Posts Tagged ‘Community’
Mexico Mission Team
Posted in Mexico, tagged 1Mission, Community, family, Mexico, Mission trip, Missions, MYA, Rocky Point, Servants on June 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Spotlight – 8th Day: Coffee and Culture
Posted in Africa, Art/photography, God Story, tagged 8th Day Coffee & Culture, Amber Hunter, Arizona State University, art, ASU, coffee, college times, Community, community-trade coffee, Drink Coffee Do Good, Haiti, Land of a Thousand Hills, Music, Roosevelt Row, Rwanda, Shane Copeland, St. Georges Anglican Community on April 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Reblogged from Land of a Thousand Hills blog:
This week we bring you a great article on our friends at 8th Day: Coffee and Culture. We love what Shane is doing there! If you’re in Phoenix, check them out HERE!
Drink Coffee, Do Good
Coffee Shop Aspires to Bring Community to Downtown Phoenix
Perhaps the building’s former life as Just Breathe Wellness, a yoga studio, gives it the relaxing atmosphere. Maybe it’s what the building, now 8th Day Coffee & Culture, stands for that provides a sense of peace and calmness when entering through the black outlined doors.
Eighth day stands for “eternity,” or the “eternal day” in ancient terms, co-owner Shane Copeland says. The definition creates the purpose of the coffee shop’s 4,000 square foot space, which is to convey light, creativity and relationship.
“There’s enough darkness in our world,” Copeland says. “Creativity is a beautiful thing. As a place, we want music and arts and culture to be present and relationship is at the heart of it.”
The eighth day meaning carries on when 8th Day closes on Sunday. The building hosts St. George’s Anglican Community, of which Copeland is the pastor. The coffee shop and church are separate entities with some relational connection. The same calming ambiance is present when people in the building gather to worship God or gather over a cup of coffee.
A sense of community drives Copeland as a co-owner and pastor. St. George’s met at Roosevelt Community Church for four years before leasing the 8th Day building. Copeland says reconstruction began in April 2012 and took four months. The main room used to be a yoga workout room. Copeland says workers removed mirrors, knocked down some walls and installed fire sprinklers. Now, his congregation has a place of its own.
“We kind of felt nomadic and not settled,” Copeland says. “Having been able to move in here on Sundays has given us a sense of home.”
For 8th Day, it’s a place for good coffee and to connect with friends. Amber Hunter, a barista with curled strawberry-blonde hair, said she enjoys having a front row seat to watch relationships form or grow as people drink their coffee.
“I think this is a space you really have to come in and experience for yourself because I do think there’s something special here,” Hunter says. “We’re just at the very beginning of what this space is going to be, so I’m excited.”
Eighth Day, located on the corner of Second and Garfield streets, is welcoming from its exterior. Its warm red paint exudes an air of cordiality that draws a person closer. Trees, ordained with strings of lights and white paper lanterns, are planted in the middle of the patio.
Opening the door, a rich aroma of coffee beans invites the customer in. To the left, people talk amongst each other or type on their laptops. To the right, a barista behind the coffee bar greets regulars as old friends.
The baristas interact in a familial way, talking and joking amongst each other during a lull in the day. It’s rare to look over at the bar and not see the employees smiling. Hunter, also a St. George member, says the employees avoid gossip so no bitterness is between them.
“We’re very quick to work through that stuff with each other so that we can continue to support each other and that makes a huge difference,” she says.
Their love and connection with each other extends over the coffee bar. Alexandra Korsick, an Arizona State University justice studies major, comes to 8th Day twice a week with friends. She says the customer service is the friendliest she’s ever seen, and she appreciates that Copeland works behind the bar every so often.
“He’s so nice. I think it’s not often you meet an owner,” Korsick says. “You can tell he cares about it, which is a good thing to see.”
Throughout the work week, sofas, cushioned chairs and wooden tables fill half of the main lounge area. The other half is closed off by folding, black-trimmed dividers. Between the cracks, it’s possible to see sound equipment. Eighth Day encourages local artists to contact its art director or sign up for its open mic nights.
On Sundays, the dividers come down. Members rearrange the furniture and bring out chairs. The congregation faces the back of the room, where a table covered in white and purple cloths and a wooden cross stand. Copeland, who wore jeans and a blue-white plaid shirt two days earlier, dawns a white robe with black sleeves and collar. The wardrobe change seems to be the only difference in Copeland. His shoulder-length, curly black hair frames his oval face. His powerful tone draws his congregation members to listen just as the baristas cannot ignore his orders. As he leads the sermon, he uses the same hand gestures and smiles as he does when welcoming customers.
