Drink Coffee, Plant Churches

Members of New City Christian Reformed Church in Kansas City, Mo., do more than just drink coffee after church. Their coffee also helps plant churches.

New City buys its coffee from 29 Coffee , which, for every $10 bag of coffee, donates $5 to planting churches in the region of the buyer's choice.

Casey Cease, director of 29 Coffee, said the owners of a successful coffee company approached Johnny Walker, founder of a church-planting organization called Acts 29. “What if,” they asked, “we can use coffee to start churches?” That question led to the birth of 29 Coffee in 2010.

New City Church is part of the Acts 29 network.  According to Ministry Associate Ryan Pelton, church planter for New City, the Kansas City church is the only Christian Reformed congregation in the network of churches from more than 20 denominations. Each church started through the network shares a Reformed theology and a commitment toward male leadership. So far, 12 of the churches in the network have been started with funding from 29 Coffee.

Cease said they hope not only to help plant new churches, but also to encourage more businesses to see their ministry potential. As Walker said of the owners of the coffee company that became 29 Coffee, “The real story is two people who took the gifts God gave them and said, ‘What would it look like if we took these gifts and completely turned them over to ministry?’”