After much prayer, idea sharing and conversation, we have come up with a way to meet our current hospitality needs and leave room for future dreams and plans.
The vision of the café is ‘to provide a welcoming place of hospitality to help foster relationships, welcome new people and encourage redemptive communities and people becoming lifelong followers of Jesus.’
We want to:
– Create an environment that is warm, relaxed, comfortable, non-threatening and personable
– Prioritise the café being open on Sundays with two or three food choices and barista coffee available
– Explore the café being open from Tuesday to Friday 10am – 2pm with coffee and a small selection of bought in food (e.g. slices)
– Providing hospitality around key church events, including funerals
– Explore fundraising options for Sundays
– Explore commercial renting of the kitchen on weekdays
To do this we need to apply for resource consent, that is built around providing a full café menu and operating from 10am – 10pm on Sundays and from 9.30am – 5pm on weekdays. Once this is granted, specific opening hours and menus will be determined. We are also going to employ a start-up manager to provide a food control plan, Sunday volunteer rosters and operational systems.
The consent process will take a couple of months (or more), so in the interim we want to foster a culture of hospitality within the church by continuing a Sunday hospitality roster with free tea and coffee. A plan for mid-week ministry support is already in place.
We trust you will continue to enjoy hospitality in the café space.