Episode 1

Sip Some Hope pt.1: Brewing Community and Faith in Small Town Friendly

Hope House Coffee is a relatively new coffee shop in Forest City that serves more than just great beverages—it's a ministry aimed at fostering community and supporting global missions. Mikel speaks with J.R. Blanton and Eddie Nichols, key figures behind the coffee shop's creation, as they recount the journey from its inception as a mission trip idea in 2017 to its current status as a non-profit in a former laundromat. They share the challenges faced, the divine guidance they received, and the unique impact Hope House Coffee is making both locally and globally. The episode also highlights the importance of community involvement, the significance of their chosen name, and a sneak peek into the favorite drinks of the founders.

00:00 Introduction to Small Town Big God

00:12 The Birth of Hope House Coffee

00:45 The Ministry Vision Behind the Coffee Shop

02:28 Inspiration from a 2017 Missions Trip

05:21 Launching the Coffee Shop Plans

05:51 Challenges and Career Changes

09:44 Starting Small: The Basement Coffee Shop

11:48 The Impact of COVID-19

12:19 Acquiring the New Property

17:27 Transforming the Laundromat

22:45 Hope House Coffee's Mission and Success

26:37 The Name and Tagline: Hope House Coffee

33:19 Community Impact and Leadership

38:33 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser

39:20 Favorite Drinks at Hope House Coffee

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Transcript
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Welcome to Small Town Big God, where we share stories of God doing amazing

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things right here in Small Town Friendly.

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My name is Michael Collins.

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And this is the story of Hope House Coffee.

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Hope House Coffee is a relatively new coffee shop in Forest City, just across

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the street from Element, and directly beside Thomas Jefferson Elementary.

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A lot of us here in Small Town Friendly were excited to have a new coffee shop

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in Forest City since I think, if I'm remembering right, we hadn't really

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had one since Village Coffee shut down.

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But there is a lot more to Hope House Coffee than meets the eye.

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Which is why I sat down with J.

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R.

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Blanton and Eddie Nichols, two people who were instrumental in

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getting Hope House Coffee started, to hear the full story from them.

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One thing that people don't realize about Hope House Coffee

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Is that it's actually a ministry.

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And we'll get more into that and exactly how that works later.

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But for Jr, the idea behind the ministry of the coffee shop really goes all the

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way back to 2005 during his time as the youth pastor for Alexander Baptist.

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There was a traveling evangelist that was part of a missions organization and

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we had a meeting, and I'll never forget, his name is Richard Sharp, he walked up

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to a whiteboard, it's not going to sound very profound, but it was profound for

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me at the moment, and he drew a square and he said, this is how we do church.

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You know, and I'm like, I got it, I was like, yeah, it's rows, stage,

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square and he got kind of emotional and then he drew a circle and he

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said, this generation coming up, this is how they're going to do church.

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And man, for me, like, I don't remember anything else about that, what he was

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saying, but for me, it resonated of like.

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I don't know what all this means, but man, it's stirring something in me that

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there has to be a shift and a change in the way that, at least in the context

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of small town, that we have known church in the way that we need to do church.

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So there was some of that, like, outside of the four walls of the church.

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Being the church that was being Sewn into my DNA back then

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So, since that fateful meeting during his years as the youth pastor, J.

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R.

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has had this idea that the church needs to be doing ministry that takes place

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outside of the four walls of the church.

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But how did we land on a coffee shop as the best way to do that?

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Well, the idea for a coffee shop, specifically, goes back

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to a missions trip in 2017.

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Me and Eddie were on the mission field in 2017 God was doing

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a profound work in our hearts and our lives and really our families.

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We had our wives our children We're doing medical clinics and we're

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ministering in a landfill And it's just like this horrendous smell.

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The, the landfill is perpetually on fire.

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But there's all this joy, there's a playground right beside it.

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There's these kids, there's joy.

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There's, you know, our wives are knocking it out of the park.

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My wife's a nurse, his wife's a nurse practitioner, like.

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giving health care to these families in need and praying

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with them and loving on them.

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And, we're drinking great coffee, like the best coffee ever.

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And we, we were, I was, I've been a coffee drinker for a long time.

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And it's just this paradox of.

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All of this poverty, all of this brokenness, need, lack, and then on top

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of that, you're drinking, like, The kind of coffee that you pursue back in the

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States, but you don't find very often.

Eddie:

We were doing a medical clinic in Asiatuna.

Eddie:

And we were working with a missionary friend of ours there

Eddie:

and he was telling us his story and how he was essentially homeless.

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And he got involved with a coffee co op.

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And from that he built his life back up and then he got into ministry.

Eddie:

He was saved and started using that coffee connection as

Eddie:

a ministry opportunity.

Eddie:

And I was like, J.

Eddie:

R., this is what we've been looking for, man.

Eddie:

This is like, and we both knew it immediately.

JR:

And we're seeing the need, you know, we're spending some time with

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some amazing mission organizations that we were partnered with that week.

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And there's need there, right?

