“Faith is a journey, not a guilt trip.” That’s the tagline for Liquid Church in Parsippany, New Jersey. Launched in 2007 by Lead Pastor Tim Lucas, the name “Liquid” was chosen for a simple reason.
“Jesus calls himself the living water, and we believe church should be the most refreshing place on the planet,” says Lucas.
Roughly 5,000 people attend services weekly, more than half of whom have been baptized at Liquid. According to Lucas, both churched and unchurched individuals are thirsty for the same thing—a life-giving relationship with Christ and the community. This is why the church’s other saying is, “Teamwork makes God’s dream work.”
Liquid Church has both a global and a local signature mission. Their local mission is to serve families living with special needs. Their global mission is to bring clean water to families in Africa and Central America. To date, the church has donated $3 million to drill 360 wells, which equates to bringing clean drinking water to 130,000 people in nine different nations.
As for their local mission, New Jersey boasts robust educational and social services opportunities for kids with special needs, which entices people to move to the state to access these resources. Every week the church serves more than 100 children with autism, Asperger’s, Down syndrome, ADHD and other special needs. They have found, however, that as children age out of traditional learning environments, the supports that the teens had grown accustomed to fall away. Additionally, the majority of these young adults are unemployed, lacking the opportunity to land meaningful work.
“We asked, ‘What can we do as a church to marry our two signature missions, special needs and clean water?’” says Lucas.
The millennials in the congregation—whom Lucas refers to as the heartbeat of the church—recognized the importance of a one-on-one “buddy system” for the individuals with special needs. Therefore, they came up with an idea to open the Clean Water Café—a full-service coffee house located inside the church that would employ people with special needs and give all proceeds to help provide clean water for the world’s poorest.
“It’s a win-win,” says Lucas. “It’s a not-for-profit, but it generates a social profit.”
When the idea for the café was pitched to the congregation in 2018, they were immediately on board, donating $400,000 to make this dream a reality. The café opened in October 2022 with 20 staff members who work as baristas, cashiers and waitstaff to serve breakfast, lunch and specialty drinks.
“Customers pass by Dunkin’ and Starbucks to come to Clean Water Café because it’s coffee with a cause,” says Lucas. “[The purpose of] this business is not to earn money but to change lives.”
“We are so proud of our café staff, who have learned their responsibilities well and are so encouraging that they not only provide excellent service to each customer,” says Executive Pastor Dave Brooks, “but they are also working hard to make the café the happiest place on the planet.”
Sydney, who was born with developmental delays, says that when Pastor Lucas announced the café, she and her mom grabbed each other and started sobbing.
“I just hope to have a purpose every day, and to lead a normal life,” says Sydney. “I feel for individuals who are like me. This café will give them the chance to prove their self-worth. It’ll impact not only the families, but it’ll impact the customers because they may come in having a bad day and when they grab a cup of coffee, they may leave thinking, It wasn’t such a bad day.”
Jaxon, who is on the autism spectrum, graduated high school but doesn’t have the ability to enter mainstream employment.
“He’s had verbal developmental delays and couldn’t make eye contact or talk to strangers,” explains Lucas. “But after just a few weeks behind the counter, he became one of the most outgoing of our baristas who now can make eye contact and speaks people’s names with confidence. He realizes that when he hands lattes to customers, they get so happy.”
It pleases Lucas to see these special-needs individuals grow by leaps and bounds in their relational skills as they fulfill their purpose and use their gifts for Christ.
“It’s been a thrilling adventure,” he says.