The Cappuccino Club

By Michael Phillips

In this theological novel, the author of Hell and Beyond weaves a fascinating story that challenges the orthodoxies of Christian evangelism.

On Eternity Drive sits a coffee shop called Cappuccino Heaven. There, Christian author Jack Ramsay gets together with his former pastor, Kayleigh Morrison, to discuss a theological matter of explosive importance. Kayleigh has finally seen the light. Jack had been right all along—although everyone shunned him for speaking the truth. Now as their little cappuccino club grows, it’s revolutionary message could save the church . . . or blow it apart for good.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9780795350726

Michael Phillips

Professor Mike Phillips has a BSc in Civil Engineering, an MSc in Environmental Management and a PhD in Coastal Processes and Geomorphology, which he has used in an interdisciplinary way to assess current challenges of living and working on the coast. He is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation, Enterprise and Commercialisation) at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and also leads their Coastal and Marine Research Group. Professor Phillips' research expertise includes coastal processes, morphological change and adaptation to climate change and sea level rise, and this has informed his engagement in the policy arena. He has given many key note speeches, presented at many major international conferences and evaluated various international and national coastal research projects. Consultancy contracts include beach monitoring for the development of the Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay, assessing beach processes and evolution at Fairbourne (one of the case studies in this book), beach replenishment issues, and techniques to monitor underwater sediment movement to inform beach management. Funded interdisciplinary research projects have included adaptation strategies in response to climate change and underwater sensor networks. He has published >100 academic articles and in 2010 organised a session on Coastal Tourism and Climate Change at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in his role as a member of the Climate, Oceans and Security Working Group of the UNEP Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands. He has successfully supervised many PhD students, and as well as research students in his own University, advises PhD students for overseas universities. These currently include the University of KwaZuluNatal, Durban, University of Technology, Mauritius and University of Aveiro, Portugal. Professor Phillips has been a Trustee/Director of the US Coastal Education and Research Foundation (CERF) since 2011 and he is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Coastal Research. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Victoria, British Columbia and Visiting Professor at the University Centre of the Westfjords. He was an expert advisor for the Portuguese FCT Adaptaria (coastal adaptation to climate change) and Smartparks (planning marine conservation areas) projects and his contributions to coastal and ocean policies included: the Rio +20 World Summit, Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands; UNESCO; EU Maritime Spatial Planning; and Welsh Government Policy on Marine Aggregate Dredging. Past contributions to research agendas include the German Cluster of Excellence in Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) and the Portuguese Department of Science and Technology.

Book preview

The Cappuccino Club

A Theological Novel

By

Michael Phillips

New York, 2017

The Cappuccino Club

Copyright © 2013 by Michael Phillips

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Electronic edition published 2017 by RosettaBooks

ISBN (Kindle): 978-0-7953-5072-6

www.RosettaBooks.com

Author

Michael Phillips

is a novelist, biblical scholar, historian, and devotional writer with keen insight into the nature of God’s heart. As one of the versatile and prolific authors of our time, his vision of the Fatherhood of God informs and gives depth to all his writings.

Phillips is one of a handful of select novelists who in the 1980s inaugurated the boom in Christian fiction that continues to this day. He has penned some seventy fiction titles of great variety. With a wide range of historical expertise, he has set best-selling series all over the world, from ancient times to the present.

Phillips is often linked to his two mentors C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald, the Victorian Father of the Inklings whose writings figured significantly in Lewis’s journey of atheism into Christianity. Michael Phillips came to widespread attention in the 1980s when his edited and facsimile editions of MacDonald’s books spawned a renaissance of interest in the Scotsman whom C.S. Lewis called his master. Phillips published the major biography George MacDonald, Scotland’s Beloved Storyteller in 1987.

As he continues to devote himself to heightening awareness of MacDonald’s unique contributions to the theology of God’s Fatherhood, Phillips is recognized as among the foremost purveyors of MacDonald’s message, with particular insight into the Scotsman’s heart. Following in the footsteps of these giants of the past, he has dedicated an important share of his writing to non-fiction. Though not so well-known as his best-selling fiction, this body of thought-provoking work carries on the tradition of Lewis and MacDonald now that the two great men are gone.

In The Cappuccino Club, Phillips combines his gifts for storytelling and characterization with his love of ideas that illuminate the purposes of God, penning what he calls A theological novel. The results are surprising, may be shocking, and are certainly thought-provoking.

To those through the years who believed...

and those who didn’t.

Contents

1.The Bomb Bursts

2. The Question

3.The Big H

4.Does the Tree Lie Where it Falls?

5.Did Jesus Mean What He Said?

6.Macchiato, Latte, and Hell

7.We’ve Got to Know More

8. Ostriches and Kum Ba Ya

9.A Shocking Alternative

10.A Consuming Fire

11.The Cappuccino Club

12.Is God Fair?