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There, there's, there's great talented assets on the ground.

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Sharing the gospel, loving on people, meeting needs.

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And then you see, like, they're driving around in vehicles that they don't know

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if they're going to make it, you know, they're dealing with Need for more staff

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that they can afford all of those things.

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And so really that's stirred in me and him, you know, let's go back.

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Let's leverage the marketplace.

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Could we bring the coffee from here?

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to the states sell that coffee and then have an impact on mission organizations.

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And now both stateside and to the nations.

Eddie:

So I was like I need to find somebody with a phone that can call

Eddie:

the States, you know So we asked our missionary friend and I went out to

Eddie:

the van and I called Neil I was like, hey man, you've got to hear this and

Eddie:

I told him about you know Oscar story and what me and JR were thinking

Eddie:

and you know, Neil's a visionary He's like, yeah, it sounds great.

Eddie:

And he had already had it in his mind as well.

Eddie:

So From that trip, we really started launching the plans for the coffee shop.

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There were many others that had.

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A heart for a cafe or a coffee shop, a place for the community to gather

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outside the four walls of the church.

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Eddie and J.

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R.

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come back from Guatemala with this great new idea.

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They've got Neil, the founding pastor at Element Church, on board, and

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they're fired up and ready to go.

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But that does not mean that it's gonna be easy.

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And before any of it could happen, God was calling J.

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R.

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to make a major career change.

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My entire ministry, I've been bivocational but in 2019, I transitioned

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from being in insurance and also a lead team pastor element church to

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being a full time element church.

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And I kind of didn't know.

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Like I knew I was moving in obedience, but I didn't know

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all of the why, which is weird.

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I was 41 years old, you know, I had 10 years into that industry.

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I was sitting up for a really good long career there and I was okay with that.

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But the Lord had made it clear, Hey, I'm asking you to, to prepare

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yourself to make a transition.

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And then it became clear when it was time to take that step.

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But I still didn't know exactly why.

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I remember actually having a conversation with Neil Neil's the

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founding pastor, Element Church.

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And I was like, man, here's my concern.

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I said, I've always been bivocational.

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And I've always worked two full time jobs, you know, by vocational

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doesn't mean part time ministry, you know, you know, this you know, it's

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just, you do two full time jobs.

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Like ministry is your, is your, is a job it's work, but it was also for me.

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It was my hobby too, like I didn't have a golf game, I didn't, you know,

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like my free time I was thinking about when it was youth ministry, it was, you

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know, youth ministry growing impacting, making disciples and then same thing

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with Element Church as a, throughout its existence, being bivocational

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was, you know, really pouring into the leaders that were here on the ground.

JR:

That was a big part of, of my role in my ministry, but I make that

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transition in, in like the first day.

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Matter of fact, my first day is full time here at Element.

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Me, Eddie, Neil, we jump in a car and we drive to Washington, DC, get a hotel.

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There's a coffee shop there called Ebenezer Mark

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Batterson's church founded it.

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And it's.

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It's been in existence for like 15 years, and they leveraged the

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profits from that to impact ministry.

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And so we just went and sat in the coffee shop.

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Of course, you're in Washington, D.

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C.

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The line is down the sidewalk.

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But what I saw was, I saw Christian principles that we're familiar with,

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a good work ethic serving others not making it about yourself, like those

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are all great attributes that transition really well to the marketplace.

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And we saw that happen.

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There was like this synergy with the team that was making the coffees and they were,

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they were nonstop, but there was a joy.

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In that teamwork that you saw.

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And I think a big part of that was there weren't just making coffees to

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make some corporation rich, but they were a part of something that was

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bigger than themselves as a barista.

Eddie:

I mean, we think of Chick fil A as like, you know,

Eddie:

the Christian business model.

Eddie:

But seeing that there was really eye opening for us.

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We get back in the vehicle the next day when we're leaving out to

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come back and we're wrestling through like, what are the next steps?

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Okay.

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And I think this is where you know, you just see God's hand in this even early on.

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As we're driving back and wrestling through, like, do we rent a

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space in downtown Forest City?

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That was kind of the consensus thought of where we wanted to be located.

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Forest City has just turned into a beautiful little town again.

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The revitalization that's happened there.

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And so it's a desirable location right in the middle of the marketplace for us.

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We're going to go back to a church, which by the way, a church that had all of

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its own needs at the time, didn't have a children's pastor, you know, and that was

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a need like a full time children's pastor.

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We didn't have a lot of different things that we need.

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And we're going to go and cast a vision for them to build a coffee shop.

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And it's like the Lord just kind of made it clear as we're driving home, no,

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start it in the basement of the church.

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Start it in the basement of the church, do it as a, you know,

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kind of a perpetual fundraiser.

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See how the people respond to having a coffee shop, you know.

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And, and let the idea of the church building and owning coffee shop kind

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of grow organically through that.

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So we, we did that, which is kind of against our nature.

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Our nature is like, just jump out the plane, just jump off

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the cliff, let's go all in.

