Church service is on this menu

Along with food and drink, the Coffee Spot House of Praise serves helpings of religion.

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published June 3, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Lance Aram Rothstein] Mona Lisa Giordano (center) leads a sermon at lunchtime with the customers at the Coffee Spot House of Praise.

HOLIDAY - The preacher was deep in prayer at the worship service when a noise came rising from the back of the sanctuary.

Not a cough or whisper or shifting of a worshiper. It was the BEEEEEEEEP of a microwave.

No one seemed to notice. "Lord, " the preacher continued, "we just lift up every need."

Nor did they seem to notice the chef in a white coat who appeared soon after, walking among them, bearing a ham and cheese sandwich.

This is the Coffee Spot House of Praise on U.S. 19, which opened in December and is described by its founders as "a church cleverly disguised as a coffee shop."

The sanctuary is the coffee shop's dining area, which in addition to cafe tables includes a stage used for non-denominational Christian worship services and music performances. The space includes a kitchen and coffee bar.

The Rev. Mona Lisa Giordano, the preacher, and her husband, Peter Giordano, the chef, run the operation, which depends in part on proceeds from food and drink sales.

They say they want people to drop in for a cup of coffee or a sandwich - and find something inspirational, especially if they're not regular churchgoers.

"I think people are fed up with church as usual, " said Mona. "I think people are looking for intimacy."

Luring with honey

The church doors are open seven days a week. New customers may not know the shop is actually a church, but they shouldn't be surprised that it's run by dedicated Christians. The speakers play Christian music, not Starbuckish pop. The wall art includes a cross and framed Biblical verses. The specials board always says at the top "God morning!"

Services are held twice a week, and worshipers sip on coffee drinks or nosh on sandwiches or pastries while they listen.

Coffee Spot, which was registered with the state as a nonprofit last September, has been recognized as a church by the Internal Revenue Service, which gives them tax-exempt status, Mona said.

She said the Florida Department of Revenue has also recognized them as a "place of worship" - among other things, the couple had to submit their statement of faith and their weekly service schedule - so proceeds from coffee and food sales are not taxed. By law, those proceeds must go back to support the church.

"There's no profit at this stage, " Mona said. "We haven't begun to pay back loans."

If they do start making a profit, she said, the couple will use it to expand the church's works, including taking mission trips and expanding youth music lessons.

The Giordanos say they welcome the customers who are just stopping for coffee, and they try not to push them on the religion. They want the ambiance to be relaxing enough that patrons are encouraged to approach them.

"We don't want to beat people over the head with a Bible, " said Mona. "This is the old, 'you can draw more bees with honey than with vinegar.' "

Once, she said, a woman came in, surveyed the place and said, "I don't know what to think about this."

"Well, " Mona recalled saying, "do you like coffee?"

Stomping bugs, devil

The Giordanos, whose 14-year-old son Chris helps with both the coffee shop and the church services, also own the adjacent Pest Control General Store. The signs for their two businesses create one of U.S. 19's more arresting juxtapositions: "Bug Killers Fertilizer Weed Killers Termite Killers" is flush with "Latte Espresso Smoothies."

"When I'm over there, I'm stomping on bugs, " Mona said in an interview at the coffee house. "When I'm over here, I'm stomping on the devil."

Mona said she was moved to be a minister, particularly to young people, a few years ago, and starting taking courses at Calvary Chapel Worship Center in New Port Richey, her home church. She was commissioned to be a minister last October by Spectrum Network of Ministries and Ministers, which is based out of Calvary Chapel.

Peter, who had worked in restaurants before, told her that God had spoken to his heart, too.

"My husband really felt like God was telling him this unit would be a Christian meeting place, " she said.

So how did a Christian meeting place come to include a coffee shop? As Mona describes it, through a fortuitous chain of events.

In July, the couple bought the entire building for $466, 000, a purchase that Mona says was made possible by growing revenue in their pest control operation. Then the electronics business in the unit next to the pest control store closed. Then a church that was closing donated offering plates, Bibles and an organ. Then Mona and Chris attended a Christian festival that got them revved up to use music as part of their ministry. Then some friends sold them coffee-making equipment at a cheap price.

"That made us feel like we were on the right track, " she said.

'To Live For'

Mona sees the family's ministry in the context of a culture war, particularly when it comes to youth: Too much sex and violence and not enough focus on the moral lessons of the Bible.

"I have a vision, " she says, "of seeing a hundreds kids out there, waving red flags and saying 'We believe!' "

But her preaching style is way more Oprah than Billy Graham.

During a recent service, she showed a clip of the Christian-themed movie Facing the Giants and shared her own spiritual struggles as she tried for years to get pregnant. Then she took her microphone and went from table to table, hoping to elicit responses from the nearly dozen people in attendance.

Peter, who works in the kitchen and takes orders throughout the services, is more reserved than his wife, quietly hovering over his food.

He adorns his dishes with shredded carrots and strawberries. His signature sandwich is the stuffed portabello mushroom.

"It's to die for, " said Melissa Tartaglia, a Port Richey resident and friend of the Giordanos, as she paid for her lunch after a recent service.

Mona, who by then had traded the stage for the register, laughed and corrected her: "To live for, " she said.

'Don't call on me'

But not every customer who walks through these church doors is spiritually hungry. Sometimes they're just, well, hungry.

During the Friday service, Bob Perez came into the shop to order beef brisket and the turkey panini. As Mona stood on stage and spoke of patience, of "idols" that men place before God, Perez stared at the floor, at his shoes, at a stack of business cards near the register.

When Peter handed him his order, Perez hurried through the door.

Outside, he said he had not known he'd be stepping into a worship service. As someone who is not religious, he had been uncomfortable.

"I was scared she was going to call on me, " he said.

He shrugged. He'd come back - but only for food and drink. "It doesn't bother me, " he said, heading back to the sign shop he runs across the highway. "As long as they don't call on me."

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this story. Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6247.

If you go

The Coffee Spot House of Praise

It is located at 2632 U.S. 19, near Sunray Drive. A youth worship service is at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and an adult service is at noon Fridays.

[Last modified June 2, 2007, 19:24:11]