At Tigard Community Friends Church we’re learning a thing or two about love in community. It is being humbly taught to us by a small team in blue T-shirts. The Abba Java barista team is serving it up: iced or piping hot, regular or decaf, whole or nonfat. The group pairs the seemingly small acts of pouring espresso and steaming milk with gentle smiles and warm words. We often can’t help but smile ourselves over our steaming, aromatic mugs as we search for a place to sit and share a conversation. Our coffee is too hot to gulp, so we’re obliged to sip and communicate our lives and thoughts to each other, learning what it means to be friends.

The simple idea began almost two years ago. A discounted machine was purchased and a few willing learners cheerfully arrived for training, enthusiastic to try their hand at lattes and steamers. It hasn’t just been about espresso. During those first few months, the team spent many Saturdays conscientiously arranging tables and choosing books from the church library to review and display. The group made huge pieces of simple artwork to display on the wall, some with sayings like “God made coffee beans” and “God’s spirit beckons.” Several artists and others in the church community displayed artwork in a gallery as conversation pieces. Music was played and questions were pondered. In the summertime, the worship service moved from the sanctuary to the middle of the Abba Java coffeehouse, providing a fresh and relaxing atmosphere for focusing on God. The sanctuary was designated a “sacred space,” with candles and areas to pray.

The espresso service seems like a luxury and I admit that even the thought of a catchy name made some of us wonder about the spiritual significance of the coffeehouse. Is the added expense worth the investment or is it playing into the consumer mentality we seek to avoid? Does sharing the ritual of the coffee drink that our culture holds so dear betray our Quaker roots and witness? As our body has wrestled over these thoughts we continually come back to the realization that there are some things about God and his ways for us that are only learned in community. Our time together has become much richer, much more worth savoring as we have been open to God speaking through the unforced conversations shared over coffee. George Fox said, “Let your lives preach.” Abba Java is one simple way we have found to gracefully allow our lives to overlap and speak to each other in a way that nothing else in the Sunday gathering will.

The Abba Java team introduced the phrase “Friends of the Tigard Community,” a play on the words Tigard Community Friends Church. This change has come to describe an understanding in our body that we’re here to love each other as Christ does, sharing in the messy work of friendship and Friendship and all that each entails. It’s an amazing thing—that God can use a caramel latte with whipped cream to help accomplish his desire of communicating love to us and through us. For now, it’s a means the Friends of Tigard Community are more than willing to live with!

by Katie Gates

Katie Gates and her husband, Nate, live in Tigard, Oregon. They are self-employed, allowing them to share lots of time with their two small daughters, Naiya and Karys. Nate and Katie are active members of Tigard (OR) Community Friends Church.