Shirts showing 8th Day’s slogan line a corner in the coffee bar area: Drink coffee, do good. This is the motto of its coffee provider, Land of a Thousand Hills, which allowed 8th Day to also use. Land of a Thousand Hills provides community-trade coffee from Rwanda, Haiti and Thailand. Eighth Day pays twice the fair trade amount. Three dollars go to the third-world farmers instead of half that price, so farmers can make a sustainable living.
“There’s something really powerful about being able to go and buy something you use every day, like coffee, and know that you’re making a difference in the world,” Hunter says.
The building also offers a back room for studying or conferences. St. George’s church creates a nursery from a separate room during Sundays. On the patio out front, customers bask in the sun in wooden chairs. Copeland says more people, regardless of faith, discover ways to inhabit the building.
“We’d want the community to be able to use it across the spectrum of life and, obviously, that would include spiritual as well as other components because we believe in the holistic need of people,” Copeland says.
Copeland says everyone has opinions around religion, and he doesn’t desire to argue with those upset about 8th Day hosting a church. Both entities, while separate, build community, he says. The Christian perspective of loving God and your neighbor as yourself motivates Copeland and workers, some whom are members, in the shop and church.
“We just want to be present at the table, in the community doing good, blessing the community,” Copeland says. “For people who think that religion doesn’t benefit community, all I can say is this is what we’re doing.”
Article Source: http://www.ecollegetimes.com/student-life/drink-coffee-do-good-1.2822302
Worship Under the Stars
Posted in Adoption/Foster Care, Missions, PhoenixONE, Worship, tagged Community, Foster Care, Huruma Children's Home, Jeff Gokee, marriage, North Phoenix Baptist church, Pastor Jojo, PhoenixONE, relationships, Ryan Axtell, Singleness, stars, Suresh Kumar, unicorn, unity, Worship, Young Adults on April 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I enjoyed PhoenixONE tonight. I got to worship with all my friends under the stars. I also got to catch up with some dear friends that I have made over the years while on mission in other countries. I met Pastor Joseph “Jojo” while in Kenya at an orphanage. He was brought to the orphanage at a young age and is now the Pastor there. I got to hang with him a couple of times this week and we had some great talks. I also chatted with Suresh Kumar from Harvest India for a little while. He gave a special prayer over us and I’ve always appreciated the role he has played in my life. I have had many great God moments with Suresh over the years. Jeff Gokee interviewed some friends of mine that recently got married – Johnny and Criselda Sweet. They have a great testimony and it’s awesome to see a couple that is sticking it out and doing marriage right. My good friend Ryan Axtell led worship and Jeff gave a pretty awesome message on relationships. After years of working under him in 5th/6th grade student ministries, I have never heard him speak on dating and was pretty impressed with his talk. He was pretty hard on both the guys and the girls, but I felt he did it in love and it was a sermon many of us here needed to hear. Ryan and Sara Senters gave their testimony of having foster kids afterwards and I enjoyed them sharing their heart. It was a beautiful night and a blessing to spend with good friends!
Making a difference in a child’s life
Posted in Adoption/Foster Care, PhoenixONE, tagged Aaron McRae, Adoption, Child Sponsorship, Christian Family Care, churches, Community, Compassion International, Cornerstone Young Professionals, Foster Care, Hillside Community Church, North Phoenix Baptist church, Orphans, PhoenixONE, Robbie Seay Band, Song of Hope, testimony, Worship, Young Adults on March 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »
A few of my friends shared their testimony in this video. I’m excited to see how PhoenixONE helped them get connected in the church community. One of the things I am loving that PhoenixONE is doing is promoting some of the wonderful organizations out there. I have always felt this is the generation to make a difference in the world. Christian Family Care is an organization that provides adoption/foster care/counseling to kids in crisis. It’s a wonderful organization and lately there has been a growing movement within the local churches to abolish the number of kids in the foster care system (over 12,000).
Another awesome organization that has been doing great stuff for many years is Compassion International. Robbie Seay Band led worship tonight and Robbie talked about what they are all about. Compassion provides child sponsorships to the many orphans around the world. For as little as $38 a month, you can make a difference in the life of a child by sponsoring them monthly. It provides food and clothing for the an entire month. I started sponsoring my child Ladouceur from Haiti back in 2006 when he was about five. He is close to teenage years now and I love getting letters from him. Tonight close to 40 children were sponsored by the PhoenixONE community. It’s funny that Compassion was brought up tonight because I have been praying about going to Haiti to visit my sponsored child. Tonight was also special for me as Aaron McRae from Hillside Community church was the guest speaker. He was a Pastor from my previous church and it was great catching up with him and Brian Wurzell – who is now going to be leading worship there.