13.Malachi’s Purifying Furnace

14.The Universal Fatherhood

15.Are You Satisfied When You Look in the Mirror?

16.Tyrant or Father?

17.Miracle or Example?

18.The Orthodoxy Patrol Pays a Visit

19.Kolasin—The Purpose of Hell Revealed

20.Unexpected Visitor

21.A Threefold Cord

22.The Sword

23.Kayleigh’s Decision

24.Storming of the Club

25.Best Dad in the World

26.The Summons

27.Inquisition Redux

28.Kayleigh’s Crucible

29.Bombshell of Challenge

30.Aftershocks

31.End or Beginning

One

The Bomb Bursts

____________________________________

T he ringing phone jarred me from a sound sleep.

  Conditioned from years of family emergencies and the passings of our four parents, we both started awake in panic.

Who’s died now? my wife mumbled, her anxiety obvious.

My feet rolled onto the carpet first. I stumbled across the bedroom floor.

Jack Ramsay, I said sleepily into the phone. I eased into the chair beside the small table, anticipating bad news. Middle of the night calls always were.

Jack…it’s Kayleigh.

I waited, trying to shake away my remaining grogginess. The numbers 2:37

a.m.

on the clock on the table no doubt had something to do with my mind being slow on the uptake.

Kayleigh Morrison.

Kayleigh! I blurted out in surprise. Instantly the fog cleared from my brain. I’d known only one Kayleigh in my life. How many could there be in the world? Except for perfunctory greetings at church we had hardly spoken in the twelve years since our falling out.

I’m sorry to wake you in the middle of the night, Jack, my unexpected caller went on. "It’s probably terrible of me. But I couldn’t wait. You were the first person I thought of…I had to call."

Uh…what’s up, Kayleigh? I asked. Is something wrong? Are you—

"Nothing like that. I’m fine. Maybe I’ve never been better. There’s something I have to tell you, Jack—and I have to say it now."

Her voice was quivering. I had the distinct impression she had been crying, though I had not known stoic, no-nonsense Kayleigh Morrison to cry in her life. I had never observed the slightest emotional chink in her armor of poise and self-control.

Jack… she went on, then hesitated.

Again I waited.

Jack, I have something important to say… she continued after a few seconds. It was clear she was struggling for the right words, "—something I need to say. I wouldn’t listen to you all those years ago…you know, when we had our trouble. I’m afraid I wasn’t very kind. I know you were hurt. Your reputation suffered. I allowed terrible things to be said about you. I was part of it, Jack. I want you to know that I’m sorry. You—"

Her voice caught briefly. This was obviously hard for her. By now I was wide awake. I listened stunned at words I had never expected to hear.

Jack, Kayleigh went on, you were right all along. I didn’t have eyes to see it. None of us did. You bore the condemnation we leveled against you with grace and dignity. We misjudged you, but you never judged us. That alone should have told me more than I allowed it to. Your character was the greatest evidence of all that there was truth in what you said. Character speaks louder than doctrine. But I couldn’t see it then. I do now. I’m sorry, Jack. I had to call…to ask for your forgiveness.

You have it, Kayleigh, I replied softly. You always did. I never bore you an ounce of ill-will.

I know you didn’t, Jack. Thank you.

What’s…I mean, why now, Kayleigh? I asked.

"I just finished reading a book. I’ve been up half the night with it. You’ve probably heard of it—Beyond Hell."

I’ve heard of it.

"I finished it just now. I wept, Jack. You came to my mind immediately. I knew I had to call. It’s the same thing you were saying twelve years ago. I don’t know why I couldn’t hear it from you then. Suddenly I understand. I feel like scales have fallen from my eyes. I see how right you were. It should be you, Jack. You should be the one with the best-selling book everyone’s talking about. You did write a book about it. You gave it to me to read, remember?"

I remember.

No one took it seriously. No one would publish it. You were branded a heretic. I’m sorry to say, that’s what I thought too.

Water under the bridge.

"Your writings back then suddenly seem prophetic. Now somebody else is on the cover of Time."

Some things aren’t meant to be.

Still, you were years ahead of the curve on this. But no one would listen. If I have anything to say about it, maybe that will now change. Can we meet tomorrow—what’s your schedule?

You know the  life of a novelist, Kayleigh, I answered. No time clocks. I’m at your service.

Not too early. I need to get some sleep. That may be hopeless. My mind is racing. I’m sure you realize that this is explosive.

I do.

It could blow the church apart.

"If you go public."

You weren’t afraid to come out of the closet. You paid a heavy price for your convictions. Can I be less courageous than you?

"Your position may require something different. I had nothing to lose. You could lose your job."

What are you talking about, Jack? You had everything to lose. It didn’t exactly help your career. I hear there are several publishers who won’t touch your stuff, including the house of our own Matt Bruce.

