Jitters Coffeehouse: A completely new approach to ‘church’

  • By Jennifer Kneuss
  • March 1, 2010
  • 974
                        
If you have yet to hear about Jitters Coffeehouse, it is not surprising. However, you soon will. The coffee house is currently in the planning stages, and this will be no ordinary local hangout simply serving up a strong ‘cuppa’ Joe’. This coffee shop will exist for a very special purpose, according to one of the organizers, local teacher Judy Mann. “Jitters is going to be a coffee house that is located in Millersburg, just across from Wal-Mart,” said Judy. “Right now, we are just meeting as a small group. We decided that the way to reach people who don’t know the Lord, who don’t go to church, is that you have to go to them, to where they are. We’ve had people come in who haven’t been in a church in years. They have been intimidated by the way people dress, or they don’t know the routine. We just sit at tables… if you want a cup of coffee, you can just get up and get a cup. We’re not into religion and rules. We just love the Lord and want to have a relationship with Him. That’s what it is all about.” Judy’s husband, Martin Mann, is also a teacher, and after the couple retires at the end of the year, they will volunteer at the coffee shop full time. Martin has also been a minister for more than 30 years, and also holds a counselor’s certification. “Jitters Coffeehouse is not a church, but a ministry,” Martin explained. “We don’t know our opening date yet. We are working on funding right now. Our goal is to hope to have a coffeehouse that will be a place to relax, a place where there will be sandwiches, ice cream, and all the coffee drinks, hot and cold drinks. We want to create that kind of environment. Then, when people come, our goal is, without being ‘in their face’, to talk to them about Jesus Christ.” “We believe in the organized church, but there are people who will never darken the door of a church,” Martin continued. “But they are loved by Jesus. We want to introduce them not to church, not to traditions, not to the organization, but to Jesus, to a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. That is the core of the gospel. They don’t have to be a part of the traditional church to know God. That’s not why Jesus came. He didn’t do a whole lot of preaching in the churches. He went out into the country, out into the marketplace. That’s what we want to do. We want to go where people are comfortable. We will have worship there on Sunday mornings, and we will have live music there on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. We’ll be open seven days a week, from sunup to sundown.” There are about 40 other people involved with the Manns in the Jitters Coffeehouse project, and the group hopes to receive sponsorship from local churches. They have been working for some time to raise the needed funds, but found that an even greater project surfaced en route to their goal to raise the needed $50,000. “We did have a significant amount of money saved, $10,000, but then we decided to send it off to Haiti,” Martin said. “We gave that to CAM, Christian Aid Ministry in Berlin. They have a work in Haiti, and we felt it was well spent there. So now, we’re broke. If we had the $50,000, we could go ahead and open. When we open as a business, when we show a profit, we intend to use that profit in missions here and overseas. “It is going to be an inviting environment for people to eat if they’re hungry, or just to visit, if that’s all they’re wanting to do. It is our intention to share Christ, and to make Him available outside the perimeter of the traditional church. “Jitters will not take away from the local church – we are not building a local church,” stated Martin. “When someone comes to Christ, we are going to disciple them, then funnel them right back into the churches who are participating in this ministry.” To find out more about Jitters Coffeehouse, contact the Manns at 330-231-7476, or online at www.jitterscoffeehouse.org.


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