Yesterday, I introduced you to Michael Carpenter and Matthew’s Table. Here is the completion of our interview.
What role does Java Joe’s play in your ministry?
Most churches these days have some kind of café. Anywhere from a coffee pot in the fellowship hall to full blown coffee shops. We are not a coffee shop in a church. Our church is a coffee shop and our coffee shop is our church. In effect, Java Joe’s serves as a missional space. Alan Hirsch says that a missional space involves the creation of a third place where Christians and not-yet Christians can interact meaningfully with each other.
Church planting rests in the engagement of people in a meaningful dialogue around Jesus and spirituality in organic ways (i.e., evangelism). Java Joe’s, therefore, is a natural space for people to organically engage in discussions of meaning, spirituality, etc. In a way, people are allowed to “belong” to our church community by becoming a regular at Java Joe’s before they believe. By “belonging” I am simply referring to giving all people, wherever they are in their life’s journey, the opportunity to find love and community so that they can encounter the transformative power of Jesus and become like him.
What has been the biggest lesson you have learned through the birth of the Matthew’s Table?
First and foremost, SLOW DOWN. We were so eager to get things moving that in a lot of ways we took on too much before we had the structure in place to facilitate discipleship and we ended up loosing some people in the process. We want our structure to be more open source rather than complex and rigid – sort of like a stake supporting a tomato plant. What I mean is, even an organic tomato plant needs the support of a stake or the fruit laying on the ground would rot. Therefore, even this organic expression of a New Testament church needs “stakes.” But, we do not want the structure to be so rigid that we are not creating space for leaders to emerge.
Secondly, church planting is HARD. I think it is easy to get all these delusions of grandeur about planting a new church, but church planting is a constant source of frustration, disappointment, and letdown. Yet at the same time it is the most rewarding thing I have ever pursued in my life.
What are you reading that is challenging you the most?
First is Michael Green’s, Evangelism in the Early Church. In this book, he seeks to appraise some the aspects of evangelism in antiquity in light of recent study. He accomplishes this by looking at evangelism theologically. Without much effort one discovers that most theologians are not concerned with evangelism and most evangelists do not concern themselves with theology. So Green sticks closely to a theological study of evangelism to help the reader understand afresh the gospel the early Christians preached, the methods they employed, the character they displayed, and the extent to which they were prepared to think their message through in light of contemporary thought patterns so that the church today may be recalled to her primary task.
Second, is David Platt’s, Radical. I am currently teaching through this book on Sundays and we are reading it together as a church. Platt’s book messes with our American assumptions about who Jesus is, what he accomplished, what he expects of his followers, and what he has sent us to do.
How did you decide to launch the Protégé Program?
I borrowed the idea from Erwin McManus and Mosaic Church in LA because for us, it wasn’t and couldn’t be about just starting one church that got bigger and bigger- it had to be a church that would plant churches that would continue to plant churches, that would continue to plant churches. And to do that we needed someway to train and send leaders of these churches. The Protégé Program is what fills this need.
We currently have one protégé serving with us – Casey Turner. Casey will be finishing up her degree in Christian Ministries at Belmont and is doing a line of one-on-one study with me on the missional nature of the church. She is currently serving as a barista at Java Joe’s where she is responsible for not only serving coffee, but building redemptive relationships with our customer base. Also, Casey will be engaging students at Cumberland University with the goal of starting a Bible study on campus this fall.
How can people get involved in Matthew’s Table and Java Joe’s?
First and foremost prayer. We need those spiritual warriors who will commit to pray for us daily. Secondly, we could use some committed followers of Jesus who could come in, embrace our vision, and serve as marketplace missionaries in our city. Third, we need financial support. While, the TBC and Nashville Association have been generous in funding our efforts, none of our pastors, including myself, receive a salary and that can make things difficult for us and anyone else who may want to join us. Furthermore, my the house we had been living in has been sold out from under us, so we had to move about 6 weeks ago and start paying rent which always takes some “creative” efforts to make each month. Lastly, a personal request. I am in desperate need of some dental work, but I have no insurance. So if someone reading this is a dentist or knows a dentist who would do some pro bono work it would be greatly appreciated.