Getting Older
Posted in Spiritual Growth, tagged age, at peace, Community, Getting older, Jesus, Redeemer, Restorer, Spiritual Growth, tears of joy, wisdom on February 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I feel old. Not old as in feeling like an old man, but older and wiser. I feel I’m entering a new phase of life. I feel calm and at peace. I feel more clear-headed with the decisions I make sure I bathed them in prayer before I make them. I have lived a life full of quick and rash decisions. I’ve made a lot of blunders as a result of it. But I’m pretty careful with who I surround myself with and who I let influence me. I guess they say you get better with age – like wine. Haha. But I am taking all the experiences I have encountered and learning how to life a full life from them. I don’t need praise or attention anymore. I have great mentors and people I can mentor. I have good community and I have a Lord and Savior who I look to for my worth.
It’s been an emotional weekend. After leadership training, I broke down in front of a large cross and just gave the moment to God. My friend Ansley walked by and hung out with me. It was good because I needed to get out what I was feeling. God is working in my life. He has been putting back the pieces for some time and has laid out a path for me. It’s good to be in His will and actually know it is the right thing to do. Life makes more sense and is way less stressful as a result of it. My grandmother is dying and I am very close to her. But I’m celebrating her not grieving because I know she loves Jesus and will soon be with Him. God has put wonderful people in my life to do life with. I didn’t seek them out, He gave them to me. I feel very blessed. My tears are of tears of joy because I am a child of God.
Faith, Art, Coffee and Community
Posted in Art/photography, God Story, Relationships, tagged 8th Day Coffee & Culture, art, art scene, Artlink Phoenix, coffee, Community, Downtown Phoenix, Drink Coffee Do Good, engagement, Eternal Sunshine of Bird City, eternity, fair trade coffee, faith and art, First Friday Art Walk, First Friday Phoenix, Food for the Hungry, God Story, Hope Thru Art, Joseph Sentrock Perez, Land of a Thousand Hills, mural, Phoenix, photography, Rwanda, Sentrock, St. Georges Anglican Community, Steve Malakowsky, urban community on February 1, 2013| 2 Comments »
Late last year, God led me to this little coffee shop in Phoenix. It has been amazing to see how he has used this little community in downtown Phoenix to change my life. Anywhere from taking pictures to being an advocate for Food for the Hungry and Land of a Thousand Hills or just drinking great coffee with an amazing community of people deep in the heart of the art district all came from hanging out at 8th Day Coffee & Culture. God is working here! He is bridging a community of faith through the local art scene and the story of community-trade coffee in Rwanda. It’s just amazing to see and be a part of! And how awesome that they are located right dead center in the heart of downtown Phoenix – a place city busting with a growing urban and arts community.
Just recently, Joseph Sentrock Perez painted this on the outside wall of 8th Day. It’s an amazing mural called Eternal Sunshine of Bird City. Sentrock moved here from Chicago and has become quite a well-known artist here in the local Phoenix art scene. Here is Sentrock describing his inspiration behind painting this:
I painted this on 8th day cafe, a coffee spot in downtown Phx. The phrase 8th day represented eternity. That’s why I wrote Eternal Sunshine of Bird City, a play off of the movie. I wanted it to signify an eternal blessing on the city Phoenix. Sharing our art and expression will forever bless the city of Phoenix aka Bird City.
A lot of the amazing art work displayed on the walls of 8th Day is organized by Steve Malakowsky (Hope thru Art). He is an amazing artist and has a huge connection with the local art scene. One of things I love is his project to display art from the homeless population here in Phoenix. The funds made go back into helping them out. He’s a great guy and I love his heart for art and people. Tonight, the Food for the Hungry artists displayed their art for the First Friday art walk and were able to showcase God’s heart for the less fortunate through their pictures and paintings.
So one of the most amazing God stories to come out of this place is the story of Juliana and Daniel. I met Juliana while teaching refugees last summer. God has used her in so many ways in my life that I can’t even write it all. She’s an amazing talented woman and I am so thankful for her friendship. In fact, I found out about 8th Day through her. Daniel is the manager of 8th Day and has become a dear friend and brother. They met at 8th Day and have recently got engaged here. I love this story and was in tears when I heard about this. I am so happy for them! Pastor Shane of St. George’s Anglican Community was on hand to bless them and I pray for a long and happy marriage for them! God is good and He is working everywhere!
