CCO staff reach out to students through local coffeeshop
If there is a desire to see Kingdom work happening at your coffeehouse, there is no better way to accomplish this than to partner with the CCO. It is a constant encouragement to be working with CCO staff.
We have experienced a more clearly defined relationship between coffee service and faith sharing since we started partnering with the CCO. It is hard to not get excited when you observe Allyson Barrante meeting with [Indiana University of Pennsylvania] students in the shop. As Linda Ference serves her students both coffee and a listening ear mixed with wisdom, I am reminded that we are doing what God has called us to.
My wife and I have worked in coffeehouses since 1995. We worked in shops through our time at the university and also through seminary. We became keenly aware that we were intersecting people’s lives in a more authentic way across a coffee bar then we were across a pulpit.
Al and Linda do a superb job of using the coffeehouse as a platform to build relationships with the students here. Both Al and Linda utilize the campus and their resources as well to do the same. The atmosphere that they create and the community that they build would be terribly missed if they were not a part of the Commonplace. They bring a desire to serve God in the community.
It has been our pleasure to work with the ministry of the CCO. I have been so blessed to be a part of this organization. At the last Placement Preview Event, I looked around and saw the way God was moving students around to labor in the ministry in different locations—I was excited to see that we are allowed to be a part of this.
—TJ Fairchild, Owner, The Commonplace Coffeehouse & Roastery
to develop men and women who live out their Christian faith in every area of life.
