United Methodist community coffeehouse serves up hot drinks, friendly faces in Ark. BY SAM PIERCE Featured Contributor
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n February of 2017, a small group of volunteers from Forrest City First United Methodist Church traveled to Tanzania to work with local missionaries who have planted churches in the area. During their trip, they met some of the preachers for those planted churches. It was there where Maurica Dooley came up with the idea for a community coffee house. Dooley, a member of the church, said one of the pastors is majoring in theology and graduates from school this year. The church has pledged to pay his tuition. “Part of what we are hoping to accomplish with this coffee house is for the proceeds or profits to go towards our partnership with the missions in Tanzania,” Dooley said. “So we want to be self-sustaining and actually make a profit.” Holy Grounds Community Coffeehouse, located at 620 E. Broadway, opened in January and is found inside a newly remodeled parsonage house. “It got to a point where we either needed to tear it down or do something with it,” Dooley said. “So many of our members didn’t want to tear it down. “So we were trying to come up with something to do with this building, so we came up with this coffee house idea.” The house is roughly more than 100 years old and has 12foot ceilings and wood floors, according to Dooley. Last year, the church celebrated its 100th anniversary and held a capital campaign to raise money for maintenance for the church as well as the remodel work for the coffee house. “We exceeded our goal actually quite a bit,” Dooley said. “We had several maintenance things for the church, but we also used the money to make the house into a coffee house. “That’s what paid for that.” Forrest City United Methodist Church’s pastor, the Rev. Dixon Platt, said whoever was in charge of remodeling the house did a fantastic job. “It was a group effort,” Dooley said. Dooley, who volunteers at the coffee house, said they reach out to the community and are a presence in the city through the coffee house. “It is for people who wouldn’t necessarily enter through the front door of our church; this was sort of like a backdoor idea I guess,” Dooley said. “It is an outreach to the community for people who don’t have a connection to a church.” She said there had been a couple of people that had come to visit the church that were initially introduced to it through the coffee house. “We also have a pay-it-forward jar for people to put their change in,” Dooley said. “Then when underprivileged people 33
A Java Shake (top) and a Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte (bottom) are just a few of the delicious coffee drinks served up at Holy Grounds. || Photo provided by Holy Grounds Community Coffeehouse
ARKANSAS UNITED METHODIST
