A pastor’s video explaining how serving coffee to churchgoers changed his life is going viral across three social media platforms, with church leaders praising the video’s content.
Stephen Foster, rector at the Anglican church, St. Aldates Church in Oxford, England, shares in the video how he was disenchanted with church. But then, he reluctantly joined a church’s coffee team—and his viewpoint dramatically changed.
The video was originally posted to TikTok and Instagram by Stream Studios, an account that posts interviews that share “refreshing conversations about faith.” Across the two platforms, the video has gained nearly 300,000 views.
Foster starts the video by admitting that before serving on his church’s coffee team, he “never really liked the church. I didn’t even really like Christians that much.”
He continued, “I used to think of it like a packaged deal. Like, you get Jesus, and so you get the church and Christians thrown in. It’s just part of the package and there are some bits you like—Jesus—some bits you don’t like so much, which is like the church and Christians.”
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However, one Sunday, he was invited to volunteer at the church.
“I was at the back of our church in East London and someone said to me, ‘We need help to run the coffee team,’” Foster recalled. “And I was like working 70, 80 hours a week and I’m like, ‘What?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, Steve, we need your help running the coffee team on a Sunday.’”
At the time, Foster was working as a lawyer. When asked to join the coffee team, he said he thought to himself, “I’ve got a job. I don’t need another job.”
Despite his hesitancy, he agreed to serve on the team the following Sunday. Then, he unexpectedly began to care for his fellow congregants.
“As I handed these cups to people, something really changed in me. I found myself, as I handed coffee to these people, growing in love for them,” Foster said. “I thought, ‘These people are amazing. This is this extraordinarily diverse community that’s been gathered from across the area. There’s probably not another place that looks as diverse and integrated as this. This is a miracle.’”
Foster added that he even grew in love for people he thought were “more frustrating and complicated,” he said.
He continued, “And I kind of basically fell in love with the church.”
After serving on the coffee team, Foster told the person in charge of the ministry he wanted to help it grow and improve. “We need new coffee machines. We need better beans. We need better mugs. Come on, these are amazing people! I want this to be the best coffee that they get,” he said.
“And as I made coffee for people, I suddenly realized, oh, the church is like the bride of Jesus Christ. It’s like the thing he gave himself for,” Foster added. “The church is God’s plan for the salvation of the world. There’s no Plan B. And God is going to build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. God is putting all his eggs in the church basket.”
Foster said while he recognizes the church “messes up” and “makes mistakes,” it can also be a “beautiful thing.” Foster said, “That’s what I want to spend my life building.”
Hundreds of people have responded to the original posts, thanking Foster for his story and sharing how it inspired them.
One person commented, “A beautiful story! There is meaning to be found in all acts of service and love.”
Another wrote, “I love when God takes the mundane (like making coffee) to reveal his glory.”
Church leaders and Christian authors are also sharing how the testimony is impacting them.
Michael Wear, author and the founder of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, posted the video to his account on X (formerly Twitter). “What an incredibly powerful video,” Wear said.
Nancy Pearcey, an evangelical author, responded to Wear’s post and said, “It’s not what most people expect, but serving people brings us to love them. Taking responsibility for the well-being of others inspires us to love them.”
Beth Moore, President of Living Proof Ministries, shared that the video, “Made me cry. What a refreshing thing to see this advent season.”
Hannah Strickler Anderson, who is a devotional author and writer for the Gospel Coalition, commented there is “so much goodness here.” She added, “The church was always intended to break down the hierarchies that keep us from loving and knowing each other.”
Freelance journalist Liz Lykins writes for WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, Ministry Watch, and other publications.
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10 Responses
It’s all there in New Testament Scripture.
As Jesus says about having authority over people: “It shal not be so among you”.
“But Jesus called them unto him, and said:
“You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28)
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35)
According to several passages in the first epistle of John chapters 2, 3 and 4, “God now dwells” in this man (He didn’t before), he is no longer “a liar” (by saying he loved God but hated the brethren), he has “passed from death to life”, is no longer “a murderer”, is “a child of God” rather than a child of the devil, is “no longer in darkness” but is “in the light”.
