Phoenix Community Coffee Pursues a Higher Calling

"Coffee, according to the women of Denmark, is to the body what the Word of the Lord is to the soul.”
~ Isak Dinesen, "The Supper at Elsinore"

Although it's located in an unassuming strip of businesses in Duluth, a visit to to Phoenix Community Coffee is an intoxicating experience for the senses. The pleasant aroma of the roasted coffee is complemented by the delicious piping hot cup of coffee offered, which culminates in the warmth of everyone encountered in the building. These elements only scratch the surface of what’s going on to drive the business, however. The men behind it have something larger in mind.

When Brian Holland, Jeff Bagwell, and Greg Sweatt each left large, profitable churches to start a ministry focused on helping people in trouble, they knew they had a lot of challenges. “We felt in our hearts that we needed to focus on the people that are in need. The broken, hurt, desperate, addicted, and disconnected people,” said Holland, “weren’t getting the attention and focus that was needed, and we felt that frustration."

Opportunities for larger churches with better pay presented themselves to each, but that wasn’t going to accomplish what they wanted. “My wife and I were on a mission trip in Brunswick, GA, and I had a sleepless, fitful night trying to figure out what the Lord had in mind for me. I ran into my wife in the hall at 7:00 the next morning, and she could tell something was wrong," he said. "I told her it was time to quit and start a church to help the broken, and she supported the idea immediately."

Today, via the Phoenix Community of Atlanta, they focus on several primary needs, including but not limited to homes for single mothers and their children
, addiction recovery and spiritual mentoring for men
, a prison ministry for men and women
, monthly food distribution to create economic relief, and long-term recovery for adult women who have suffered childhood abuse. And while it’s one thing to plan to help the downtrodden, the first order of business is how to come up with the money to do it.

“We all knew that the church has a credibility problem in some circles," said Holland. "The perception, right or wrong is that they're driven by money. So we decided to set a goal to ensure that 100 percent of donations to the church would end up in the hands of the people that need it." The team understood that it would be a challenge to run their church and secure a space for worship, much less pay the pastors. They were so earnest in that goal that they shared a single salary between the three of them for the first two years of the non-denominational church’s existence. Enter the Phoenix Community Coffee concept.

Over lunch at Pepperoni’s Pizza, Holland, Bagwell, and Sweatt discussed the best way to earn the money to run the church without using donations. Eventually, the subject came to coffee. Everyone drinks it, so it’s not a matter of asking for donations, and the profit would go to a good cause.

From there, they had to find out where to get the beans, what kind of roaster they wanted, and a plethora of other decisions. Fortunately, they discussed the problem that they had with friends associated with the Young Life Youth Fellowship program, which had a coffee bean grower in Nicaragua that they were working with.

“It was important to us that this be a tremendous cup of coffee, so that people would remember it and come back for more,” said Bagwell. Sweatt was put in charge of doing the research to find a roaster that was foolproof.“We wanted something that someone as ignorant as we were could still use to roast a great bean," he said. Having settled on the type of machine they needed, they waited and prayed, and fate again lent a hand.

Through an acquaintance of Holland on his son’s lacrosse team, they were able to find the perfect roaster, owned by a Nicaraguan businessman but sitting idle at the Mall of Georgia. “We visited with him for four days and shared our vision. “At the end, he told us that we could use the roaster for free: ‘If it blesses you, it will bless me’ is what he told us.” The roaster and associated equipment were moved to the building where Phoenix continues to minister and worship.

Along with the Phoenix Community Coffee concept came the "Plant, Grow, Brew" analogy, which is relevant to both the coffee and the church: PLANT (Bean, Pastor): GROW (Tree, Church): BREW (Cup, Community of Love, Service).

The challenges of a church, ministering to their many causes, supporting a flock of 200 (in an unassuming garage-sized meeting room), and running a burgeoning coffee business consumes all of the team’s time, but they have even grander plans -- expansion. They plan to open another location for worship/support in Buford in the next few months.

“We’d like to eventually start 20 churches of this size and support them via the coffee business,” said Sweatt. Holland added: "If we could give the kind of transformational support at all of them that we give here, imagine how incredible that would be."

Isak Dinesen would be pleased to know just how right she was.

Phoenix Community Coffee is located at 2650 Chattahoochee Drive, Suite 400. For information call 770-884-1496 or email info@phoenixatl.org.