"That’s true. I paid a price. Matt made sure of that. He still thinks I lied to him. What a grief it is to have a brother think that of me. And yes, the cancer spread to other houses. Still, I would hate to see you get in trouble."

"Time enough to worry about that later. I hope you will help me with that decision. Right now, I just want to get together with you. I have a million questions. I am hungry to know everything!"

Name the time and place.

Obviously we can’t meet in my office. That would spark talk.

Good old Vera, I said with a smile.

I don’t want Matt getting wind of this. Not yet. He would  bring me up on an inquisition within two weeks. You know how he operates.

Only too well. I suffered through the indignity of one of his inquisitions with the board at Waverly House, not to mention what you and the elders put me through.

Don’t remind me! I am sorry for that, Jack. It was at a time when I was filled with the power of my new position. It is one of my greatest regrets.

I survived.

Then can you meet me at that coffee hangout over on Eternity Drive...Cappuccino Heaven?

Fitting, I said with a smile. Did you plan the poetic congruity?

Actually no. I just thought it would be far enough away that there would be no chance of our being seen. I go there now and then. It has that nice large outdoor patio overlooking the lake. Sometime after lunch—that should give me time to nab a few hours sleep. How about two o’clock?

I’ll be there, I said.

I exhaled a long sigh of incredulity as I hung up the phone. I continued to sit staring into the darkened bedroom.

Who was that? said my wife. She had by now drifted sleepily back to semi-consciousness.

You’ll never believe it, I replied. A voice from the past.

Who?

Kayleigh Morrison.

"What did she want? said Ione irritably. What business does she have waking us up in the middle of the night?"

It would appear that the sword may be about to fall, I said, more than a little too philosophically for my wife’s sleep state.

What do you mean?

Believe it or not…Kayleigh called to apologize, I said. She asked for my forgiveness. She wants to see me tomorrow.

Two

The Question

____________________________________

I didn’t get much more sleep after the preemptory call at 2:37. I lay awake until well past five, reliving events of years before, recalling how close Kayleigh and Ione and I had once been.

I wondered how much Kayleigh even remembered—she never mentioned it again—that I was the one responsible for bringing her to Cedar Springs in the first place. I knew that her star was on the rise, but nobody had heard of her. I introduced her to Matt, Frank, Blair, Garth, Lorne and the other elders at the time, suggesting they look into her qualifications. The idea of a woman minister, and a single thirty-two year old at that, was a major stretch for those of a traditional mindset on the board. But I knew Kayleigh had unique gifts. I had a feeling she would grow on them.

I was right. Even Matt Bruce, the most fundamentalist of them all, reluctantly agreed to the Call. Six months later Cedar Springs Evangelical installed the first female pastor in its long history.

Kayleigh quickly made her influence felt. The church not only grew, her reputation mounted along with it. She made a splash in the city. Before long she was known statewide. She wrote several books, became a highly sought conference speaker. Within six or eight years her name glowed with the luster of a national following. Her books were best-sellers. Her name was bandied about in conservative political circles. She was regularly featured in the Christian women’s magazines as Evangelicalism’s most prominent female face. One of her goals was to deliver the invocation for the inaugural of the first woman President of the United States. The way things were going, she might be standing on the other side of the Bible herself. If she yielded to the political pressures that were increasing, who was to say that in another twelve years she might not be a viable V.P candidate? She was remarkably similar in many ways to Sarah Palin, except that she had chosen the pulpit rather than a governor’s mansion as the forum from which to advance her ambitions. In manner, dress, carriage, and charisma the two might have been twins.

One of the unpleasantries of her early ministry had my name on it. I suppose success always leaves casualties in its wake. I was one of the casualties of Kayleigh’s rise to stardom.

She was unabashed about wanting to break the glass ceiling for women in Christian leadership…to further the gospel, of course. She felt that her celebrity and energy, yes, and her good looks too, would act as a magnet to the world, that the force of her personality would cause people to listen.

I knew Kayleigh well. I was the one who had led her to the Lord during her freshman year at the university when I was a graduate student. Though five years separated us, we grew very close. Ione and I were her first Christian mentors. Countless were the nights she spent in our small student apartment, peppering Ione and me with questions about Jesus’ teachings and the Bible, praying with us, learning from us as we led her through her initial months as a new Christian. She had been sincere and hungry.

She was one of those new converts who take off in the Lord, so to speak. Within a year she was involved in Christian leadership on campus. Ione and I left the university when my masters in history was completed. By then Kayleigh had fallen under the spell of a well-known pastor of one of the city’s major churches—a man far more fundamental and politically inclined than I was comfortable with. We were no longer closely involved in her life. I did not realize to what an extent Kayleigh adopted the man’s decidedly militant doctrinal conservatism. Ione and I were busy in our own lives on the other side of the state, struggling to make ends meet, raising a new family. I was teaching by then and eventually began writing.