Podcast Episode 153

A call to ministry along with a desire to make friends and fight off loneliness led Cristin Cooper to launch Coop’s Soups, an innovative business and ministry. She shares how loving God and loving neighbor led her to reach people in new and creative ways.

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A call to ministry along with a desire to make friends and fight off loneliness led Cristin Cooper to launch Coop’s Soups, an innovative business and ministry. In this episode she shares how loving God and loving neighbor led her to reach people in new and creative ways.

Douglas Powe:  Welcome to Leading Ideas Talks, a podcast featuring thought leaders and innovative practitioners. I am Douglas Powe, the director of the Lewis Center and your host for this talk. Joining me is Cristin Cooper, a licensed local pastor who is the creator and owner of “Coop’s Soups,” a creative faith expression. Our focus for this podcast is innovation. Cristin, I’m so excited that you’re with us today. Of course, I have been a small part of your journey, but I’m excited for others to hear about the great work that you’re doing.

Cristin Cooper: Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here, and, yeah. I was really sketching out so much of the ministry I’m doing now in my last year of seminary, which was when I took your evangelism course, and it provided me with even more of a framework and a lot of guiding principles, and also a sense of feeling home. A sense of feeling like, “oh, I’m not just, this isn’t just coming out of nowhere. There’s some history here for why I feel called in this direction.”

Doug Powe: Thank you. I want to begin just to help others become familiar with a little bit of who you are with you sharing a little bit about your background.

Cristin Cooper: Yeah. So, I grew up Assembly of God. My parents are retired now, but they were both professors at a small Assembly of God Christian University in Lakeland, Florida. And so, we went to a charismatic, evangelical church, zero to fifth grade. And in that space, I had a really positive Sunday school experience. So, I was, yeah, that just really set a foundation for me, and again, it was a really positive experience. And my sister, who’s two years older than me, was in youth group when I was in fifth grade, and she was starting to have a less than positive experience in that space. And so, my parents decided to take us out of that church to kind of create a different narrative when we were starting—when our theology was starting to naturally expand. And they had already been on a journey of their own spiritual discernment. And so, we landed at an Episcopal church; so, like the opposite of Assembly of God, by the end of the summer. So, I graduated fifth grade, and by the end of the summer, we were starting to go to an Episcopal church, and I got involved as an acolyte. And that, really, created for me a lot of understanding of kind of the more intellectual side of doctrine and church history, and I felt really a part of this story of communion and the Lord’s Supper week after week, helping serve on the altar. And so, from sixth grade to college, we went to this Episcopal church.

And then shortly after college, I went to Australia for a year. And I worked at a Baptist church in that space. But Baptist probably looks more Methodist in Australia, both in terms of theology, but also in terms of—it had a liturgy to it, which is not necessarily true here in America. So, in that space, by the end of the year, I felt called into ministry, and I went to the two pastors, and I said, “I feel called to do this.” And they said, “we know,” and I was like “what!?” And they just really affirmed that, and they said, “yeah, we see a lot of gifting, and you seem to really love this.” And so, I said “well, what do I do? I’m going back to America.” This would have been the end of 2013. And they said, “you go to seminary.”

So, I came back, and I started to look for a job at a church. And I was still Episcopal, so I was looking at churches here in the D.C. Metro area, and a lot of them weren’t hiring full time. So, I was looking for like youth and young adult pastors, and they weren’t hiring full time, and I needed full time. And so, there was a local Methodist church, that I also then was looking at, and they offered me full time, and they also contributed to my seminary degree. So, that all kind of got settled in my interview process. And so, then I came to Wesley, and they said, “we’ll give you even more scholarship money if you become Methodist.”

And so, I was like: “Well, now I’m Methodist!” And I would say that, I think, with all of that upbringing and those church experiences, the reason why that shift was easy for me was because I’ve had this real sense inside of me that so many of these denominations are meaningful expressions of how to live out your love for God and neighbor. But I believe not necessarily, “are they all getting it right?” No. No perfect place, no perfect people. So, it really is, “where are you finding a sense of home?”

So, that’s kind of the religious foundation piece, and then while I was at Wesley Seminary discerning this call to be a pastor, I never quite felt called to be the pastor in the robe at the front of the church. That never quite felt right. I always had questions; that feels sometimes removed for me. Like that works for this pastor; but for me, that feels a little removed. I want to be kind of more with the people. I want to feel more connected to the congregation. Not necessarily robed, not necessarily at the front of the church. And then certainly, looking at mission and outreach, and having just a lot of questions about so many of the programs being in the church walls when the preaching is encouraging us to get out. And so, kind of towards the end of seminary, I started to ask questions a lot that has turned into the ministry I’m doing now.

Douglas Powe: And that’s helpful, and it sets us up for the work you’re doing now. Particularly, as you think about your sort of emphasis on bringing people together and the creativity that you brought to this is Coop’s Soup. So, can you share with everyone first, what is Coop’s Soups? And then how did Coop’s Soups come about getting started?

Cristin Cooper: Yes. Coop’s Soups is a soup business and ministry. It is soup to share as an awesome way to make friends and fight off loneliness. It came about, so if you like go to our websit