Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Radford Coffee Company

There was something happening in Radford – percolating under the surface. On December 21, 2015 it happened.

Radford Coffee Company opened and the paradigm shift began. They have been entrenched in paradigm shifting because it is what this city needs. It is what Southwestern Virginia needs. It is what the world needs. They have become experts in translation. To this non-profit, coffee translates to clean water. Biscotti translates to education. Lattes translate to shelter. That is the tip of the iceberg.

JUST TO HAVE MET BARBARA AND ERIC IS WORTH $3.5 MILLION.

The manifesto of the 21st Century coffee shop has become outdated.
Radford Coffee seeks to stop doing what is comfortable. Contrast is good.
When broad, go narrow.
When tall, go low.
When wide, go tight.
When bright, go dark.
When certain, get lost.
When obscure, go clear.
We look at the transformation occurring in the New River City from varying distances  because of Radford Coffee Company. Every distance tells you something different. Contrast is to mission as dance is to a dervish. Always honour the context

Go first with camouflage.
Then illusion.
Then interpretation.

Always listen.

Go south. Go east. Go west. Go north.
Just get the hell out of Starbucks.

Radford Coffee Company is about reclaiming the world. It is about helping the world finding her way back to Christ and the poor, instead of the world ruining most everything she touches.

Radford Coffee seeks to go in-between the obvious corporate plans. They find threads of ideas and keep working them. Think Bach fugue.

Radford Coffee’s relationship to the Rio Coco and Nicaragua = syncopation. Syncopation means to initiate the threads. Choreograph the threads. Pull the threads all the way through.

We have seen other coffee shops and mission ventures fail. They adopted the lawnmower approach. And grass can be consistent. This makes percolation and Gospel boring. Radford Coffee has seen this. They have eclipsed this danger. They know that true evangelism is when we don’t know it happened.

A column of faith does more than hold things up. It inspires. It resonates. It guides. It
impacts.

For them, witnessing is not a formal inquiry – it is an expansion of life.

Every mission field is a unique microcosm. The City of Radford must completely arrive at 333 West Main Street and rediscover this fact. To really spread the light, it is best to start with total darkness.

Variation on a theme is a wonderful construct. It is to play with rules. There must be rules. Play is the verb. There witnessing can happen. First you must have a theme.

Breakthroughs of concepts are a way of life. You cannot will them, they come only via utmost faith and rigour.

The Gospel of Christ is a thing well played. The faith of the patrons of Radford Coffee will dictate the next steps. This will happen because they are not entering blind.

In order for Christ to be magnified in Radford and the Rio-Coco, there must contain seeds for the next 60 years multiplied into the infinite. Backing up leads to finding more. Radford Coffee has activated the exponential.

The process of evangelism is a case of many avenues moving in different directions at varying speeds simultaneously. That is the nature of the process. Such can be relished, and they are doing what HE has called them to do.

The world fears overstepping boundaries of the contrived. Radford Coffee Company has done just that. ALLELUIA.

Politics. Fear. Tip-toeing. Avenues. Expectations. Status quo. Perceived norms. They have thrown them all through the window of the status-quo business model. They have shattered the panes.

The Third World is the future of our planet. The First World must decrease. Not disappear, just shrink, get poorer, invert, release. Tomorrow’s world is not about making things equal.

Security of the Gospel is not a matter of maintaining peace or achieving economic affluence.
It is a direct product of justice and hope. This is what Radford Coffee is. This is what the Rio Coco is.
BUILD CHRIST. BUILD CHRIST. BUILD CHRIST.

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