Yesterday, I ventured into DC with Pastor Keith Smith (my friend from Texas) to walk the city. Everytime he visits he wants to hit all the monuments to say that he has been to DC. We took the Metro from Pentagon City Mall, and stopped in several of the Art Museums along with the Archive museum. Next we walked from the Capital to Union Station. On our way there we detoured to Ebenezer’s Coffee House. Ebenezers is a full operational business run by National Community Church.
After a quarter century of neglect, National Community Church purchased this old abandoned building (former crackhouse) on February 7, 2002. After several years of rezoning and constuction, Ebenezers opened for business on National Coffee Day, March 15, 2006. So why would a church build a coffeehouse? Because Jesus didn’t just hang out at the synagogue. He hung out at wells. Wells weren’t just a place to draw water. They were natural gathering places in ancient culture. Coffeehouses are postmodern wells. The vision of Ebenezers is to be a place where the church and community cross paths. National Community Church holds weekly services in performance space on Saturday and Sunday mornings, along with three other movie theater locations. Pastor Mark Batterson is one of the most innovative pastors in America.
So whenever you are near Union Station, take a detour to F and 2nd to check out Ebenezers – the vision of National Community Church
(You might remember the Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson)