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And so it was a little for the way we have historically done things,

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anti climatic like, oh, okay.

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You know, but, but it was actually, It was brilliant because we, we didn't

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know anything about a coffee shop.

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We didn't know anything about coffee equipment and recipes.

JR:

And, you know, we knew none of this stuff.

Eddie:

me and J.

Eddie:

R.

Eddie:

We're going to food line and, you know, Walmart before church on Sundays

Eddie:

to make sure we had enough milk and creamer and things like that.

Eddie:

We actually, me and Ashley came in on Saturday night and hung the

Eddie:

new lights in there to make it that bistro coffee feel in there.

Eddie:

So it was That was a labor of love, focus on the word labor because it was

Eddie:

tough and it was, you know, volunteer basis then everybody was a volunteer

Eddie:

and getting four to five people on Sunday morning to volunteer outside

Eddie:

of all the other things that are going on around here on Sunday mornings.

Eddie:

Was extremely difficult.

Eddie:

Yeah.

Eddie:

But you know, God moved through every step of it, equipment space

Eddie:

planning, people like it would not have happened if it wasn't a God thing.

Eddie:

And Hope House Coffee, although that's not what it's officially named at this

Eddie:

point, has begun with humble origins in the basement of Element Church.

Eddie:

And this volunteer based coffee shop is running fairly smoothly, and after only

Eddie:

a few months, it became very clear why God had told Eddie, JR, and Neil to wait

Eddie:

and not to rent a bright, shiny, new space for this coffee shop on Main Street.

Eddie:

COVID hit and it all fell apart and we're like, well,

Eddie:

what are we going to do now?

JR:

And I think we all kind of had this moment at some point.

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We were like, man, thank the Lord.

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We did not start a brand new startup at, you know.

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Back in 2019 and then have to deal with the pandemic as so many

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businesses had to deal with that.

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So we were very fortunate to not have to deal with that.

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And then we leveraged the season of, of the pandemic to continue

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learning, acquiring equipment.

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And in that timeframe, amazingly enough a gentleman that owned a commercial property

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right across the street from the church, it was a laundromat and, A myriad of other

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businesses that were all kind of closed down or never opened up connected to it.

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He came across the road to, to want to sell the property to the church

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and I wasn't interested in it.

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We had some.

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You know, ministries that we had birthed that took a look

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at it and it wasn't for them.

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And funny enough, he was kind of persistent about selling the property

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of the church and then offered to give us a really good deal.

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And so we, we took it, we bought it and really not knowing

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what all we would do with it.

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And then at some point, I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent sure when

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this happened, but we just began to look across the road and go.

JR:

That might be a really great place for our coffee shop.

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, it's a busy road.

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Turns out the second busiest road in our county.

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The busiest road in our city.

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And so we, we began to, to look at like, Hey, this is where we're

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going to put the coffee shop.

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And of course it was a laundromat and it was an old laundromat that was in.

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Disrepair and, and pretty worn down.

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Something that a lot of people don't realize about Hope House Coffee

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is that the building that it's in is a lot larger than you realize.

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The section of the building that's now Hope House Coffee was this old

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laundromat that JR has been talking about.

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But back behind that laundromat, there is a of unfinished rooms

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with exposed insulation and wiring and plywood floors and

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framing with no drywall on it.

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And at this point in the story, this maze, these upper rooms especially, were

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being used for some fairly dark things.

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The original owner of the property, was a bit of a visionary

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himself and he had a lot of.

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businesses that he was starting predominantly all of the businesses

JR:

were geared towards women.

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There was a, there was a tanning salon, there was a, there was going

JR:

to be a workout facility like a gymnasium that was just for women.

JR:

His partner, I think, was a woman that was going to, he was kind of

JR:

behind the scenes, she was going to be running all the businesses.

JR:

And there was a beauty parlor that was going to be built.

JR:

The laundromat had been there a long time.

JR:

I think the tanning bed may have opened or was opened.

JR:

Maybe one room of the workout place was actually open too.

JR:

Because there was like, there was a ton of.

JR:

Late eighties, early nineties, pink Nautilus workout equipment in the back.

JR:

Some of it looked like it had never been used.

JR:

He sold all that stuff off before we took ownership of it.

JR:

But He definitely had a vision for some things to happen and for whatever reason,

JR:

even though the structures were built and a lot of the infrastructure was

JR:

laid out, they, it just wasn't finished.

JR:

So it just kind of sat there and he just continued to run the laundromat.

JR:

I think he, he needed help running the laundromat.

JR:

And as he was aging, he ended up moving in, he was living there,

JR:

like staying there overnight.

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He had a house, but he was staying at the place of business.

JR:

And then he had some employees and they stayed there also.

JR:

They lived in the back of the shop.

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And I think the story for a lot of them was struggles with addiction.

JR:

I'm not so certain he was aware of all of that.

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, he had difficulty getting around.

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And, , it was almost as though they were caretakers for him.

