals were bought by church members, a great many were bought by customers of all faiths and none.
Five years ago I would have thought this was a nice idea, but not mission. I certainly wouldn't have seen this as anything an evangelist should concern herself with. If you weren't telling people the gospel, I wasn't interested. I didn't understand that the gospel has to be lived as much (if not more) than it is told. I hadn't reflected on the fact that, while many people aren't interested in religion, they still have a keen morality and a desire to help others. They can still see the beauty of a selfless act. And it hadn't occurred to me that perhaps, just perhaps, by giving people who didn't know Christ the opportunity to feed hungry people, we were giving them the opportunity to see his face in the faces of those they dined alongside.
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