In the coming weeks, we will be purchasing some couches and replacing original tables & chairs at the Cafe. We’ve decided that after five solid years operating as an evolving restaurant on our first floor, its time to adjust our model back towards a more relaxed, communal space conducive for deeper relationship building and community development.

The reasons for this are twofold:

  1. Evolving ministries & community participation.
  2. Limited space.

This past year we’ve enjoyed seeing some ministries evolve and new ones start on our second floor. Kids are flocking daily to after school music lessons, and we’ve added a new Sewing / Art room that is used by a few different groups during the week. Additionally, we finished out our final room upstairs as an admin office which is being used daily now. As we become more involved in our City, we’re excited to see Lighthouse become and accepted, middle ground for community participation, events etc.

Our main dining room will be transformed this month to a more comfortable, less format space in the hopes that it will attract more effects, more social activity and deeper relationship building.

To foster this momentum, I’ve felt for a while that our current setup as a restaurant on the first floor, though a blessing to many in our town, was taking too much of our limited time and resources to run. While this format helped us create inroads into our town, the growth and momentum is shifting towards more events and the growth of new creative community. Essentially, we want the life and creative energy from the 2nd floor to move into the first – where the entire property would have the same welcoming, community vibe, around coffee, fresh desserts, and music.

Regarding limited space, we are hoping this convergence of our first and second floor helps us remain agile, and moving with the Spirit of God that has been our guiding light. It gives our own leaders and staff, as well as new friends in town more space to dream, host events, and provide our community vision for the kind of values we all cherish.

Our 2nd floor hosts weekly youth club, sewing, music and project planning meetings. We want to see more of this on the first floor now too!

After a few months of wrestling through needed changes, we are transitioning now on the fly. Starting next week we will not offer any daily food options, just coffee and dessert. The Lord has provided us this cool dessert glass fridge, a new dessert chef who has started making cheesecake and the day after making the decision by faith (we had zero extra money for this) , all the funds needed to make the change. We’re now researching online for couches, chairs, and some co-working style furniture.

We will continue to offer Pizza every Saturday – and planning for some new style events through the month that continue to utilize our kitchen to serve our community.

Thankful, and excited to see this new space come together!