JR:

A lot of ways they were helping transport him around, helping

JR:

him get up and get down.

JR:

And, and so, yeah, the, the place being so large and him not

JR:

having the physical ability to.

JR:

Survey all of it, make sure it's secure.

JR:

There, I, and this we know for a fact, because as I was cleaning up the place,

JR:

we found where, in the, the unfinished parts, obviously there were people

JR:

that were sleeping there at night.

JR:

There was obvious drug paraphernalia.

JR:

Needles, pipes and, and then from some of the conversations that we had with

JR:

individuals that were connected, we know that there was actually for quite a bit

JR:

of time, that was a drug den, so to speak.

JR:

It was a place where users were gathering not with permission.

JR:

Knowing that an elderly man who owned the place was asleep at night, you

JR:

know, and so a lot of that was going on.

JR:

There's, there's no doubt about that.

JR:

And, you know, we had no idea.

JR:

We were right across the road from on the other side of the road.

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This property sits on the corner is an elementary school playground.

JR:

That kind of activity was going on.

JR:

30 yards away and nobody really knew it.

JR:

It was concealed.

JR:

So it was not easy to walk in there and just see a coffee shop,

JR:

Taking this random assortment of unfinished rooms and an old laundromat

JR:

and turning it into a coffee shop Took a lot more than just vision.

JR:

It was a lot of manual labor as well

JR:

We started that process of gutting it.

JR:

I was there every day.

JR:

We had some, some just incredible acts of generosity.

JR:

One of the elder statesman of our, of our community Linwood Perry is a incredible.

JR:

general contractor, very gifted.

JR:

And so he was our GC and completely voluntary, no

JR:

charge which is huge, you know?

JR:

He came in gave direction And was a great resource for every

JR:

project that we needed to do.

JR:

Like, he was the true expert.

JR:

And then you have myself.

JR:

And actually, there was a gentleman that we built a relationship with

JR:

when we purchased the coffee shop.

JR:

A young man, a hard worker, but he struggled with addiction, so

JR:

I really spent a good bit of time.

JR:

We essentially just employed him and he would come in and work with

JR:

me and, tearing out the laundromat.

JR:

There was a lot of stuff to be torn out of that place.

JR:

An incredible amount of stuff to be removed.

JR:

And so, he was , a big help during that season.

JR:

We did several days where we just kind of put it out there was like,

JR:

Hey, if you want to volunteer a day of hard work, come help.

JR:

And those were some of the most encouraging days , It

JR:

was such a slow process.

JR:

I don't like doing things slow.

JR:

I like to see progression.

JR:

I like to see things happen quick, happen fast.

JR:

And so there was a, there was a lot of frustration for me with that.

JR:

Because , we're having to do things the most cost effective way.

JR:

you can either do things fast or you can do them slow and save money.

JR:

But you can't do them fast and save money.

JR:

So we're having to be patient.

JR:

And those days were Very encouraging because we would have a large number of

JR:

people that would show up and they would work and we would see a lot of progression

JR:

in in that time frame, I think to some of the core team, including myself, it just

JR:

felt like, is this ever going to happen?

JR:

Are we ever going to get this thing finished and opened

JR:

and but, but we got there.

JR:

Seeing the Lord's hand in bringing that property into our possession

JR:

and then seeing what we're doing on that property now as opposed to

JR:

some of the things that used take place as a is a, is an amazing story.

Eddie:

I have a history as a paramedic.

Eddie:

I worked for as a paramedic for 15 years.

Eddie:

And then that transitioned into a job in the hospital.

Eddie:

that started down this business path that I'm on.

Eddie:

And met a really good friend in the hospital.

Eddie:

She's one of the nurses, she's a friend of me and my wife's.

Eddie:

She finished nursing school, started working, and then left for a year

Eddie:

to go on a year long mission trip.

Eddie:

And that just kind of like blew me away.

Eddie:

I was like, oh man, I'm kind of jealous of that.

Eddie:

I would love to go do that.

Eddie:

So when she comes back, I'm, I'm all excited to talk to her.

Eddie:

She has a new boyfriend, and she's like, you should talk to him.

Eddie:

He, you know, he has a coffee shop in South Carolina.

Eddie:

I was like, Oh yeah, yeah, whatever.

Eddie:

And then I met him and we get beans from him, you know, all the time.

Eddie:

He's our main bean provider.

Eddie:

They have a successful coffee brand.

Eddie:

It, they're not a mission oriented business, but he is

Eddie:

mission minded and his wife.

Eddie:

Now they're married now.

Eddie:

He's they're both very mission minded and so they've he's used his connections

Eddie:

there to help us He actually came and trained us like a week before we opened

Eddie:

our full time shop He came up donated his time and went through with every barista

Eddie:

to prepare us to open and you don't get one on one training from another like a

Eddie:

Competitor essentially right and he came in and did all the training and all that

Eddie:

to be born out from one little clinic in a little town in Guatemala is just When

Eddie:

you think back on it, it's mind blowing.

