Coffee Shop Journal

Over the past few months I have come to appreciate Boston’s North End neighborhood in a whole new way. This little Italian enclave feels like a place set back in another time. Filled with tiny streets lined with restaurants, bakeries and cafes, this place deserves the culinary attention it gets from all over the world! David and I, along with our guests today, could barely walk a block before we wanted to stop and sample! Lulu’s bakery is divine, with cupcakes that made our mouths water all day long. The restaurants are authentic, run by Italians cooking their food with love, exemplifying hospitality with their open windows and neighborhood women jabbering in back rooms. It was the very picture of the walkable city that we’ve been discussing here lately.

The North End used to be blocked by a double story highway: the object of Boston’s infamous BIG DIG. During the Big Dig they put the highway underground and built parks along the top of them. This connected the North End to the rest of Boston with a series of fountains, parks, benches and community spaces. Now the North End is experiencing rockstar status as a community neighborhood. Not only do those restaurants tempt you in, but you can see Paul Revere’s house, the Old North Church and so much more!

I love this city!

“Walk along its narrow, curving streets and catch quick glances of hidden courtyards and flower-bedecked fire escapes. Listen to the animated Italian conversations of the retired gentlemen sitting outside the Caffe dello Sport. Breathe in the scent of the nearby sea - when you’re not taking in the scent of garlic or olive oil from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of restaurants.” - Adam Gaffin

This is my (late) Watercooler Wednesday entry for Ethos - a cultural watercooler. Thank you Randy Elrod! 

I was asked to participate in a blog book tour, of sorts, by Ed Cyzewski, the author of Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life. I’ll be receiving my review copy of the book soon, so look for a full review soon! I’m looking forward to this examination of the intersection of culture and theology.

Coffeehouse Theology was released today, September 15th on Amazon and all the other online booksellers, so go take a look at it!

___________________

David and I are back in Boston tonight wandering through bits of our nation’s history once more with good friends. Everytime we head downtown for a history tour, I learn something new. So much to learn, so little time!

___________________

On a sad note, one of my favorite bloggers has chosen to shut his blog down today. I feel as if I’ve faced a personal loss! Do they make Hallmark cards for “I’m sorry you lost a blog today!”? Duncan MacFadzean, who attended Q with me in New York City, ended his six year run with  his blog, “What’s Your Point, Caller?” Duncan has lately started up a series of socially and economically responsible businesses, and his priorities have definitely been shifted into high gear! I’m proud of the work he is doing, but my heart is sad that I won’t see his blog light up on my reader anymore. Thank you, Duncan, for the support and the amazing conversations that have swirled around your writing. Stay in touch.

Visiting Christ Fellowship’s various campuses always causes me to come away shaking my head, amazed at the radically different personalities that have developed from one heart and one ministry. The City Place campus, also called the Ascent, seems like the bohemian, artsy little sister of the Christ Fellowshp group.

City Place itself is a mid-sized commercial redevelopment program, an outdoor lifestyle center that is about as hip as you can get in West Palm Beach without descending into gritty. The movie theater in City Place draws a huge crowd, diverse on a Friday night. Because of City Place’s location, it also can draw homeless or the folk from across the bridge in Palm Beach itself. Smack in the middle of this culture clash sits the Harriet Himmel Theater. Christ Fellowship houses its church in the theater every Sunday, from an early morning 9:00 service to the evening Ascent service for college and young adults. It is a hopping spot.

Today, at all of our campuses, we began sign-ups for our LifeGroups. At City Place John Poitevent (Campus Pastor) spoke on a fairly obscure passage in Colossians 4 where Paul lists the names of those people who have been ministering with him during his time in prison. As John preached, it became obvious that Paul’s cast of supporting characters are still around today: those who start but drop out soon, those who are Mama’s boys, those who travel to bring information to others, those who open their homes. As a kind of grand finale to the message, John had LifeGroup hosts come up front and tell about the purpose of their groups.

That’s when the goosebumps started.

They were a motley bunch, alright. Very diverse in their appearance and stage of life. All of them were excited about doing life in community, and their varying purposes of their LifeGroups stunned me.

“We are going to feed the homeless in Lake Worth every Sunday afternoon. We leave when the food is done.”

“We want to give college-aged girls a place to find support while they chase after God’s purpose.”

“We’re going to use dance and worship to bring glory to God.”

“We’re going to explore the biblical ways to reduce tension and stress as we live our lives. And oh yeah, there’s a martial arts component to this LifeGroup so be prepared to move.”

“I love to cook: come for a complete home cooked meal and then we’ll discuss God’s life.”

“I hate to cook: can someone bring food?”

“I don’t cook either, but we’re going to learn about the Living Water and then find a way to share it.”

