Coffee for Christ is a non-profit ministry organization based around the blessing of caffeine, and of course, spreading the good news of the Gospel.
Having an Immediate Effect
The purposes of this ministry encompass having an immediate effect on the non-Christian locals in the area, and impacting discipleship and sharing the Gospel. True Tamplin, junior business major and founder of Coffee for Christ, is working to raise $10,000 by email campaign, ultimately buying 200 $5 Starbucks gift cards. Thus far Tamplin has raised over $2,500, with most of the donations coming from YoungLife, a company Tamplin used to work for.
With these gift cards, Biola students receive a monetary contract to buy coffee for someone, talk and listen to them, and hopefully reveal the gift of salvation. Some of the cards were passed out to Biola students who want to see a true change in the Christian community.
“When you accept this Starbucks card, you are accepting a liability, you are accepting almost a new Holy Spirit lens,” Tamplin said. “Now your antennas need to be up.”
Seizing the Day
Tamplin previously revealed how travelling overseas turned him into a man with a devout love for God, business and relationships. Fast forward a few years, and he has turned his passions into a working ministry with an aim to ultimately expand the Kingdom of God. The age of 20, Tamplin has managed to seize the day by diving headfirst into evangelism.
Tamplin does not send people into the spiritual battlefield unequipped, having created several videos explaining how to approach different questions non-believers may have. He also recently connected with Sean McDowell, apologetics professor at Talbot, who gave Tamplin permission to use some of his videos that answer some of the difficult questions of speculative non-believers.
“[Tamplin] had the wonderful idea to engage students in conversation, and encourage them not to take their Bible classes for granted,” McDowell said. “And we may get together in the future to create videos answering specific hard questions that I have not answered yet.”
Building Bridges
Tamplin hopes the videos will potentially teach others how to build bridges, how to listen well and how to win souls rather than arguments. The online lessons will explain how to market truth by building relationships.
“They will test you on your knowledge and once you can prove that, you can salvage the relationship,” Tamplin said. “When you sell anything, you aren’t really selling the product. You’re just helping them make the purchase, the same thing goes for Jesus.”
Brady Lee, senior Christian ministries major and president of the Student Missionary Union, has also stepped up alongside Tamplin to help get the ministry on its feet. Since August 2015, Lee has had a year-long goal of meeting someone new everyday, praying for them and hopefully saving a few souls in the process.
Get to Know Them
“Coffee for Christ is such an amazing idea because I literally get to sit down with people and get to know them,” Lee said. “And when they ask why we are doing this, we can say I have been shown this love and this grace and this free gift of salvation from a Savior that has done crazy things for us.”