Eddie:

So this construction project which began in 2020, trying to turn this old

Eddie:

laundromat into a coffee shop, finally finishes by September 12th, 2022.

Eddie:

And that time frame Just so happened to be the perfect time to be buying equipment.

JR:

It turns out during that time was a great time to

JR:

Equipment.

JR:

Because so many restaurants and businesses had closed the

JR:

door and liquidated equipment.

JR:

And when I finally insured all of our equipment, I think the

JR:

replacement value was around 90, 000.

JR:

And I look back and roughly we had about 9, 000 spent on that equipment.

JR:

I don't know that have we not been doing this in that time frame that that would

JR:

have been been able to pull that off,

JR:

Crazy, right?

JR:

All of the equipment needed to open a full scale coffee shop

JR:

for a tenth of what it was worth.

JR:

Which might make you think, man, somebody is sure is making a

JR:

killing off of that coffee shop if their startup costs were so low.

JR:

But one of the things that makes Hope House Coffee so great is

JR:

that it's also a non profit.

JR:

Nobody's sitting in an office making money off of your morning caffeine addiction.

JR:

We are a public charity, separate entity.

JR:

The church made an initial investment to build out the coffee shop, and then

JR:

the coffee shop became its own entity.

JR:

One of our main reasons for existing is to make.

JR:

A profit through the vehicle of a coffee shop and then to give those

JR:

profits to other nonprofit organizations that are doing some amazing ministry

JR:

and humanitarian work here in this county and around the globe.

Eddie:

It's incredible like just from the coffee shop.

Eddie:

We were able to put a roof on a church, you know in India or South Asia However,

Eddie:

you want to say it We were able to send money right after the big explosion

Eddie:

in Beirut To help missionaries that were there on the ground help support

Eddie:

them with an outreach to people that needed things and it's just incredible

Eddie:

to see that come from the small idea

Eddie:

make you make your product good enough that you don't have to put a cross on it.

Eddie:

Like people know you're investing so much in your product.

Eddie:

You're sharing the love of Jesus through your product.

Eddie:

They can trust that you're providing a quality product, a quality service.

Eddie:

And that's how you're showing the love of Jesus.

Eddie:

And coming from a church background, it was tough to, to embrace the fact

Eddie:

that a business can be so focused on.

Eddie:

God's mission in this community and around the world, but you don't

Eddie:

just have to come out and say it like We say it with our actions.

Eddie:

We say it with our product We say it with our environment and it's really

Eddie:

cool to see how Jesus has used That old building and a little tiny coffee

Eddie:

shop that started in a basement To to do something so incredible and I'm

Eddie:

excited to see where it goes from here like we have plans obviously to expand

Eddie:

and bring in more money because There's missionaries out there that need it.

Eddie:

I always made the joke, we want missionaries in Range Rovers.

Eddie:

That's my goal.

Eddie:

Not that we necessarily want to put them in Range Rovers, but we've been to these,

Eddie:

these countries and these sites with these missionaries and man, they are,

Eddie:

they're just like any other ministry.

Eddie:

They're taking what they can get and they're riding in these vans that the

Eddie:

doors don't work or they break down on the side of the road and I'm like, J.

Eddie:

R., there's gotta be a better way.

Eddie:

Like, you know, most people won't give, 50, 60 a month to a missionary, but

Eddie:

they'll give 50, 60 a month to a coffee shop without even thinking about it.

Eddie:

God COVID to refocus our efforts ended up with a spot where we have.

Eddie:

A double drive thru.

Eddie:

Whereas our first site we looked at, we would not have a drive thru at all.

Eddie:

And, I mean, you know, it's, it's great to have the space for people

Eddie:

to come in, but, I mean, drive thru is where you, you make your money.

Eddie:

And, I mean, that's something that a lot of people had to, have had to

Eddie:

deal with, or have had to learn, is that making money is not a bad thing.

Eddie:

We want to be successful.

Eddie:

We want to make as much money as we can because we give it all away there's not

Eddie:

another that I know of anywhere local or close by that's a non profit coffee

Eddie:

shop I think it it's a unique opportunity

JR:

Step one of the business is cover all your expenses.

JR:

You know, step two is be profitable.

JR:

And so sometimes that doesn't happen within a couple of years

JR:

of a new business opening up.

JR:

But we've been fortunate.

JR:

We had a great starting position.

JR:

And so we've been able to give away somewhere a little north

JR:

of 15, 000 to non profits.

JR:

000 in the first year.

JR:

I don't know about you, but knowing that the money is going to a good cause

JR:

makes me feel a lot better about buying a coffee every morning on my way into

JR:

the office, or not even going into my office and just working at Hope House.

JR:

And it's that desire to help, that desire to spread hope, Hope

JR:

House Coffee gets its name from.

JR:

We knew we were opening a coffee shop, we're, we're laying

JR:

out the plans, we're laying out the layout, but what's the name?

JR:

And I'll say for me, I think this is important for anybody

JR:

endeavoring to start a ministry or endeavoring to start a business.

