“Love God. Love People. Love Coffee.”
Years ago that sentence didn't exist. It was overheard, once, in a coffee shop an ocean away. This is where it came from.
The name found him
in England.
In 2012, Kuppa Joy’s founder, Zack, was on a mission trip to Great Marlow, England. One night, he slipped into a small coffee shop to be alone with God and His Word. He opened to Romans and read a single line:
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1He’d been a football player living for himself. Pride and ego had dominated his worldly pattern of living, and he understood the weight of his condemnation.
So to read that Christ had already paid that price — that nothing was left to be done but believe — filled Zack with an overwhelming joy.
He lifted his cappuccino to take a sip and immediately thought:
This is a cup of joy.
Then a thought arrived
that wasn't his.
It didn’t feel like an idea he’d come up with. It felt more like instructions being given.
Look around this coffee shop. See how the people connect over coffee. I want you to go to your hometown and open a coffee shop to share My love with your community. And when people come, they’ll be filled with more than coffee; a hope, a peace, a joy.
Zack was overwhelmed with excitement at the Spirit’s leading. But God knew the main ingredient it would take to make any of it happen:
Obedience.
“But here is the catch: you must remain connected to Me. And if you do, My love will flow through you, to your employees, and to your customers.”
He’d spent years lukewarm, half in the world, half in the faith. This would take being all in.
So he put everything he had on the line and did his best to follow the call.
On the flight home, Zack’s entrepreneurial mind went to work. Joy was in the name, so he went to the source. God, seated on the throne, the source of all joy.
That’s where Zack landed on The Throne as the mark of Kuppa Joy. People said the logo looked like a furniture store. He kept it anyway.
Because the mark isn’t decoration. It represents the whole reason the doors are open:
Joy comes from the One seated on the throne.
Not the man
he was.
Is he perfect? “Far from it,” he’ll say.
Like all of us, he still falls. But he’s watched God sanctify him, slowly, through the highs and lows of building something with everything on the line.
This was never religion, and it was never for show.
It is all for the glory of God.
Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ; for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:4–9Still here.
Still learning it.
The mission never got more complicated than loving God, loving people, and loving coffee. Most days, that simply looks like a good pour, a real smile, and someone asking how your day is going and meaning it.
But somewhere along the way, Zack landed on something he can’t un-know:
If you truly love someone, you don’t keep the best thing you’ve been given to yourself.
For him, that’s the Gospel. So the to-go cups are designed with the Gospel, and there’s a throne in every shop.
None of it is here to preach at anyone. It’s here to serve them. To show people the same love of God that changed his life.
Love God. Love People. Love Coffee.
And more than a decade later,
that’s still what Kuppa Joy is here to do.