NEWS FEATURE: Scoop of Spirituality: Ice Cream Parlor Linked to Ministry

c. 2004 Religion News Service FLINT, Mich. _ How about this for a curious combination: an ice cream parlor on one side of the room and a religious ministry on the other? It’s easy to explain, says owner Andrew McGarry. “I have yet to see anyone who comes in to get ice cream who is […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

FLINT, Mich. _ How about this for a curious combination: an ice cream parlor on one side of the room and a religious ministry on the other?

It’s easy to explain, says owner Andrew McGarry.


“I have yet to see anyone who comes in to get ice cream who is not in a good mood or at least receptive to it,” said McGarry, who has gone biblical with the name of his recently opened ice cream parlor, Isaiah’s. Across the 3,000-square-foot space is the real focus of McGarry’s attention: Common Ground, a religious meeting place and performance venue.

“I want people to see and hear discussions while they are here eating some ice cream,” he said. “That’s why there is no wall between the ministry and the ice cream business.”

Common Ground has six sofas, a stage, sound equipment and stacked plastic chairs where people can gather to listen to spiritual music. Available books include 20 copies of the New Testament, “More Than a Carpenter: The Life of Jesus” and “Pocket Positives.”

McGarry said he chose to name the store after the prophet Isaiah “because he called kings and people of his time to reform in a time of moral and religious decline.”

He said he wants customers _ more than 7,000 since Isaiah’s opened April 9 _ to ask about the store’s name so he can give his reasons.

“We don’t reach out to God now until we need him,” said McGarry. “Isaiah was looking for (people to have an) unconditional love of God.”

McGarry, 32, who lives near his business with his wife Lisa, 24, said the idea for a combination business and ministry came to him after he reflected that when people want to get to God, they go to church.

“But more than 50 percent of the churches are locked during the week,” said McGarry. “If we need help in between Sundays, it’s not easy to get it.”


Common Ground, with its informal setting, can fill that gap, he said.

“I think it’s cool,” said Rick Sadler, 17, a recent Atherton High School grad. “It’s not as intimidating as a big stone church.”

Sadler was at Isaiah’s for an open house in late June, when the ice cream parlor and religious center were introduced to the community.

He and his mother, Gail, lay leader at nearby Lincoln Park United Methodist Church, munched a sandwich while they listened to gospel music by a three-piece band led by McGarry’s pastor, the Rev. Don Browning Jr. of Emmanuel’s Embassy in Mt. Morris Township.

“I think it’s a great idea; it’s meeting people where they are,” said Gail Sadler.

At a nearby table, Margaret Baker of Flint was having ice cream with her twins, a son and daughter. “I was next door when I heard about it so I came, and of course my kids love ice cream,” she said. “I am not really a regular churchgoer, but I like spiritual music.”

The McGarrys, expecting their first child this month, made strong pitches to the 20 people gathered around the stage to use Common Ground and support it financially. Andrew McGarry hopes for support from 20 to 30 churches, youth groups and others. Some already have booked space for gatherings.


Andrew McGarry said it costs $2,000 a month to keep the ministry going. Churches or groups that support the ministry will get an 11-by-17-inch space on a display board in the business to promote themselves.

“This is marketplace ministry at its finest,” he said. “I want this to be a place, however small it is, for people to come and benefit from it.”

DEA/MO END JAKSA

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