Whatever Happened to the Rich Young Man?

The Church and the New Marginalized

Keith Foster

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781532693458
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Churches in the West are renowned for responding to the measured needs of the vulnerable within their communities. Yet what about those who present as self-sufficient? With no apparent or obvious needs? Whatever Happened to the Rich Young Man? The Church and the New Marginalized challenges the church to broaden its reach beyond welfare and to seek to engage with (what Foster calls) the New Marginalized (non-welfare demographic), those whose spiritual needs are just as great. Including two case studies within evangelical third place cafes, that are seeking to do just that, this book will awaken the church to embark on a broader vision.

Chapter 5

A Tale of Two Cafés, Part 1: The Friendship Café

It has been my privilege over the past two years to be allowed free and open access to two West Midlands cafés, both run by faith-based organizations. Although both organizations were out of different church affiliations, both considered themselves to be evangelical in the sense of subscribing to the four classic tenets of evangelicalism outlined by David Bebbington: activism, biblicism, crucicentrism, and conversionism.24 In my early interviews with the leadership and management of both cafés, they each expressed their objective was to create a café that enhanced the sense of local community, but doing so with a desire to see lives transformed for Christ with a gospel intentionality. This was (what some would call) their espoused position, what they said their objectives were. Both cafés also acknowledged their desire to reach a broad demographic of people, including (what I have termed) the New Marginalized. The subsequent two years of research, which involved many hours sitting in both cafés (some research can be fun!) provided rich and helpful insights into how successful (or not!) the cafés were at achieving these objectives. I am grateful to the management and staff of both cafés for allowing me to ask awkward questions and see these “works in progress.” I have divided my considerations and findings of each café into two chapters (part one and part two.) Following a little research background, these chapters will give some (hopefully helpful) insights into what I found as I strived to find out whatever happened to the rich young man. Perhaps he was alive and well and sitting at one of the tables, waiting for a second chance.

Research Background

As I mentioned in the introduction to this book, I have always had an interest, since my very own days in industry (particularly senior management), in the church’s relationship with the New Marginalized, those who are identified as self-sufficient and without any obvious or presenting needs. I had consistently felt this disconnect between my corporate life and my church life. I think I always endeavored to represent Christ well in the various corporate roles in which I found myself, but I could not see any obvious connection or church program I could invite my corporate friends and colleagues into. As an evangelist at heart, I was happy to be “in the mix,” sharing Jesus when opportunity arose, but I still had this nagging question: “How can the church engage with this (apparently) self-sufficient demographic?”

The issue was never really resolved, and even when I entered full-time ministry, the gap seemed even wider from inside the church’s perspective. At least prior to ministry, I was able to incarnate and get in the mix of all things corporate. Thus, when the opportunity arose to embark on a course of doctoral study, I wondered if this might be the opportunity I had been waiting for. Yet doctoral research has to contribute new insights in two key areas: practice and theory. What new theories would any such research contribute? And what new practical insights would this reveal and encourage? My first two years of study at Roehampton University were designed to primarily find out what the “gaps” in practice and theory were in this field. Perhaps others had already researched and covered this. I summarized my approach to this in chapter two, outlining how through conversations and discussions with Professors Paul Cloke and Chris Baker, I was able to position my research accordingly, as a new contribution. Somehow, I was not surprised when I discovered that very little had been written about reaching the self-sufficient demographic with the gospel. One helpful book I did find was one written by Bishop Richard Harries (previous Bishop of Oxford), entitled, Is there a Gospel for the Rich?25 Yet this was a non-research-based if well-written piece of work. Following discussions with my doctoral supervisors, it was becoming clear that my proposed research was indeed new ground.

Having narrowed down the focus of my research to investigate how evangelical Third Places might facilitate gospel conversations with the New Marginalized, I then proceeded to identify potential research locations. Two such cafés, out of evangelical traditions, became the focus. While they would not articulate their mission in the language of an academic thesis or research program, both had expressed their desire to create a place that contributed to the local sense of community, but do so with a desire to share Jesus. These two Third Places we shall call the Friendship Café and the Welcome Café. Let’s look at each café in turn and seek to capture something of what I found during my time in each.