JR:

You better worry more about reputation than you do the name.

JR:

And so for me that was the concern.

JR:

I almost couldn't really get super concerned about what we were going

JR:

to name the coffee shop because I was so concerned about our reputation.

JR:

Like we've got to have the right model.

JR:

We got to have the right mindset.

JR:

We got to have the right crew members, the right team, the right equipment.

JR:

We need to be able to take care of people and take care of people.

JR:

Well, those were the things that were really preeminent in my mind.

JR:

But we we would we were through I don't even remember the names that we're

JR:

throwing around but ultimately Eddie back to Eddie Nichols Eddie was Working

JR:

on his I think it was his bachelor's degree He was finishing up and he was

JR:

he had a paper that he was doing and so he was using the coffee shop as as

JR:

his Subject and so he was like man.

JR:

I got a I got a Write a name down for my paper.

JR:

And one of the ministries that we knew we were going to try to have

JR:

a huge monetary impact on that.

JR:

We're going to be able to donate a lot of the profits to was a

JR:

ministry here in the county called Hope Network of Rutherford County.

JR:

And they specifically minister to women in need of transitional housing.

JR:

And it's an incredible ministry.

JR:

They're doing incredible work and they have a couple of.

JR:

Homes where women go and stay as they're transitioning in their life,

JR:

whether it's coming out of addiction, coming out of prison, coming out of,

JR:

you know, all sorts of brokenness.

JR:

And they, they call them Hope Houses, you know?

JR:

And so we, Eddie literally just was like, I'm just, until we come up

JR:

with another name, I'm just going to write down Hope House Coffee

JR:

since we know that's one of the ministries that we're going to support.

JR:

I was like, great, fine, do it.

JR:

In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, we're not going to

JR:

call it Hope House Coffee.

JR:

You know, right?

JR:

And so, somewhere along the way, and we're having, we're actually having to,

JR:

you know, fill out paperwork, and you need a name, and so we just continued

JR:

to use Hope House Coffee Company.

JR:

And at some point, we just began to like it, and go, no, it's, it's great.

JR:

You know, we're, because, yeah, we're, we're bringing hope to these

JR:

organizations in the, in the forms of giving them the profits that we make.

JR:

But also we knew a big piece of what we were doing was creating

JR:

a space for community to gather.

JR:

And, you know, we live in a world that people need hope.

JR:

They're looking for hope.

JR:

And we wanted their time in the coffee shop to be a hopeful experience.

JR:

I love the name now and I can't imagine us being named anything else, but that's

JR:

kind of, that's the story of how Hope House Coffee Company got its name.

JR:

If you walk into Hope House Coffee, one of the first things you're going

JR:

to notice is the bright neon sign on the wall that says, Sip Some Hope,

JR:

which I think is a great tagline, but it's also a great representation of

JR:

what Hope House Coffee is all about.

JR:

Oh, sip some hope.

JR:

Okay.

JR:

That's a great, that's a great story also.

JR:

So there was a, a guy who, he used to be on staff at Element, a great

JR:

guy, James Johnston, his name, just a really salt of the Earth kind of guy.

JR:

And he, he's just one of those guys who's always, he's always kind of

JR:

putting phrases out there, you know, whatever it's about, whatever it's out.

JR:

And so I think it's the day I shared the name with him, like,

JR:

this is what we're calling it.

JR:

Hope House Coffee Company.

JR:

And I mean, without missing a beat, he looks right at me

JR:

and he's like, awesome, man.

JR:

That is such a great name.

JR:

People will be coming up in here sipping some Hope.

JR:

I just laughed and I told him, I was like, Hey man, I'm going to use that.

JR:

I'm going to use that.

JR:

I don't even know if he believed me at the time, but like we did our first

JR:

merch run, like our first, well maybe not our first, I think our first was just a

JR:

regular Hope House coffee t shirt, but like we did our second hoodie and we

JR:

were going to put some stuff on the back.

JR:

I was like, we're putting, sip some hope.

JR:

On that hoodie.

JR:

And so he, he really, of course, like gave him a hoodie, but he

JR:

got a real, real kick out of that.

JR:

But that's kind of, that's kind of been our phrase, sip some hope.

JR:

And it's a great phrase, you know, come in because it's not just like, like,

JR:

you know, we, we love our caffeine.

JR:

We love the the pick me up that it brings, but, What we see is people gathering,

JR:

whether it's in a car and there's, you know, two of you go going through the

JR:

drive through because you're off to do something, you're drinking that coffee

JR:

and coffee leads to conversations.

JR:

And in that dialogue and that conversation.

JR:

Drives hope, hope in, in this shared journey that we all

JR:

have in this life together.

JR:

So I think it's an appropriate, appropriate phrase.

JR:

And then also you're sipping hope because you made a purchase, right?

JR:

And you could have made that purchase at any coffee shop that you wanted to.

JR:

And there's a lot of great coffee shops out there.

JR:

But when you purchase coffee from Hope House Coffee and you enjoy

JR:

that coffee, it's excellent.

