On a balcony above the sanctuary of Redeemer Church in Park Ridge, a man sits at a wooden table, hunched over paperwork. Across the room, two young women on an overstuffed couch engage in animated conversation, sipping coffee. Light filtering through immense stained glass windows casts a golden glow over the room, and live acoustic guitar music bounces off the wooden beams of the cathedral’s ceiling. There are racks full of magazines–Harper’s, the Atlantic, Christianity Today. “Starbucks would give their eyeteeth for a place like this,” boasts Pastor Fred Nelson, a lanky, bearded 48-year-old in a sweater. Nelson is Redeemer’s copastor and the driving force behind the church’s new coffee shop, Sanctuary Cafe.
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One evening a couple years ago Nelson was sitting alone on the balcony. Beams from an outdoor light illuminated the stained glass. “I thought, What a fantastic space–it’s too bad more people can’t appreciate it,” he says. About the same time, the Lutheran church got a flood of new parishioners in their 20s and 30s, many who drove there from the city–attracted, Nelson believes, by the church’s new Web site and a just-released CD of the church band’s alt-Christian music. “They would connect with each other in worship, and then after service linger for a moment before going their separate ways,” he says. He and his wife, Pastor Carol Breimeier, gamely removed seven rows of pews from the back of the church and set up tables and coffee service, which attracted more lingerers. A few of them brought up the idea of opening a cafe. Nelson brought the idea to his congregation, who approved it unanimously.
Even nonbelievers are welcome, says Nelson: “If you like music and coffee, yeah. We’re Christians; we’re not ashamed of that. But you won’t find any in-your-face attitude.” Since opening last month the cafe’s attracted a slow but steady stream of primarily young adults–by and large nonparishioners with varying degrees of religious belief. Alan Clark stops in at the cafe almost every week on his way from his job in Rolling Meadows to his Lincoln Park home. Although he doesn’t practice any particular faith, Clark is unfazed by the nonsecular setting. “It wouldn’t bother me either way,” he says. The 31-year-old just moved to Chicago from Scotland a month ago. Stopping at the cafe, which he heard about from a friend who belongs to Redeemer, is an opportunity to relax and potentially meet new friends. “I don’t know many people,” he says, “but I do like coffee.”
Sanctuary Cafe is at 1006 Gillick, Park Ridge,