Community Group – Prayer
Posted in Passion, tagged 268 Generation, Community, Community Groups, family, Georgia World Congress center, Headed to the Dome, Passion, Passion 2013, Passion walk, prayer, silence, Students, walk in silence on January 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Tonight just blew me away. I didn’t even know how to begin processing what I experienced. That’s why I love the Passion walk back to community groups that they do on the last night. We were instructed to walk to our groups in complete silence the whole way. They really want us to take it the night and process. It was incredible to see this many students walk in silence. You should have seen the look on the security guard’s faces. When I got to my community group, we were given some questions to answer within our group by Gregg Matte. As we began to start, the one female of our group asked if we could pray for her. She was experiencing oppression from Satan the whole time at Passion. Instead of doing the questions, we decided to take turns praying for her. It was an amazing time for us leaders to come along side our sister in Christ and be there for her. This is why Passion does community groups, so we can do life together.
The Power of Community
Posted in Passion, tagged 268 Generation, Atlanta, Brett Younker, church, Community, Cornerstone, David Booth, Georgia Dome, global impact, Headed to the Dome, Jesus, Judah Smith, living stone, Louie Giglio, Passion, Passion 2013, Passion World Tour, The City church, Vancouver Canucks on January 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »
They showed a video showing the global impact Passion has had on the world. Passion does a world tour every summer and we were asked to pray for the all the different countries. Louie Giglio brought out David Booth of the Vancouver Canucks to talk about his passion for Jesus. I love seeing people in celebrity status that are willing to make a stand for Christ. Next up was Pastor Judah Smith of The City Church to preach the next session. I actually got to attend The City Church when I was visiting my father in Seattle. Judah spoke to us on community from 1 Peter 2:1-10.
God is singular in character, but plural in person (Genesis 1:26). He is in community with Himself and we are made in His image.
Church = Community
God intended for each of us to live in community. If we are alone, it isn’t good because God designed us for community. We are to reflect His image and without community, the world will not see God. It is impossible to accomplish our goals without each other because we need each other. In 1 Peter, God describes us like a living rock and He intends to build something authentic and real in our lives.
It’s imperative for us to stay connected even though it isn’t always easy. Our community (the church) is different from the world’s definition of community. Jesus is the living stone – the Cornerstone. We are built around the living stone to make His portrait. Mercy, integrity, faithfulness – the definition of all of these is Jesus. The Bible isn’t a book of concepts and principles, it’s a book about a person – Jesus.
What makes our community different than all other gatherings? JESUS. He makes us unique. We are average without Him.
Community Groups
Posted in Passion, tagged 268 Generation, Breakaway ministries, Community, Community Groups, family, Gregg Matte, Headed to the Dome, Houston's First, humility, identity, leaders, Louie Giglio, Passion, Passion 2013, Pastors on January 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Passion wants to be more than just an event. So how do they make a conference of 60,000 people feel small? Community groups are the heart and soul of Passion. It is where we spend the week downloading, processing and praying about everything we are learning. I still stay in contact with people I did life with at previous Passion conferences. They randomly split people up into groups based off the color of our wrist bands. I was placed in the leader’s community group. Louie Giglio came and shared his heart to us on leadership and how important our role is. Gregg Matte of Houston’s First Baptist church (and of Breakaway ministries – a ministry near and dear to me) was our leader for the week. He is a senior pastor, an author and one of the founding leaders of Passion. He emphasized a passage of scripture to us in Genesis 1:27 about God creating us. Then in Genesis 1:28 we see that God blesses us. What we usually to do is put too much in between the part of God creating us and God blessing us. This has a tendency to shrink our hearts and we forget who we are in Christ because we get focused on the work that needs to be done. We need to know our identity and allow God’s work to flow through us. For me that comes with humility and being on my knees in prayer.
I’m always anxious to see who God puts me with to do life with. My family group consisted of seven guys and one female. They were from all over – Alabama, Texas, Colorado, etc. We spent our first night getting to know each other and talking about our respective ministries. I very thankful to have met these amazing people and I look forward to my time in prayer and growth with them.
Holiday Parties
Posted in Advent, tagged Advent, Christ, Christmas, Community, Hebrews 8:6, Holiday Parties, MYA on December 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Advent – Day 14
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
Hebrews 8:6 (ESV)