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Live From Life It's Saturday Night

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By ELIZABETH LEE BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

LUTZ - At the River of Life Church, Saturday night is a mixture of music and cultures.

Billed as Saturday Night Live 'Cafe con Leche,' the weekly concert night is a contemporary and informal venue for local church musicians to perform.

The coffee gatherings began in September and have attracted about 35 to 40 people to the church each Saturday.

Organizers designed the free concert in a relaxed atmosphere by offering cafe con leche and pastries along with the live music.

'It's truly a community coffee house,' said Pastor Samuel Cotto, who heads the Spanish ministries at River of Life. 'It's an alterative for people to come to have family time. It's more than a cup of coffee. As a church, we want to serve the community.'

Cotto modeled the event after a similar ministry he successfully organized in Pennsylvania.

He sees the weekly concert night as an outlet for community groups, as well as church gospel singers who mainly perform within their own churches.

'This coffee house allows musicians from different churches to come out of their four walls and to find out how it is to perform outside the four walls,' he said.

So far, the community coffee house has featured a Haitian group, a gospel pair and a Jamaican band.

Dan Coflin, senior pastor at River of Life, said the outreach into the community is part of the church's overall vision.

The church at the south end of Lutz borders the diverse and Spanish-speaking communities in the university area.

That's what makes the concert series so important, Coflin said. And church members are excited to see participation grow.

'We see a lot of the families from the university area attend,' he said. 'We have a hope that with this, we can reach more of the families over there.'

Coflin and his wife, Dianne, have led the church for seven years. The church began in 1982 as Faith Covenant Fellowship but changed its name in 1999 when the congregation moved into the existing building on East Chapman Road.

'It's off to a really good start,' Coflin said of the weekly concerts. 'Of course, with anything new, it takes awhile to build it and to get the word out to the community.'

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Saturday Night Live 'Cafe con Leche' outreach ministry

WHEN: 6 to 7:30 p.m. every Saturday

WHERE: River of Life Church

ADDRESS: 410 E. Chapman Road, Lutz

MEMBERS: 200

CONTACT: (813) 949-9931

Reporter Elizabeth Lee Brown can be reached at (813) 865-1502 or ebrown@tampatrib.com.

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