For more than two years, a Christian coffee shop in Colorado founded to help the homeless with job training and social mobility has faced a barrage of protests from communists and LGBTQ protesters.
Jamie Sanchez, the owner of embattled Christian coffee shop Drip Cafe — operated through his nonprofit Recycle God’s Love — joined CBN News to provide an update on these monthly protests.
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Rather than confront protestors who assemble the first Friday of every month outside the coffee shop, Sanchez said he and other believers have come up with a powerful response: worship.
“We’ve gone through a whole progression of how we wanted to react to this situation, and that’s just the key right there is: we were reacting,” he said. “And so that’s what they wanted, and we realized that, and, so, quite honestly, we just ignore them now.”
Sanchez continued, “What we’ve done is: we actually shifted our focus from trying to react to them to worshiping God.”
So, on the first Friday of every month, Drip Cafe partners with a local worship leader to host a live worship night, belting out songs to the Lord.
“We just have the door wide open, and we worship the Lord, and that music flows out into the street,” he said. “And, quite honestly, I forget that they’re even there until I’m walking out of my cafe and they’re like screaming in my face, calling me names. I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot you guys were here. I was too busy praising the Lord because He’s the one who deserves the attention.’”
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As a result of shifting focus from being reactive to hosting praise, Sanchez said the fruit has been incredible. In fact, the ministry is seeing lives changed through the worship nights, with individuals who knew nothing about the ongoing protests stumbling upon the shop and connecting with the Lord.
“Honestly, it’s happening because of the protest,” he said. “All these things are happening to glorify God because the enemy tried some tricks, and [God] is using [it] for good.”
Sanchez said the building is sometimes so packed with people worshipping that it’s standing-room-only. It’s a creative response to a protest that has been ongoing for more than two years and shows no signs of slowing down.
Ultimately, Sanchez said he knows the battle isn’t a mere temporal issue.
“One thing we all really need to realize … it’s beyond me, it’s beyond the Drip coffee shop, it’s beyond my ministry,” he said. “It’s beyond all that, it’s beyond them – it’s spiritual, and … a spiritual battle is happening there.”
Regardless of the pushback, Sanchez said the Drip Cafe has been able to live out its mission of helping the homeless find employment and be discipled.
“We’ve been able to do some pretty amazing stuff beyond just what we expected to do with the homeless community,” Sanchez said. “Individuals coming through … are being discipled.”
He continued, “And beyond that, we’re just seeing … there’s customers coming in the coffee shop who are going through a rough time … we’re able to pray for them, we’re able to bless them, we’re able to lift them up, and that’s happening … on a daily basis.”
Sanchez said he knows he’s called to continue the Drip Cafe, even as it comes at an intense personal cost. As previously reported, people began gathering in June 2023 outside the shop, shouting, and taking aim at the fruits of the ministry’s labor.
A statement affirming biblical sexuality on the Recycle God’s Love website reportedly served as a catalyst for the protests that began then and haven’t ceased. The original statement read:
Homosexuality: This organization is opposed to homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. Additionally, this organization holds that a homosexual lifestyle is contrary to God’s Word and purpose for humanity (I Timothy 1:10). The Bible instructs that it is a sin that leads to death. Moreover, this organization is instructed to love those living such lifestyles, while abhorring their sin. 1 Cor. 6:9 says the following: “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders.” Members of the church are forbidden to practice such sin. Any member found to be in such sin and unrepentant shall be subject to dismissal.
Sanchez said he changed the language not long after the cafe opened to make the ministry’s intent about love and truth more straightforward. You can read the new verbiage here.
Posts on the Denver Communists Facebook page have called for protests against the cafe. The goal, Sanchez said, has been to shut down the cafe — but, thus far, to no avail.
“Their goal is very clear; it’s on their site; it’s on their posters,” Sanchez said in a previous interview. “They want to shut us down.”
He said these protestors have claimed the cafe hates gay people and seeks to exploit the homeless, with Sanchez accusing them of “making up all kinds of lies.”
“They stand outside with a blow horn and they’re screaming,” he said. “If a customer tries to walk in the door that just is a regular person trying to come in, they will scream in the blow horn and say, ‘Don’t go in there! Don’t go in there! Literally scare them from even wanting to come into the cafe.”
A July 5, 2025, post on the Denver Communists Facebook page shared photos and proclaimed that the group is continuing to protest against “the homophobic coffee shop.”
“When we arrived to set up, we saw that Drip was closed!” the post read, in part. “Unfortunately, just for the day, as they were celebrating the vile holiday. We took advantage of the lack of bigots, and were able to talk to the crowds milling about the Art Walk. We had unanimous support from passersby, letting them know that the people who run the shop are exactly the type of people to feel that they have something to celebrate about this sh**hole country.”
The post concluded by noting that they planned to bring back their “Drag Against Drip” effort, described as “drag performances right on the homophobes’ doorstep.”
Sanchez, who has young kids, said the ongoing protests have extended beyond the shop. In fact, he has reportedly been the subject of personal attacks, including some surrounding his late first wife.
“They’ve even actually gone as far as attacking me personally and saying that I’m using my late wife’s death as a tool to get people to feel sorry for me,” he said, noting such attacks “hurt” but help confirm he’s following God’s call on his life. “It’s also a confirmation of how powerful my testimony is that Christ has given me through my life — that the enemy would try to pull that out and use it as a tool against me.”
Rather than give up on the Drip Cafe, Sanchez said he has persisted, trusting in the Lord throughout the journey and keeping focus on the broader mission.
“For me, the cafe is not mine. I don’t really see it as my cafe,” he said. I don’t see it as Recycle God’s Love’s cafe. I see it as God’s cafe. He gave it to us; if He wants it to go away, then He’ll make it go away.”
In the end, Sanchez said “God gets the glory” for the cafe’s ability to remain open despite the chaos.
“There’s no way we would still be there if it wasn’t for God and the body of Christ really supporting us,” he said.
As for the Denver Communists, they told Fox News their protest of Drip Cafe is centered on the organization’s beliefs about sexuality.
“There are plenty of Christian denominations that don’t share their bigoted view, such as the ELCA [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] and we’ve been joined by pastors and many Christians in our protests,” the group said. “Since then Drip has doubled down on its homophobic position. Jamie and his bigoted coffee shop don’t have a monopoly on Christianity, but he sure is willing to try and profit off of it.”
Find out more about the cafe here.
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