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The Ground Zero coffeehouse gatherings are planned for once a month. (Submitted photo)
A new ministry that aims to get people together through coffee and music has recently started meeting in White County.
Ground Zero Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit started by Geary and Karen Camp in 2020 as a way to encourage people from all ways of life to come together. The current outreach is a monthly coffeehouse-style gathering from at United Community Bank’s Roy Ash Community Room on East Jarrard Street in Cleveland. (The next event is set for 7-9 p.m. this Saturday, June 5.)
“Our mission is, we just want a place for the community to come,” Karen Camp said. “It’s free: free entrance, free coffee, free snacks, free live entertainment, but it is a Christian coffeehouse. So it’s Christian music along with positive kind of music.”
She said the name of the ministry has to do with change in a person’s life.
“The coffeehouse seeks to be the ‘origin of intense change’ in a person’s life through the power of Jesus Christ through music and connection,” she said. “Hence the name ‘Ground Zero Christian Coffeehouse.’”
The outreach was started in 2020, but had to stop because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Geary Camp said. It resumed in March 2021, and there has been one every month since then.
“We’ve had great entertainment,” Karen Camp said. “The people God’s bringing to perform have been awesome.”
She said she initially thought the coffeehouse idea would be for their church only, however, she said the Lord had other plans and that it should be for all churches.
“Any church that wants to come and get involved, whether you have great talent that could sing one night or if you want to help us with providing coffee and snacks, or financially, we’ll take whatever you want to do,” she said. “But we would love to see the churches invite their people to come. What we want it to be is a non-intimidating place for people who wouldn’t ordinarily go to the church building, but would come to a coffeehouse. That way they would hear the word a little bit through music and just have a place of connection.”
Future dates for the event are 7-9 p.m. this Saturday, June 5, July 2 (This event will be held at Freedom Park and will be a night of praise concert/picnic.), Aug. 7, Sept. 11, Oct. 9, and Nov. 6. For more information or to make a donation, visit Ground Zero Outreach at www.facebook.com/groundzerocleveland.