By: MB Mooney

It’s always time to get personal.

As with any organization, Phoenix Roasters has our own catchphrases and statements that define our mission and culture. Any good business will have these embedded into their DNA. These statements help to remind us of the vision and mission of #CoffeeThatMatters.

One of those statements is – “Life is about relationships. The rest is just details.”

Phoenix Roasters is a coffee company created from a ministry, a church plant dedicated to the hurting, the broken, the marginalized, the addicted. People who feel exiled. The church was founded with those people in mind, and God taught us early on that the broken and marginalized in our society don’t need more programs, they need more family.

For many—or all—of the broken in our society, they’ve been wounded or abused by relationships, and God helped us to see that it would take strong relationships in a loving community to help heal those wounds, to transform lives, to redeem what had been lost or broken.

Take Richard, for example. After God opened the door for someone on one conversation about purpose and the chaos of the world, his heart became more receptive to the things of faith. He went into the hospital with a serious health issue soon after that conversation and was amazed at how our little church and others in the community prayed, helped his family in numerous ways, and walked with him through the crisis.

Richard came to church on Easter this year, and his wife told me later that he hadn’t been to an Easter service in decades because of a tragic death in the family that happened on Easter years ago.

We have hundreds of stories like this, people worn out from life and looking for connection, friends, community.

When Phoenix began a coffee company, we insisted on direct relationships with our farmers. Our farmers are not simple business partners or names and faces we can put on a bag or poster. Our farmers are our brothers and sisters. We visit them every year, and they often come to America to visit us. They have become like family, and with the direct trade we have with them, they get paid 10-20 times more than they did before and we know that they use that money to pay dignified wages and give generously to missions and relief around the world.

We pray for our farmers. And they pray for us. We are family.

Our culture in America is more connected than ever before on social media, but the statistics on loneliness is alarming and increases year by year.

But statistics show us other things, as well. For kids with at least one adult in their life that radically believes in them, their quality of life is significantly better later on. With parent involvement, the positive impact significantly increases.

For those of us who know that God died and rose again to be one with us, intimate with us in our innermost being, because he loved us, we should know more than anyone that what our neighbors – and others in our community and the world – need is not more organization, bureaucracy, programs, or entertainment. They each have their place, but what our kids and culture are crying out for is more relationship. People who will be their friend and love them.

And through our relationships with them, we can introduce them to the one Person that will heal and encourage and fulfill them more than any other: God the Father. He gives them his purpose through his Kingdom to redeem the world and take part in the Harvest. This is joy and abundant life.

We need good organizations and systems in place. But let us always remember that those systems should serve the one goal above all—redemptive relationship with one another and Christ.

Because “Life is about relationships. The rest is just details.”

With millions of under-resourced families caught in a cycle of poverty, Phoenix Roasters provides dignified relief and hope through the sale of excellent coffee. You can find them at their website, on Facebook, and Instagram. 

MB Mooney works in marketing and sales with Phoenix Roasters and pastors the Phoenix Community of Suwanee in Suwanee, GA, where he lives with his amazing wife and energetic three kids. He writes novels and articles. Check out his podcast Kingdom Over Coffee on iTunes.