Coffee 101: A lesson in grounds and Gospel

Kingdom Growers doesn’t just teach farmers about Christ and coffee production. We also teach youth in our community.This past December, eighth and tenth grade girls from the First Baptist Church of Forney, Texas, took a tour of our warehouse to learn more about our operation and mission. We taught them about roasting, cupping, brewing, and packaging. They even got to sample our roasts.By opening up our warehouse to these eager students, we included a bit of the Forney community in the Kingdom Growers operation. This fulfills part of our purpose—to not only grow coffee but to also grow young followers of Christ.“There was quite a bit of information given to us,” Kara Lyles, an adult leader, said after the tour. “It was all good! I guess something that got me thinking was the process itself. I didn’t realize all of the detail that goes into the production of a product.”But, we also told the group about Kingdom Growers’ ultimate goal—which has nothing to do with coffee beans and baristas. We told them about our desire to see Christ’s name proclaimed in coffee fields, and in villages and cities, around the world. And, we want to see it proclaimed in Forney.Coffee helps us work toward this goal because it acts as a connection. It helps us develop relationships with farmers. It helps us show them love by increasing their income. It helps us create scenarios in which we can share the Gospel.And, although there are no coffee fields in Forney, we told our visitors that Kingdom Growers beans could provide the same opportunities for them. Coffee could still be used as a conduit for Christ’s love. To illustrate the point, we took them to a local fire station, where they distributed the coffee they had brewed to grateful fire fighters.“I never knew that we, as Christians, can use a cup of coffee to tell others about Jesus and how many lives that one cup could change,” Joanna Edmonds, an eighth grader in the group, said about the experience.But ultimately, we told the girls, they didn’t necessarily need coffee to share the Gospel. They just needed willing hearts and a bit of courage to speak Christ’s message to those needing to hear it. As 2 Timothy 1:7 says:“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”