A city may sparkle with lights at night and buzz with business during the day. It might boast an awe-inspiring art scene, the hippest hospitality, and promises of potential for professionals. But these are not the things that truly define a place. 

A city is built upon the stories that unfold in the lives of its people each day — the young couple starting their own business, the elderly man tediously tending his garden, and the community rallying around a fallen hero’s family. These stories are easy to celebrate, but others are harder to swallow, like the single mother who does not know if she can stretch the paycheck until Friday to feed her family, the child who silently endures shoes that are a size and a half too small, and the man who just lost his job.

Each story is significant. But even the summation of all these stories does not make up a city’s soul. The soul of a city is the substance of how each story is regarded by its residents. 

In Columbia, a group of residents regularly search out the hard-to-swallow stories and extend help and hope to the city’s most hurting neighbors. They are average men and women who consist of both virtue and vice. They shoulder their own stories each day but always with an eye toward the other. And they are strikingly committed to caring for Columbia. 

Help

Jeff Shipman is one such resident. In his line of work, he hears the city’s stories of suffering and celebration every day and is keenly aware of how a community can be defined by love or the lack of it. Jeff is a pastor. 

Jeff readily admits that Christians have too often had a reputation of dissension — divided by dogma, denomination, and even color and class. But after 23 years in ministry, he senses a seismic shift in his hometown. “I’ve never seen the kind of unity that I’m seeing right now,” says Jeff. “I’ve never seen churches pulling together like this.”

Bishop Eric Freeman agrees with Jeff and admits it is unique. “It really is special,” he says. “It is exciting that so many churches are coming together in Columbia.” 

Over the past five years, Jeff and Eric have experienced a movement among Columbia churches that has become known as Love Cola. Dozens of pastors and congregations from various backgrounds and beliefs have begun to network to serve the city. They connect with each other and other organizations to bring to light stories of suffering so that they can extend help and hope to the most vulnerable in the community. And every October, their efforts culminate in a week of concentrated service called Love Cola Week. Churches are invited to participate by picking a day of the week to serve residents together in various ways through local nonprofits. During Love Cola Week, participants do not represent their own churches but instead wear a simple Love Cola shirt and serve together as one.

Although Love Cola Week is the concentrated expression of unity, prayer, and love, the Love Cola movement actively serves its neighbors all year long. “It’s not an event that we’re pulling off,” says Jeff. “This is what we’ve been doing all year. But it is a time to show the city who we are and how we really care about them.”

Hope

When and how the Love Cola movement began is challenging to pinpoint. According to Jeff, the origins of the unity and outpouring of love that Columbia is experiencing date back 2,000 years. Jeff points to chapter 17 in the Gospel of John and describes the moments leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross. “Jesus is giving an apologetic,” Jeff describes. “He knows he is going to the cross, and He knows there will be a resurrection. But His apologetic isn’t the resurrection; it’s our love for one another. He says that it’s our love for one another that will show an unbelieving world that the grave must be empty.”  In other words, a unified church overflowing with love for its city validates the claims of a Jewish carpenter named Jesus. 

As Jeff describes, it is as if Jesus said that Christian love would be so astonishing that miracles would be easier to believe because of it. Jesus says that it should be the defining characteristic of His followers. “The Scripture says it best,” Eric agrees. “By this love, men will know that we are His disciples.”

The Love Cola movement was first and foremost established by a loving community of Jesus’ followers many centuries ago. The movement’s history has been far from perfect but has nonetheless been marked by a group of ordinary people trying to love others well.

“I think we are standing on the shoulders of years of people who have prayed for unity in this city,” says Jeff. “Right now, Love Cola has a network of 50 churches in the city that are committed to 24/7 prayer for Columbia throughout the year.” In 2023, individuals from these churches signed up to pray during a specific time slot so that at every hour throughout the year, someone is praying for the Capital City. “But we didn’t want to just pray for the city,” says Jeff. “We wanted to serve.”

“It’s true,” says Eric. “Many churches are doing amazing work that you just can’t see because it’s all below the surface. One of the main things that Love Cola facilitates is that it enhances the work that we are already doing.”

As each church offers practical help to individuals in its community, it also provides providential hope. “It’s great to deal with food insecurity and whatever other ills we are wrestling with in our community, but I think the greatest expression of addressing those matters is by sharing the ultimate hope, which is Jesus,” says Eric. “And we share it through our love for one another and our love for Him.” Jeff and Eric both assert that Christ’s love has shaped their own stories and motivates their love for others.

“Columbia needs Jesus, but I don’t just mean from a salvation standpoint.” Jeff is careful to clarify that the hope of Jesus is more significant than subscribing to a set of beliefs. “Jesus taught His disciples to pray that his kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. So, yes, we need Jesus as our Savior, but we also need the kingdom, which, in my mind, is peace and prosperity in our city. As believers, we should be working toward those things without prejudice. We want everyone in the city to be able to experience the kingdom.”

Unity is one of the most significant ways Jeff and Eric have experienced the kingdom come in Columbia “as it is in heaven.” They have witnessed radical life change, racial reconciliation, and a spirit of collaboration among Columbia’s Christian leaders. Every month, a large group of pastors from varying denominations and cultural backgrounds gather for prayer and a meal. “One of the things that most people don’t realize in Columbia is that right now we have a large number of pastors in the city who really love each other,” says Jeff. They are each united by one city, one mission, and one God.

Love

On Sunday mornings, hundreds of churches across Columbia open their doors to the city. But if Jeff is asked how many churches are in the Capital City, his answer is always definitively: one. 

The Church in Columbia is full of ordinary people who have experienced God to such a degree that their own complex stories have been rewritten. Now, these changed men and women are the city’s story seekers who move with love to share help and hope with their hurting neighbors.

They provide food for the single mother to feed her family, new shoes to the child who has silently endured ones that were too small, and encouragement to the man who lost his job and his belief in a good God.

And each day that these Columbia residents serve, the soul of the city becomes more synonymous with love. As stories of suffering are rewritten to reflect hope, so goes the story of Columbia. It is this spirit of unity and love that truly defines a place.

The names of specific churches have been omitted to preserve the spirit of unity that is a hallmark of Love Cola. For more information about the Love Cola movement or Love Cola Week, visit LoveCola.org.