by brenton crozier
What: New Life Coffeehouse
Where: Park Street Church (West Side)
When: Every Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
Explanation: Coffeehouse with Contemporary Christian Performers Representing All Genres and Free Coffee and Snacks
The New Life Coffeehouse takes place every Saturday night at 6:30 in the recreation hall of the Park Street Church. George Arvin, a musician in the praise band at the church, started the coffeehouse in June to give other Christian artists a venue to perform.
The concept of the coffeehouse was spurred from George’s childhood experience of being thrown out of church for playing rock-n-roll. He explained to me that things have really come a long way since then and that Christians should be a powerful arm of the popular culture.
“Christian music is continually growing and adopting all genres of popular music, it is a great medium to spread to word of God,” George said.
Crowd and performer turnout has been unpredictable in both numbers and styles. The assortment of artists is part of the event’s charm. Despite a lack of continuity in atmosphere, artists, and even audience members, the coffeehouse works. I attended this past Saturday and quickly realized that it wasn’t about creating a scene, but instead providing a welcoming spot for artists of all stripes to perform and enjoy fellowship.
“It’s open to everyone, but I’m mainly targeting an age group of 18 and older with contemporary Christian music that touches all genres,” George told me. He is not trying to compete with Murray Hill Theater, although he is hoping for some of the acts that regularly appear there to play at the New Life Coffeehouse. There is even a hope that Christian comedy and more hip-hop acts will be part of the mix.
The coffeehouse takes place inside of Park Street Church to limit the amount of overhead. You won’t find any dilapidated sofas, weather-worn books, bins of sweet-smelling coffee beans, or even an espresso machine surrounded with clouds of steam, but rather a corner of your grandparent’s living room, large white tables with slightly uncomfortable chairs, and a single coffee maker. Despite the unconventional touches that makes it scream “church,” the atmosphere is relaxed and laid back. There is low lighting, a decent sound system, and plenty of room for musicians to perform.
I wouldn’t say that the ambiance is what it should be, but it is another part of the progression that New Life is hoping for. Like many other aspects of the coffeehouse, it will be formed by the people who participate in it. There is nothing particularly hip about the coffeehouse’s presentation or overall aim, but upon talking to those who participated and simply were spectators, it makes you kind of glad that they don’t care. The crowd embraced all of the performers, but they especially enjoyed TB1 (theblessed1.com), The Blessed 1. In so many words, it was a rather white bread audience, but they got down from the start and waved their hands in the air, waved them like they just didn’t care.
TB1 and his hype man Steve read about New Life Coffeehouse online. They performed with prerecorded tracks, and were able to involve the audience and make it work. I wouldn’t say the crowd participated charismatically, but there were a number of positive verbal responses to TB1’s songs. TB1 (Stephen) has been at the Christian rap game for more than 7 years. He has spent 4 years on Jacksonville-based Christian label No Compromise records (nocompromiserecords.com). Although only playing for 12 of us tonight, TB1 has had the opportunity to perform at the TD Jakes MegaFest, open for Vickie Winans, perform at the Convoy of Hope during the Super Bowl, and open for Bow Wow. His new album was released in August and he is performing as much as he can to promote it. George told me that TB1 is exactly the type of act he has been hoping to bring to the New Life Coffeehouse.
George takes video of all the performers that have played at the coffeehouse and posts it on the coffeehouse’s MySpace account at myspace.com/newlifecoffeehouse. His long term vision for the coffeehouse is to provide all of Jacksonville’s rich pool of diverse Christian musicians a place to play. Additionally, he would like to be able to build a pool of talent to be able to send artists as guest musicians to area churches on a donation basis. He explained that a lot of churches don’t have the funds to bring musicians in, and he wants to be able to provide the service while fulfilling performer’s wishes for a venue to get their inspired music out.
Next Saturday (September 15th), Brian Jones from Tampa, who has opened for Sonic Flood, will be performing and the following Saturday (September 22nd) local band Terrill and Company will be kicking off their nationwide tour at New Life. Stop by for these great acts and to enjoy free coffee, tea, lemonade, cookies and muffins. There are no cover charges and all food is free, but donations are never turned down.
There is no trap, you won’t leave with tacky tracts, and it is not a ploy for money for the church. If you’re interested in contemporary Christian music and culture, you can be a part of cultivating it in Jacksonville by participating in New Life Coffeehouse.
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