Can coffee fuel evangelism? If it’s Tommy’s Coffee, then “yes!” say directors Luke Porter and Joel Barwick, who founded the kingdom-building coffee ministry last year.
The coffee cart, based in St Thomas’ Church, Newcastle, first started serving customers in May with a mission to simultaneously caffeinate and connect with the city’s residents.
Both on staff at the church, Porter, the creative director, and Barwick, St Thomas’ youth pastor, had the idea for a church coffee shop back in 2019 after a free pizza outreach.
Just recently, St Thomas’ baptised one young woman whose first point of contact with the church was buying a drink from the coffee cart. “We’ve been really encouraged by so many stories of people receiving prayer, finding community, and starting a relationship with Jesus all because they initially came in for a cup of coffee,” Porter said.
Staffed by followers of Jesus, whether members of St Thomas’ or other churches in the city, Tommy’s Coffee is focused on kingdom mission right down to its beans, roasted by CLO, a kingdom-minded roastery in Leeds.
