The building’s function is quite different from its earlier days, when it served as a brewery. Built in 1909, it still has the original copper ceiling, but now it boasts gold walls and splashes of royal colors.

“The Lord led us to Second Chronicles where it talks about Solomon’s temple,” says 27-year-old Colette Muth, co-owner and pastor of The Upper Room Christian Café. “We were studying about how to decorate and really praying about that.”

Colette, along with her older brother, Aaron, began this Christian meeting place in August of 2002. Colette says the idea formed when she served as a student missionary in Australia about six years ago. “I helped out in a Christian café over there and we did evangelism out of this café atmosphere,” she says, smiling. She then points to a television screen that’s playing video of The Upper Room. “We just didn’t have anything like that for youth in America, so when we came back, we just wanted to start up a place where it was non-threatening, in a relaxed environment, a place for Christians to hang out together and to fellowship with one another and grow as Christians.”

Located in Redlands, California, The Upper Room has become a place of activity for not only young people, but those of all ages. “We kind of geared it for young people—high school to graduate school level,” Aaron says. “But what we’ve found is that we’re actually reaching people from their 30s all the way up to 60s. People [whom] a lot of ministries wouldn’t usually [meet]—people that are out in the secular world, people that would feel comfortable in a Starbucks or some kind of place like that. We have the same kind of atmosphere so they feel very comfortable coming in and being part of the nightly service, praise and worship, and the prayer groups that we have.

“The ministry has just exploded,” he adds, saying that some 200 to 300 people visit The Upper Room every night.

Colette says the Christian café is open every day. “We have Bible studies, prayer groups, testimonies, live worship music, and then we have worship services also, several times a week. Every Thursday we have a youth rally for all the kids and a large worship service on Friday evenings for Sabbath. And this fall we’re going to be starting up a Sabbath service.”

The youth rally is part of “market night,” which is held one street over from The Upper Room. “At first, they just come in for the drinks. But now they’re staying for the music, and the last couple of weeks, they’ve been staying for the message, the pastor,” Colette says.

“They don’t have to wait for the weekends to be involved or to do something at church,” she adds. “Everyday there’s something for them to come to. They don’t have to be out on the streets. They don’t have to be into bars and places where their parents are worried. They’re in a safe environment that’s Christian and uplifting for them.”

The Muths talk about the kids’ involvement in ministry. “It’s so amazing just seeing these kids lives being changed and over the last year, just seeing the impact of one-on-one relationship ministry,” says Aaron, who started out in medical school but changed directions when he felt God calling him to do ministry. “And the lack of love that this generation is seeing and just to have someone there willing to listen to these kids and show some love and wanting to sit down and talk and pray with them makes the greatest impact for this post-modern generation.”

In the last several months, café personnel have sent missionaries to Europe. “It’s amazing to see the passion, the fire they’ve had as they come to Bible studies every night and now they’re being empowered through the evangelistic training at The Upper Room to go out and spread the gospel,” Colette says.

Through a network of support, fundraising, donations, and grants from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in southern California, as well as some local hospitals, Colette and Aaron have been able to provide a ministry that gives hope to many. They do a lot of the speaking and Bible studies but, Colette explains, they encourage other churches to come in and participate.

“We have different youth pastors come in and speak so that we make sure we get the youth really involved,” Colette says.

Speaking of the large diversity of people who visit The Upper Room, Colette says, “All different kinds [of denominations] are coming in and we’re able to have Bible studies with them and many are being convicted of the Sabbath.”

She adds that some companies in the area hold business meetings at The Upper Room. “They’ve said that since they’ve started being in a Christian environment, they’ve started praying in their businesses, having had their meetings there at the café, so it’s influenced their businesses.

“It’s been an incredible outreach,” she adds, “not only to Adventists and Adventists that have backslidden, but to a lot of the other denominations that are now as a whole church studying about the Sabbath and some of our beliefs, and [it’s] also really reaching non-Christians.”