All Things To All People

A few years ago, I started going to a coffee shop called The Vine and I was there every Thursday, Friday and Saturday for nearly a year of my life. Towards the end of that year, I began working for them. I loved my job with them because it gave me the opportunity to know more people and come out of my shell even more.

The Vine was owned by Pam and Glen, a couple that led praise and worship at their church. They also worked with the youth and they realized that kids really had no place to go. They weren't just worried about the kids in their church, but all the youth in Macon and all the youth willing to come down from where ever they were coming from. Pam and Glen were surrogate parents for many of us. They were warm and friendly, open and welcoming. They were Christians that wanted everyone to feel welcomed and to feel loved. We showed up regularly - The truck driver looking for a million ounces of espresso in a large white mocha and a good game of chess; the writer who spent too much of her time reflecting until she actually began to meet others; people who played music regularly; homeless people and people too young to do anything except hang out. Many of the people I am still friends with today I met at The Vine. Jason, who suddenly yelled out lines from The Color Purple and bonded us instantly as friends. Kevin, a jeweler who sat at my table one day just because he wondered what in the world I could be writing every weekend. Mark, the trucker/chess player that looked like he needed a few years of sleep but was so funny in a dry humour sort of way. We got along because we both looked scarier than we actually were.

Pam and Glen ran The Vine like a business and a ministry. I loved it. I could invite anyone to come and know they would have fun. It was a great place to meet, a great place to hear live music, and a great place to just hang out.

One day, Pam and Glen decided to follow their own musical dream, so they saw about selling their equipment and The Vine name. I know they hoped that they would pass along the comfortable feeling they gave the place. The couple they sold it to did not have the same idea of what a Christian owned coffee shop should be. The most memorable difference between their ownership and Pam and Glen's I saw one evening. A couple of Morman guys came in - I assume to talk. They were obvious in their clean, dark suits, bike helmets resting on the table. They got glasses of milk and when the new owners daughters came out, she also brought tracts for the men in the hopes that they might accept Christ... the right way. It was an insult to them and immediately put up a wall. They left shortly afterwards and I never saw them there again. What once had been a place of rest for anyone who visited became a place where you couldn't just rest, but were assaulted with one man's definition of Christianity whether you liked it/agreed with it or not. It ceased to be my coffee shop.

After the Vine, I started going to and working for Joshua Cup Coffee. Also owned by Christians, they wanted the shop to be a place where anyone would be comfortable visiting. From Wiccan to Fundamental, everyone could come in and not feel judged. Blue haired, tattooed punk kids to blue haired Methodists, all shared the same place and they loved it. For more than 6 years, the people worked their hearts out, sometimes without pay, because they believed in what the shop was about. They wanted it to succeed and they worked for it to succeed. About a month ago, a new owner was brought in and with him came a manager. This manager said that only Christian music would play, that only Christian bands could perform. They kicked out the entertainment newspaper because it had bar advertisement. The entertainment newspaper that some people come to the J.Cup for. It was once the only place where I KNEW it was going to be. No longer.

As I see the changes happening, it makes me sad. I remember meeting a friend at the new Vine after I came back from my first stint in California. I met him and his brother, who was wearing a pagan cross, to catch up. The owners called me to the side to warn me about these guys. Guys that had been my friends longer than they'd been business and they thought they had the right to warn me?

Thanks, but no thanks.

I see Joshua Cup moving in that direction. There are some good changes and having real food is one of them. But I am worried about the direction and I am afraid that all the work and all the heart that went into making it a shop worth respecting will be gone.