Rev. Drs. Amy Butler and Dawn Darwin Weaks have teamed up to create a brand-new resource for faith communities to faithfully consider this moment of shift in which we find ourselves. Holy Disruption: A Manifesto for the Future of Faith Communities is a book of stories – “stories of people on intrepid expeditions to live into questions about what’s next for the future of faith communities—stories of people who left what the institution normally looked like to see what it could look like, with or without permission to do so, and stories of people willing to risk everything to do exactly what faith calls us to do: love and care for our neighbors. These innovative, holy disruptors are social entrepreneurs, doing exactly what Jesus both did and taught. They are planting seeds in places traditional institutions have overlooked or cast aside, or simply no longer have the capacity to consider serving.”  

Butler and Weaks tell the stories of faith communities imagining this new path forward and share some important discoveries: “What we’ve learned from these holy disruptors is that it’s a mistake, if not a blatant sin, to limit our definitions of faith community to familiar buildings with stained-glass windows and pews, to traditional structures of leadership, or even to rituals that comfort and define our communities. We’d be wise to remember that Jesus spent very little time in institutional committee meetings, necessary as they sometimes are. He didn’t even mention writing bylaws to start a new religion. Faith community happened around him, seemingly organically, in all kinds of places; and it always involved relationships, care for neighbors, and a challenge to move toward justice, more easily taken on together. With what kind of expansive imagination would we live out our faith if we were able to recognize and nurture growing faith communities in places beyond traditional church buildings and at times other than 11 o’clock on Sunday mornings? 

Faith communities and small groups are invited to imagine. Imagine: Robert Rueda was walking with a student across the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus where he serves as the Baptist Student Ministries director. It was a chilly day, and Robert asked the student why he wasn’t wearing a coat. The student hemmed and hawed about not usually needing one in the Rio Grande Valley with its normally warm temperatures. Robert chided him a little that he still needed a jacket, and the student finally admitted that not only did he not have a jacket, but he couldn’t afford one. Robert says that moment changed his entire approach to student ministry. Robert began to listen to students’ experiences. He learned that many of the first-generation students he served grew up with nothing, working in fields with their parents. These students’ enrollment in college was the result of an entire family’s sacrifice and their shared hope for a better future. 

In 2018, about the same time Robert started really listening to the stories of his students, the university completed a research project that revealed 48 percent of students at the campus were food insecure, meaning they did not always know how they would afford their next meal. Within eighteen months of that report, Robert and his student ministry partners had started Global Blends, a pay-what-you-can deli and coffee shop. Invested Faith was one of the first to invest in the Global Blends concept, giving them five thousand dollars to purchase a mobile coffee cart to enable them to increase business by working events and doing pop-up service. Everything took off from there. A local Baptist mission organization soon saw their powerfully effective ministry and gifted them a building to use. 

At Global Blends, the food is top-notch, and the coffee is excellent. Everyone is welcome to enjoy nourishment and time sitting around tables together, regardless of ability to pay. Instead of giving guests a bill for their order, the volunteers serving as baristas and wait staff simply ask, “What would you like to donate today?” During the pandemic they opened a drive-thru option and invited family members of students to eat with them as well. Now, seven years after it began, Global Blends has a volunteer student staff of twenty-seven and one full-time chef. Together they feed 1,200 students a month. 

One of the earliest customers at Global Blends was a professor at the university. He ordered a coffee and donated five hundred dollars for it. When Robert followed up with him to ask why he had been so generous, the professor said, “I was once a student here, and I was often hungry. Then I had nowhere to go. I’m so grateful that students like I once was now have a place to go where they can be fed.” 

Robert Rueda and the story of Global Blends might not sound like the church you know, but it sounds a lot like…Jesus, who said, “When I was hungry, you gave me food.” That’s church. 

This book is designed for small groups to read and discuss together! Check it out here. 
Learn about the impactful work of Invested Faith founded by Rev. Dr. Amy Butler.