JR:

The profits that come from the cup of coffee that you purchased are going

JR:

to an organization somewhere that is bringing real tangible hope to

JR:

individuals who are either in crisis or are coming out of a crisis and trying to

JR:

trying to get their lives established.

JR:

Hope House Coffee is up and running, And in my opinion, it is completely

JR:

fulfilling the original vision it was built on, of being a place for hope

JR:

for the people of Small Town Friendly.

JR:

But the success it continues to see is not because of its location, or

JR:

how great the original vision was.

JR:

It's because of the people who work there, who continue to

JR:

carry out that vision every day.

JR:

But sometimes, God calls people to other things, and it can be

JR:

hard to make those transitions.

JR:

Eddie was majorly involved with the coffee shop since the beginning, and

JR:

now has had to reduce his role quite a bit to focus on some other things.

Eddie:

The first two weeks we opened, I took PTO from work.

Eddie:

I was like, I've got to be here every day.

Eddie:

And the day I left, like the second Friday was my last, you know, day there.

Eddie:

And I mean, it was emotional, dude.

Eddie:

It felt like, like a kid was leaving the house or something.

Eddie:

It was, it was tough.

Eddie:

Cause I looked at Carl and JR and I was like, Hey.

Eddie:

This is you guys now.

Eddie:

And man, that was tough.

Eddie:

I won't lie.

Eddie:

That was an emotional moment for me.

Eddie:

Cause it was like, you'd raised this kid and not yet let it go.

Eddie:

But that being said, I'm still involved in it, you know, doing the,

Eddie:

the bookkeeping and working with the scheduling in the beginning, I was an

Eddie:

employee and then now I'm, I'm more of a consultant, I guess, to the business.

JR:

What I've seen also is that a small town is full of

JR:

incredibly talented people.

JR:

Like highly skilled people, people with people that have, I mean, they have skills

JR:

that give them options in the marketplace, but if you cast a vision to them they

JR:

will sacrificially use those talents.

JR:

And I've, we've, we have an exceptional team at Hope House Coffee.,

JR:

that's full of people that could make a whole lot more money Investing their

JR:

time in other organizations They could have they can you know make a lot more

JR:

money working for other organizations But they believe in the vision of

JR:

Hope House Coffee They believe that a big God can show up and do amazing

JR:

things in a small town and and also You know, they want to be a benefit.

JR:

They want to be a benefit to this county and to this city, you know.

JR:

It's a little bit of that Jeremiah 29 mindset where, you know, Jeremiah writes

JR:

to the exiles and says build homes, plant gardens, Have at the forefront

JR:

of your mind, the welfare of the city where you're living, because in its

JR:

welfare, you'll find your welfare.

JR:

And so there is a little bit of that mindset with the team of like, no,

JR:

we're going to create a great space here in this small town that, that

JR:

people are going to be drawn to.

JR:

And we're, we.

JR:

You know, a year and a few months in, we're seeing that, right?

JR:

We have people that drive through our county going from Charlotte to

JR:

Asheville, or, you know, they're coming, you know, from South Carolina

JR:

up going towards Boone, and, and they've found this coffee shop, and they're,

JR:

they're, they're coming in, and they're going, oh, this place is exceptional.

JR:

And it's becoming their spot where they, they stop.

JR:

And, and so it's, it's just amazing to see that mindset fleshed out.

Eddie:

We have small business groups that meet business leaders that meet there.

Eddie:

We have all kinds of meetings that happen, Bible studies and, and these other things.

Eddie:

But I think that the biggest The biggest benefit to Small Town Friendly

Eddie:

is the fact that on this side of 74, nothing existed like this.

Eddie:

And we see people come in all day, every day.

Eddie:

I mean, kids, like, you know, most kids don't leave their high school

Eddie:

and go hang out at church, you know?

Eddie:

But we have these kids every day that come in after school, and that's where

Eddie:

they sit, they do their homework, they get a coffee, they, you know,

Eddie:

get a snack, and they, and it's just a place, a safe place, that's welcoming,

Eddie:

that you are faced, I mean, right in your face with the love of Jesus,

Eddie:

A lot of the success that Hope House Coffee has seen is thanks

Eddie:

to the leadership of Eddie and J.

Eddie:

R.

Eddie:

J.

Eddie:

R.

Eddie:

is the CEO of Hope House Coffee, but that title doesn't look the

Eddie:

same here in Small Town Friendly as it does down on Wall Street.

JR:

CEO.

JR:

Yeah, it's, it's a big title.

JR:

I think about that title a lot when I'm laying under a sink, replacing

JR:

a drain, you know, that's the that's what CEO of a small coffee shop

JR:

in a small town looks like though.

JR:

And I think if you're going to be successful you, You need to be,

JR:

there has to be someone that's willing to get their hands dirty.

JR:

And I think it's best if it's the person or the people who are at the

JR:

top of the organization, like small business owners all across, you know,

JR:

This town and across this country.

