Is this anyway to run a coffee shop? The Foundry SA

I decided to escape the Colorado heat for a bit and head to Texas to cool off. And what better way to cool off than a piping hot Americano at the local coffee shop. In a scene that is probably replicated across the town and probably goes against the natural order of things, Texans come in from the summer heat to stand in line for a cup of coffee. To be fair, they are probably getting iced coffee, or a frapaphooey, or some other sort of iced concoction but this “coffee-thing” didn’t not happen when I was growing up.

At any rate, a new coffee shop opened up near my mom’s so her and I dove into the humidity and walked on over. We decided upon arrival that the reason everyone one else looked so coiffed and cool was because they drove over and we look like bedraggled mops. The coffee shop is called The Foundry and what an interesting and trendy place for an all-volunteer, fair-trade coffee, Methodist-church supported affair. Yes, that’s right. The staff is volunteer, they make a huge effort to promote the arts and use fair-trade coffee and a portion of your purchase goes to help the church with their outreach programs. But before you (or maybe it’s just me) get all squeemish, the barista behind the bar was dressed in a really nice kilt and had a really nice purple tail at the back of his head; he was completely bald save for this tassel of bright purple.  Here’s the explanation from their Web site:

The Foundry is designed to foster thought, art, conversation, and community in a world that no longer pushes towards our churches. Instead of waiting for people to come to us, we have decided to move into the community and share the Gospel message through the building of relationships. People are going to need different things from us as we go along, and hopefully, we can provide for them as best we know how by showing them who Jesus is by our actions, not just our words.

I have to admit it does give me pause about going back but they do have a really great Americano and it’s nice that they are encouraging people to come together. There wasn’t anyone there pushing an agenda and had I not visited their Web site I would never have known of the church’s influence and I can smell holy water from 10 feet. So, there you go. One group’s way of reaching out into the community in a unique way. And run by volunteers!