None of them were alike; each group had their own purpose. They were wide in their diversity and awe-inspiring in their unity. I was entranced. I looked around the theater — criss-crossing beams overhead, wooden floors and dimly-lit chandeliers — and was humbled by the authentic community represented by this church-in-the-middle of the city. Then I remembered it was my church, and I wanted to cry.

Leaving, David and I literally had to push our way through the lines of City Placers signing up for a new adventure in LifeGroups. We walked down the stairs and looked at City Place itself — Starbucks tucked under the theater along with a few other shops, restaurants lining the roads and people everywhere. A church, a coffeehouse and a mission. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Tonight David and I shared a Johnny Rocket’s booth and indulged in chocolate milk shakes, onion rings and a killer game of dot-to-dots on my iPhone (yes….it’s a fun app). We had a great time hanging out and watching the kids come and go from this local hot spot. The movies are located nearby, and the high school football game had gotten out minutes before we sat down. Johnny Rocket’s was a hopping spot in our community tonight.

I thought about how hard we work to get kids into our church buildings, and yet how easily they flock to these community third places. One of the things I love about our church is that our student ministries pastor, Shaun Blakeney, understands how to show up in the places that matter. He was at the football game with some of his staff tonight making the connections that count. And there we were hanging out in a booth while our kids and their friends munched on burgers and fries. We adults are still trying to get the “church in the marketplace” concept, but our kids get it. They instinctively go where the action is. It isn’t the first lesson I’ve learned from middle schoolers and high schoolers, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last.

In my mind, the evening was accompanied by the 10th Avenue North song, “Love is Here…Love is Now.”

The shake wasn’t bad, either.

This is part of Watercooler Wednesday at Ethos - a cultural watercooler. Go check it out!

I found this description of the kind of community that happens when people are forced — for one reason or another — to leave their homes and wander through the town! This quote is from the book “The Piano Shop on the Left Bank,” by Thad Carhart. Its subtitle is “Discovering a forgotten passion in a Paris Atelier.” How can you resist a title like that? It is a great memoir of a man who rediscovers his delight of playing the piano for entertainment and private enjoyment. The writing is descriptive, and I almost feel like I am living in the quaint quartier of Paris myself. Which could explain my sudden craving for chocolate croissants.

Summer set in early and the sidewalks in the quartier came alive after hours. In a city where few apartments are air-conditioned, the terraces of cafes and restaurants become the common refuge from a whithering heat in the evening. The long light of June and July encouraged those gathered at the outdoor tables to linger well into the night, while swallows threaded the air with their shrill whistles. Before the August dispersion, everyone in the neighborhood seemed to revel in the slower pace that the heat imposed.

Something about that paragraph just caught my eye. I came away with several thoughts.

1. The people lived in a walkable neighborhood that had services like cafes and restaurants built into it.
2. Something that could be seen as a disadvantage (not having AC), was really an important part of creating a nourishing lifestyle.
3. The heat imposed a slower tempo on everyone — no one could escape it. Community events like heat waves foster a sense of “we’re all in this together.”
4. I want to sit at those cafe tables and chat with my friends until late into the evening. Now I just need to find the right cafe, coffee house or restaurant. And time. And people to chat with.

Doing a google search on left bank cafe’s yielded this review of one venue. It can be found at this site.

When you feel like having a coffee in a classic Left Bank café setting but shudder at the thought of neighboring a group of starry-eyed tourists (which is almost inevitable if you go to either the Café de Flore or Les Deux Magots), I have an alternative suggestion.

A few blocks away from the two oh-so-atmospheric stalwarts of Parisian café life sits a slightly less frequented etablishment: Le Rouquet.

* * *

People-watching here is as good as at the other two and you’ll feel better knowing that you’re not falling into one of the two biggest tourist traps in Paris.

Food is just okay, but that’s beside the point (well, unless you’re hungry). You can simply order a coffee (around €4 at the table; €2.50 at the bar, check Hillary’s advice on how to order coffee) and consider it your license to stay indefinitely. Watch the shoppers, read the paper, write a novel - whatever you wish. It might take you a few €4 drinks to finish the novel, but basically that’s the formula.

Founded in 1922, the café barely changed since its inception. Frommers informs us that the latest renovation happened in 1954. Tant mieux, as far as we’re concerned.

Who’s up for a trip to Paris?

There’s no doubt about it: Hurricane Ike blew into town today. Clouds went scudding across the sky and the palms are waggling back and forth. To me, the trees all look like they are cheering Hurricane Ike on…”Go get ‘em, Ike!” I resent them because they seem cheery about a hurricane running by in the Atlantic and Gulf.