That’s how important Agape love is: being born again/born of the Spirit is. It is indeed life changing (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
I have been a local church pastor for more than 40 years. I don’t understand this man’s previous thinking. Before I was ever ordained, I served in various people loving capacities ranging from teaching Sunday School, coordinating a mid-week Home Meeting, working with teens, and doing music ministry. From the time I got saved at 18, in my Senior year it was about this: The Love of God changed me. Think of the 2 parts of the great commandment. (Love God, Love People.) Think of how blunt John was in I John about the vital nature of anyone who claims to love God, loving the Lord’s people. Every avenue of my training reinforced the basic and vital nature of this. And the Church…we are nothing less than vitally connected cells in a living Body. We are living stones, being built together as a house for (or of) the Lord.
Pastor, with all due respect – 40 years of ministry to people and engagement with our culture knowing what has been going on with the church universal (those leaders not teaching this truth so people understand God’s grace OR those seeing abuse by church leaders), and you don’t understand this? You have the truth correct but not everyone has grasped it as quick as you. What are you missing to understand this better so you can help?
Ridiculous. Really? Not to mention the narcissistic self-absorption evident in the statement, “I was already working 70 to 80 hours a week….” The math doesn’t add up. And, it’s not the first time we’ve heard self-important thought leaders claim they’re way, way, way more busy than you. I’m not buying any of this. Go out and help some homeless folks if you want to be a decent human being, man. Not a lot of folks doing that.
Lee File, by reading between the lines and having listened to this on YouTube, I think he’s saying that he DID work 70-80 hours a week when he WAS a barrister (top UK lawyer) and also a church-goer, but not “pastor”.
But as the verses I cited point out (especially 1st John where it’s made VERY clear!) someone is not a Christian if they don’t love other Christians – which he admits to not doing in the PAST.
I agree that he certainly should have made it clearer. Why did he not say he wasn’t saved back then? Why not make it part of his conversion testimony?
I haven’t been able to find his testimony online but I did listen to a couple of his sermons/pep talks and they were pretty lightweight and seemingly all about “your best life now” that God can provide. Pretty “me” centred “Gospel”.
By the way, he used to preach at HTB church in London (home of Nicky Gumbel and the Alpha course)
Moira, the text in 1 John does not state what you are claiming. John affirms his audience has their sins forgiven and that the way to being born of God is belief.
Joe
Everything I quoted from 1st John is verbatim. I literally copied what’s written and put it in quotation marks.
I don’t think its your transcription but your interpretation that Joe is disagreeing
Jane is correct. I was disagreeing with the interpretation esp. in the wider context of other New Testament. It is not so straightforward book to interpret. I would also say I disagree with your interpretation of Stephen’s situation. Ultimately he did turn to love his brothers and sisters. John’s message isn’t for us to make hard and fast rules to judge others by for momentary actions. This is not to say we cannot walk thru these verses when we see one who claims to believe to say “hey, I have noticed over a period of time that you are not living consistent with one who claims they believe”. It could be that Stephen had not been taught these marks of a Christian. I suspect you don’t believe in holiness perfectionism – that a Christian doesn’t sin. The first part of 1 John teaches against that. Hence, our Christlikeness develops over time and that is different for everyone. So we confront those who claim Christ that appears to not have these marks with understanding because we don’t know the heart – we have limited knowledge from the fruits we see.
You might have missed the details in the article — He was working as a lawyer at the time. It sounds as if the coffee bar was what eventually pointed him to the ministry. I find this post sad because until he started serving coffee, he had never really engaged with service in the church, and that’s the experience of many Christians now. We ought to be *leading* with service so that we are building true community and meeting real needs. Service ought to be such a hallmark of the church that you almost can’t escape it when you walk in the door — we should be so overwhelmed by the love that is expressed that we want to join in expressing it. But sadly, at least in America, we’ve made church a consumer experience and have largely missed out on the true community it could be. I hope this man’s video convinces others to seek to shift church to a culture of service and love of the sort that Jesus modeled.