Last November I talked about The Brick Coffee House. It is the coffee house that the church I work for started up as part of our college ministry.
I’m not going to lie to you. In the really early days (last semester) I honestly wasn’t sure if we’d make it. I know. That’s not a good thing to say probably. But I wasn’t.
Clearly though, we did. And I couldn’t be more thankful. This is one of my favorite things we do, and it’s turning into something that students love. One of my favorite things about it is how little I have to do. I don’t mean that from the perspective of myself being lazy; I mean it in the sense that anytime you can hand off ministry, it’s a win. That’s what has happened here in a big way. I still book our Live @ The Brick acts for Friday Nights, and run things one of the four nights we’re open, but that’s about it. We have two volunteers who love what we’re doing, and run things the other nights with some other volunteers. I can think of few things I’ve experienced in ministry that bring me more joy than watching them make this place happen night after night.
This is never more true than Friday nights. On Friday nights we have a band come play for what we call Live @ The Brick. It’s one of my favorite nights of the week, because we generally have a really good turn out. Our volunteers KILL IT in the kitchen taking orders and making drinks for a line that can get ten people deep (if not a little more), and handle the whole thing like CHAMPS! While they do this, I may be making an iced drink, bringing a drink to someone, or rounding up empty glasses, but they allow me to just spend time talking with people, building relationships, and being goofy on the microphone between sets. I can not express enough my gratitude to these volunteers for everything they do, but I do my best to try.
Over the summer, our church family decided to make some drastic changes over here to make this part of our building more like a coffee shop. When I came in and saw it, it was like a brand new building! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Again, there are few words to describe how thankful I was to my church family for making the time/money/man-power investment into making those changes. It was a big confirmation to me that we are moving in the direction that God wants us to, and about how committed this church is to serving the college students of Howard Payne University. They truly desire to have a relationship with the students there, and have the opportunity to love on them, and they’re willing to do what it takes to make those things happen.
I love The Brick. I love what goes on here. I love the people it lets us connect with. I love the people who make it happen night after night. I love the people who made it possible to happen at all. It is one of my favorite places to be, and I am glad that God allows me to be part of the ministry that goes on here.
Grace & Peace,
Stippick