Seeing the mild but breezy weather made me remember a scene from the old 1950’s game show, “What’s My Line?” David and I enjoy watching this piece of pop culture history because you never know what famous celebrities will be appearing, or what antiquated jobs some of the guests will have. A month or so ago a tall, handsome airplane pilot turned out to be one of the first hurricane hunter pilots. He told the panelists in the interview following his segment that he and his fellow hunters had “discovered” a hurricane 600 miles off the coast of Florida. You see, back in those days radar couldn’t alert us to swirling masses of thunderstorms. Hurricanes could come out of nowhere and surprise those of us silly enough to live on the coast. This early hurricane hunter was greeted like a rock star for possessing the ability to warn us when we were part of a tropical system.  Today as I drove along looking at the gusty, overcast day I remembered that early hurricane hunter. Back then I never would have known that my slightly nasty day was really part of a larger hurricane Ike.

Life in the kingdom is kind of like that, too. When the clouds are scudding along in life, we feel like the miniscule showers of day to day life really have no purpose. They just annoy us. But guess what? Sometimes the thunder storms of life are actually part of a much larger, swirling and whirling weather pattern. They are part of the bigger picture. While we wait for the glamor of “doing something for God” we might be missing the very part he has for us to play.

Once in awhile it’s fun just to remember the long “history” of the drink that pulls me into the nearest coffee shop every day! So tonight I did a little tiny bit of research.

• One billion cups of coffee are consumed every day.
• “The whirling dervishes of the Islamic Mevlevi Order achieve religious enlightenment by sharing a ceremonial red pot of coffee, then chanting to Allah and spinning in place for hours on end.” — wow…the spinning alone would mess with my head.
• 17th century English coffeehouses put out their own coinage for customers to use! Hmmm…is that kind of like the first Starbucks card???

And a couple of fun quotes I found to round out your day.

“A morning without coffee is like sleep.”

“Behind every successful woman….is a substantial amount of coffee.” - Stephanie Piro (1996)

“I think if I were a woman I’d wear coffee as a perfume.” - John Van Druten (1901-1975)

“The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannont be expected to reproduce.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1891)

Taken from “Coffee Time” by Patrick Merrell and Helene Hovanec. They are surely friends and companions, even though I have never met them!

We are nearing the end of the first week of Starbuck’s introduction of new, healthier for you breakfast foods. I’ve gotta say…I’m a fan. So far I have enjoyed the Berry Stella bars, which are moist and full of whole grains. One small Berry Stella bar can hold me for a whole meal. The fruit and nut bars are fun, too. They remind me of a rice krispie treat gone healthy. I used to make a bar somewhat like the fruit and nut bars every time we had a hurricane approaching. My neighbors learned to love the Hurricane Bars, too, and we all survived on them for a week or two at a time during the nasty hurricane season of 2004.

Perhaps the most interesting addition to Starbucks’ lineup is the perfect oatmeal. I read on one Starbucks site that the development team took quite some time perfecting the steeping and preparation method for the perfect oatmeal. Their goal was to offer a quality product, properly prepared, without impacting the aroma in the store. No matter how homey oatmeal might smell, Starbucks wants its stores to retain their coffee aroma. After all, Starbucks has worked hard to create just the right atmosphere with the right aromas swirling around us as we type away on our laptops or read our books. So Perfect Oatmeal had to learn to behave as a supporting player, not a starring role: great food to eat, but let the coffee carry the day.

Yesterday my friend Julie and I were sampling some of the breakfast offerings when I related the story of Perfect Oatmeal and the perfect aroma. I realized as I was telling the story that life as a church, or an individual walking in the kingdom, is like that, too. We need to determine what our primary purpose is — what aroma is the one we want swirling through our lives — so that we know what other “good” aromas we need to eliminate. I need this lesson. There are so many good projects I can particapate in: people I could help, places I could write about or investigate, friendships I could develop. But all those good things need to come into alignment with my primary purpose in life.

This is the paragraph where I should write what my primary purpose is, and explain how I am making choices to carry out that purpose. I promise you…if I had the slightest idea I would do that! But like most of the people I know, I’ve never really boiled it down to concrete terms. Yes, I want to live in my community and make a difference in the world. I want to point others toward kingdom life. I want to grow and nurture my family. But I don’t know how I want to go about accomplishing those goals. Do I write? Do I read? Do I turn outward or inward? I’m not quite sure what “aroma” God wants for me, but I do know I want it to remind me of my favorite coffee shops: warm, rich in texture and full of purpose.

My house is located a smidge ahead of that last red hurricane symbol. No matter how you look at it, we’ve got a busy week ahead of us!

I know this is crazy, but I don’t mind the run-up to a hurricane. I like the activity, the willingness of strangers to help each other, talk to each other, wish each other well. I like buying ice cream in case the power goes out and we have to eat it in a hurry.

Then I like the hurricane to curve and go out to sea. I don’t want to watch my screen fly away again! So join me in saying “Turn, baby, turn….”

It’s a big award, and it means a lot to us…David and I are the customers of the week at our favorite Starbucks! I sound facetious but I really am not. It’s fun. So in return… the Starbucks outside of Macy’s at the Gardens Mall wins our Starbucks of the week award!