JR:

They understand that you know what I mean.

JR:

It's like they understand.

JR:

Oh, yeah Yeah, I'll own the business.

JR:

I'm the CEO of this company.

JR:

You know, that means that when the toilet is clogged, you know We

JR:

don't we're not calling a plumber.

JR:

We're fixing it ourselves.

JR:

And so Yeah, that's that's the official title that I carry in that organization,

JR:

but There's, there's a willingness, and I really, I try, I try to exemplify this, a

JR:

willingness to do even the most mundane, mundane things, which, you know, to a

JR:

degree at times people are uncomfortable with their leaders taking on a servant

JR:

roles, but that's, that's important.

JR:

That needs to be seen and needs to be fleshed out.

JR:

And there's, I think there's some real fruit that comes from that.

JR:

Hope House Coffee is well on its way to becoming a small

JR:

town friendly institution.

JR:

And this is where we're going to have to leave this story for now.

JR:

But in the next episode, I'm going to introduce you to someone who has just

JR:

about become a local celebrity because of his ability to turn what people think is

JR:

just a pit stop to pick up their morning coffee into a moment of discipleship.

JR:

His name is Carl Schultz.

JR:

Carl's one of the managers at Hope House, and he sat down with me to

JR:

share his incredible story of how God brought him from a career as a

JR:

professional chef into a ministry that he's always wanted, but never expected.

JR:

But before we wrap up this episode, there's one more thing that we

JR:

need to know from Eddie and JR.

JR:

What is their favorite drink at Hope House Coffee?

JR:

Ooh, that's a good question.

JR:

I, I, obviously I've got a few.

JR:

I think, and they've, they've changed over time and they, they change by season.

JR:

I will say, I prefer a hot drink.

JR:

Iced coffees overall, and then frappes are by far our biggest sellers.

JR:

No matter what time of year.

JR:

Like hot coffee, obvious, obviously, colder months, they, they spike and,

JR:

and, but, throughout the year I'd say iced coffees, your biggest seller.

JR:

And I love a good, Iced coffee I love.

JR:

One that became my go to on a hot day is Cold Brew and Lemonade.

JR:

So refreshing.

JR:

I found that drink a couple years ago on a coffee blog that I follow.

JR:

And I was like, that sounds disgusting.

JR:

And literally, yeah, that same day.

JR:

Another coffee shop that we have a great relationship with, that's in South

JR:

Carolina, they put that on their menu.

JR:

And I was like, man, I know those guys.

JR:

They wouldn't put out something that wasn't good.

JR:

So I literally drove to the store and made it.

JR:

And I was like, this is amazing.

JR:

But I think a honey, right now, a honey coconut Latte is my favorite drink.

JR:

It's not on our menu.

JR:

It's not on our menu.

JR:

It's just like, that's what I make for me.

JR:

Honey and coconut.

Eddie:

Oh, that is, that's hard to say.

Eddie:

So you know, there's the seasonal drinks, which are great.

Eddie:

The pumpkin spice, you know, a lot of guys joke about it.

Eddie:

Oh, you got a pumpkin spice?

Eddie:

It's incredible, I won't lie.

Eddie:

But my go to every Sunday, when I get done with payroll, I go out.

Eddie:

And I make a drink before I go over to church.

Eddie:

And what I get is I take a cup of ice and I put four shots

Eddie:

of dark roast espresso in it.

Eddie:

That's not, I don't recommend that for everybody, but I get four

Eddie:

shots of espresso and I do vanilla.

Eddie:

And a little bit of sweet cream.

Eddie:

It's a simple drink, but it is it's extremely helpful to, you know, stay

Eddie:

awake for a long period of time.

Eddie:

. In the beginning there was a drink called the Eddie.

Eddie:

I did not like that.

Eddie:

I think Jonah Millwood actually started calling it the Eddie.

Eddie:

Yeah.

Eddie:

And it ended up being our, our cookie dough cold brew.

Eddie:

And yeah, so that's my favorite, you know, drink to get like on a good

Eddie:

hot day is the cookies and caffeine.

Eddie:

That's something that my wife brought in when we were in the basement,

Eddie:

she brought in, you know, she's like, let's do an Oreo based frappe.

Eddie:

And so of course, you know, you have to be careful with using other companies names.

Eddie:

So we call it cookies and caffeine and.

Eddie:

It's pretty incredible.

Eddie:

that will be my second favorite That's

Eddie:

Thank you guys so much for listening to this, the very first

Eddie:

episode of Small Town Big God.

Eddie:

Be sure to check out the second episode where we hear Carl's story.

Eddie:

I promise it's worth your time.

Eddie:

It's an amazing story.

Eddie:

Don't forget to share this with other people in Rutherford County.

Eddie:

This podcast is for the people of Rutherford County.

Eddie:

That's why we're making it.

Eddie:

So thank you guys for being a part of this and for being a

Eddie:

part of Small Town Friendly.

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Small Town Big God
Stories of God at work in Rutherford County

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Mikel Collins