Madison has been home to a lot of failed church plants over the years. And one of them had a delicious ending.
Lance Ratze moved to the Madison area from the Twin Cities in 2006 in order to plant a new Assemblies of God church. “As soon as we arrived in Madison, we were met by a lot of pastors who said, ‘This is a church planters graveyard.’ We were determined, this was going to be different.”
Soon a small congregation was meeting on Sunday evenings in a school in Verona, and Lance went looking for a part-time job to complete his fund-raising. Through an unusual set of circumstances, and even though he wasn’t a coffee drinker, he was hired for the morning shift at Starbucks.
He Had to Go Through Samaria
He began reading a devotional in the Gospel of John every morning before opening the store and when he got to chapter four his attention was arrested by the words, “Jesus had to go through Samaria.” He re-read the chapter several times, the story of The Woman at the Well. “The Holy Spirit put on my heart, this is your Samaria.”
While opportunities to share the gospel occurred regularly with co-workers, the church plant was not as successful and turned into a home church. He was a little confused and asked God, “Lord, why are you blessing the marketplace and not blessing the Sunday ministry?”
He eventually left Starbucks, seeking a better paying full-time job to support his family. By then the recession was in full swing. Jobs were hard to come by until he met a former co-worker now working at a cafe in a shopping center off Mineral Point Road. He was hired as manager at the cafe.
A Change in Plans
The job went well and the home church started to grow again. Plans were laid to start Sunday services in the cafe. The future was looking bright until he got to work one dark winter morning. There was a sign on the door saying the cafe was closed indefinitely.
Lance mind was reeling. The future suddenly was not looking so bright. He called the owner of the shopping center, who was also surprised by the closing.
“I can’t let my corner unit be vacant,” he told Lance, asking him to reopen the cafe the next day. Lance wasn’t sure how that could happen. “I’m just a church planter, ” he told the man. “How’s that going for you?” the man responded.
After a hectic 24 hours, with lots of help from the core members of his church, the corner unit reopened as Yola’s Cafe on January 14, 2009. “God supplied and God blessed and we became a church in the marketplace,” Lance said.
Still Seeking Community
Although Madison may be a church planters graveyard, Madison residents still seek community and a coffee shop/cafe has become one of the places where they find it. Like the story in John’s Gospel, chapter four, where Jesus ministered at a well in the middle of a village, Yola’s Cafe provides a source of hope and encouragement for Madison area residents.
Yola’s Cafe is located in the Cortland Commons Shopping Center, at the corner of Commerce Drive and Watts Road. Or as one regular customer observed, “at the corner of light and provision.”
Hear the full story that Lance shared recently in a chapel service at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s National Service Center.