Saturday Surfing:Kudo’s to Peet’s for their Leeds!

I don’t impress easily, y’all know that. I was impressed, however, to read in the coffee news that Peet’s Coffee put up the first coffee roasting facility in the United States to get Leed’s Certification.

This is one “green” certification that is not that easy to get. Peet’s got it because they built the facility with these things in place:

• A work environment for the company’s
  roastery employees that includes ample work spaces, fitness room, lockers,
  showers, bike and automobile parking and expansive lunch/break room
•  Use of natural light and the latest lighting technology which reduces the overall power consumption by 40%
• Xeriscaping the landscape and use of efficient plumbing fixtures that reduces the water usage by 50%
• They have redesigned the heat recovery aspect of the roasting system to reduce gas useage by 85%
• Environmentally sensitive HVAC
• They used significant amounts of recycled materials during construction
• And….they built close to public transportation systems and planned for bicycle storage.

I think that is significant.  As far as I know not all of their coffee are organic/Fair Trade.  I think the company is heading is the right direction in a big way, though.  And…I wish that there was Peet’s coffee shop near us.  I do like their coffee.

O.k..a potential controversial issue…There is a church in Billings, Montana that just opened up a huge facility that cost 21 million dollars.  It is 80,000 square feet and includes, what else, a coffee shop that will be open 7 days a week.

I have mixed feelings about this.  First, I think that it is great that they have opened up a place where people can go, drink coffee, get ministy. I am all for market place ministry.  And i am all for someone getting blessed.  Nothing wrong with prosperity.

But..there is the other part of me that chokes on 21 million dollars spent on a building.  I know of a woman who is running an inner city ministry in the deepest part of the crack neighborhoods in Dallas..She has lived down there for years, dodging bullets and giving crack addicts a place to find a better high.  She has had an amazing success at it too.  All of her staff are people that have gotten clean in her ministry and they are awesome.  I bet she serves them coffee once in awhile..and she doesn’t have a 21million dollar facility to do it.  I wonder what she could do with even 10,000 of that  21 million?  I know missionaries that have been serving in Tibet for nearly 20 years.  They live among the people…they get to know them..they serve them coffee.

And, we have a long time friend that is involved the the underground Chinese church. Not alot I am going to say about that….but they do serve tea on occasion.

There is nothing wrong with having a beautiful faciliity.  Marc and my home church (the one we are DELIGHTED to be back at!) is knock-you-dead-gorgeous. I will post pictures sometime.  It is on the highest spot in south Dallas country and overlooks a lake.  It is built of fieldstone and it is amazing.  We built on cash…and ministry and funds for missions flowed out while we were building.

So, those are my thoughts…a very good thing..and a I’m not sure thing.

What do you think? Is it a waste of funds?

Image:Marye Audet