The Friendship Café

Situated in Coventry, the Friendship Café is part of the outreach strategy of Phoenix Church,26 a medium-sized independent evangelical church. Phoenix Church had itself been through a significant paradigm shift with regard to its own identity and strategy prior to opening the café in the summer of 2016. From 2009 to 2016, the church had been involved in developing a missional approach to reaching the surrounding area of its church. Prior to this, the church’s general approach was attractional, basically putting on various events within the confines of its building, then inviting people to attend. This missional paradigm shift resulted in a number of what may be called incarnational projects (community based as opposed to church based), including allotments, music projects, plus the Friendship Café. Prior to Phoenix Church opening the café in 2016, the café unit had been leased from the local council by another nearby city church for a number of years. Just prior to 2016, the facility had largely fell into disuse, though still offering an early morning breakfast club for the local school and a youth club for local teenagers one evening per week. The leadership of Phoenix Church, with a new missional vision, saw this as an opportunity to position themselves within the heart of the community while at the same time revitalizing the project. Thus, they approached the leadership of their neighboring church to discuss the possibility of developing a café as a joint project. This was received warmly, with a joint café being set up and launched in June 2016. A year later, Phoenix Church took on the sole running of the café as their partner church moved their vision and focus into a different part of the city.

The Friendship Café needed a significant amount of work to bring it up to the standards of a public café. In addition to meeting public and legislative expectations of a community café, the management were also keen to have a clear vision. This vision could be summarized with two overall objectives: to provide a café that enhanced the local sense of community, and to provide a place that facilitated gospel conversations with a broad demographic of people. Practical aspects of the café also had to be considered: What will be the menu range? What price levels should we set? What hours should we (and can we) open? Who will join the café team? What sort of skills and people do we need? In order to fulfil the dual vision of the café, the management agreed that they would need to divide staff between those who could cover the practical tasks (cooking, serving, stock check, etc.), and those who would be gifted at sharing life and faith stories with any patrons who would frequent the café.

The Early Months

I mentioned earlier that the language of Third Place and New Marginalized would not be necessarily used by the café management and volunteers to describe what they were doing. This is often the case; theory can be a helpful tool, but we must not leave out the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Much of our systematic theology and theories are worked out in retrospect as we reflect on the activity of God. Theories and academia can go only so far when it comes to informing our projects. This said, it was interesting to interpret the development of (and interactions within) the café in the light of this theory. In the previous two chapters, I summarized the aspects of Third Place and café ethnography in both theological and sociological terms. In chapter three, I spoke about the theological categories of place, Kingdom, and gospel. In chapter four, our considerations in café ethnography were categorized into people, product, place, and machinery. For the remainder of this chapter, I will deal with these theological and sociological aspects, beginning with the latter.

The People of the Friendship Café

This, for me, is always the most interesting part: seeing the interactions of the people groups. Of course, this could be considered under two broad categories: interactions within the staff team, and interactions between the staff and patrons of the café. After all, it would be these interactions that would provide the core of the research outcomes. I had so many questions to find answers to:

1. What was the understanding of each staff member within the café, with regard to their purposes and objectives?
2. Was this espoused understanding reflected in what they said and did in the café?
3. What was the patrons opinions of the café, with regard to its impact on the local sense of community?
4. Had the patrons experienced any faith-based conversations and how did they feel about this?
5. What did the patrons feel about the dual objectives of the café team?

Before I outline my findings and answers to these questions, it would be useful to introduce the staff and patrons of the Friendship Café to you.

The Team

Lesley was the one to whom the Lord gave the original vision. A member of Phoenix Church’s leadership team, Lesley had always had a passion to serve Jesus. It was Lesley’s passion that the former tenants of the café saw in the presentation, and it was this that gave them the confidence to approve the original joint-working proposal. Lesley was great with people, great at making cakes, and she communicated the love and compassion of Jesus to those around her. Lesley had recently graduated with a first-class theology degree from a West Midlands Bible College. She majored in missional theology, which encouraged an incarnational and imaginative approach to mission. This collective background had ideally prepared Lesley to lead and manage the café project.

Yet as willing and able as Lesley was, good leaders realize that ministry thrives as we build successful teams that collectively understand and share the same vision. Phoenix Church was blessed by having its own training academy, part of which was connected to that same West Midland Bible College. A number of the students were placed at the church as part of their degree course; thus, this supplied a group of people, all of whom were embarking upon a missional course of study, to volunteer and serve at the café. Enhancing this were a number of local people: a young family who had come to Christ in recent years and had started attending the church (Mike and Stacey), plus Dave, a local guy who had an interest in matters of faith, but predominantly wanted to “play his part” in the local community. Other members of Phoenix Church would help out, too—including the pastor and associate pastor. Thus, the vast majority of the team were members of Phoenix Church, all understood the vision and values of the church, and all were passionate about making Jesus known. A further significant factor in the team was that they were all volunteers. No paid staff. They served because they wanted to.

This all sounds pretty “textbook,” but it was not without its issues. As people, we take ourselves wi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The New Marginalized
• The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Oil: The Welfare-Dominated Church
• Negotiating the Third Place
• Café Ethnography: A Unique Opportunity
• A Tale of Two Cafés, Part 1: The Friendship Café
• A Tale of Two Cafés, Part 2: The Welcome Café
• Theological Reflection and Conclusions
• Appendix: Questions for Reflection
• Bibliography