Last month St Peter’s in Bengeworth opened a Community Café inside the church called ‘The Point’. The café opens every Tuesday morning and aims to be a welcoming space for those who might not have been in the church before.
The café was originally the vision of the late John Darby, who was a member of St Peter’s congregation. He was involved with the Street Pastors in Bengeworth and was very passionate about how to bridge the gap between the community and church which he recognised can feel quite alien to those who have not been to church before. He felt a café could act as a steppingstone and be somewhere more familiar to invite people to.
Andy Smith said:
“Very sadly John passed away and so the idea for the café was put on hold for some time. We just had to trust in God that the right people would come along to help make it happen.”
“Our Curate, Mike Edwards and his family, joined the church last summer. Mike’s ace and fortunately was enthusiastic about bringing John’s vision to life! A lovely lady called Karen, who is in our congregation, was also happy to help, so the two of them are now heading this up.”
The café opened in March and has around 30-40 people visiting every week, a mixture of church members and the wider community. The café serves hot drinks and homemade cakes donated by the congregation. Its pricing structure is just ‘pay what you can’ and there is also the option to ‘pay it forward’ so everyone in the community can enjoy ‘Good coffee, good company and good news’ which is the café’s strapline.
Andy Smith describes the café as ‘unapologetically Christian’ and explains that it is called ‘The Point’ deliberately to invite questions and encourage discussion as to why it is called that and indeed ‘What is the point?’.
He added:
“We’ll pause halfway through the morning and pray God’s blessing over the café. Afterall we’re people of faith and we want to bless our communities and the folk that visit.”
“We have invested some money into it to buy new furniture and update our coffee servers and plates and yes make sure we
have good coffee, like we say we do! We want people to feel warm and comfortable and like this is somewhere they can invite their friends to and just hang out or find someone who has time just to sit and chat with them.”
Andy added:
“So far, it’s been great and we’re really glad we’ve been able to do this. It’s been useful as a point of connection for all our different services and congregations. The café has really helped bring everyone together!”
