Paradoxical but true: God can and does use life’s hardships to catalyze great good. Rick Thomas, founder of Life Over Coffee, has experienced God’s not-so-gentle prodding at pivotal times during his life. One of his seminal books, Suffering Well: How to Steward God’s Most Feared Blessing, details how God has used challenges in his life to refine and grow him into the inspirational leader he has become.

A shorter version, Crushed by Mercy, is available through the ministry’s website, lifeovercoffee.com. “My passion for sharing the life-changing message of the gospel was born out of a broken heart, restored by God, and redeemed for His fame. My most profound and most intense desire is to serve Him by creating biblical resources for those who are hurting, struggling, confused, and wanting a more vigorous walk with Jesus,” he wrote. Rick now considers his season of suffering God’s kindness toward him that keeps him grounded and connected to others.

Decades later and married to wife Lucia, who works alongside him, the counselor, leader and international speaker has written more than 45 books and thousands of articles, podcasts and videos on a wide variety of relationship topics. He earned Bachelor’s Degrees in Theology and Christian Education, was ordained into Christian Ministry in 1993 and earned a master’s degree in counseling in 2000. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).

But before the accolades and accomplishments, Rick struggled to overcome several tangible obstacles. No stranger to family dysfunction, Rick left home at 15 and followed the path of several older brothers to prison. That detour, fortunately, opened the door to realizing he needed to make a life change. He married, started a family and then accepted the Lord’s offer of salvation. Rick felt God’s tug for ministry service so strongly he began attending Bible College. Then disaster struck, again. His first wife no longer wanted the life they had created and walked out. He was devastated. Even worse, when Rick turned to his church family for solace, none came.

Rick still vividly remembers a pastor telling him he’d be able to help if Rick had a broken arm, but it seemed no one knew how to minister to a broken heart. To add hardship upon hardship, former friends turned away from him in judgement once he was divorced.

The lack of compassion when he needed it most mobilized Rick’s life’s passion to help the hurting and find the lost. He now creates content and trains others to lead and minister, all with the hope of continuing to live out the Great Commission by spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Rick launched the Life Over Coffee global training network in 2008 to bring hope by creating resources that spark conversations for transformation. His primary responsibilities are content creation and leadership development, which he does through speaking, writing, podcasting and educating, “wrapping the globe with gospel-centered resources every moment with the redemptive use of technology,” he said.

What was originally a counseling ministry has evolved into leadership training and equipping. Rick’s unwritten mission is “to reach every person on the planet with a practical message of Christ” and leave an enduring legacy that continues long after his earthly life has ended.

Life Over Coffee’s name and logo were intentionally chosen to be neutral and appealing with graphics that wouldn’t immediately scare away a secular seeker at first glance.

“Our entire brand is built from the idea of two people sitting doing life over coffee,” he said. “We don’t want people to be turned off by the decorations. Life Over Coffee speaks to everyone. People think, ‘Ok, I can do that. I can talk to someone over coffee.’ It says, ‘I believe we can have a conversation even though we disagree on lifestyle.’”

Life Over Coffee’s engagement funnel is intentionally broad to reach the largest possible audience. The team strategically posts small-bite “coffee breaks” on social media, encouraging people to engage and visit the website, where they will find literally thousands of free articles, podcasts and videos. Messages are tailored specifically for each platform to meet potential visitors where they are most comfortable.

Evergreen resources, with website entries searchable by topic, follow the read, watch and listen pattern to offer multi-sensory engagement. Each includes a thorough, written explanation of the most salient points, “Think About This” bullets, “Action Steps,” an invitation to connect for more help, and related audio and video messages.

A few titles tagged as about marriage include: 10 Ways to Kill Marriage, The Secret to Having a Great Marriage that Lasts, Eight Responses to the Spouse Whose Spouse Left, and Make Sure Your Relationship Doesn’t Look Like This.

Another entry, Mind Mapping the Best Marriage Help You’ll Ever Find, includes: 

“True transformation in marriage does not begin with better communication techniques, more effort, or even biblical roles alone. It starts with Spirit-filled people who are willing to put to death their flesh, walk in humility, and serve one another in love. The curse has touched every marriage, but so has the cross,” the entry begins. … few “fully grasp how the consequences of that (Adam and Eve’s) rebellion still shape every marriage today” … “To see the full picture of how the fall affects the institution of marriage, we must not only consider the presence of sin but also the specific judgments God pronounced on Adam and Eve.” … “This insight reveals that the woman’s desire for her husband is not affectionate or intimate but competitive and controlling—a longing to assert, to take charge, to lead. Meanwhile, the man, rather than lovingly serving and shepherding his wife, will be tempted to dominate and rule without grace.”

Rick then explains how to overcome sin’s consequences through the power of the Holy Spirit, with application ideas to promote progress.

Many entries have been expanded to become short books that allow users to flip between topics. Titles are intentionally limited to no longer than 125 pages for ease of consumption.

Rick’s Get Ready – For Your Best Marriage Now is slightly longer. “If you are thinking about dating, courtship, or getting married, this could be the most important book you’ll ever read,” he wrote. “This book is the culmination of thousands of hours of counseling with marriages that came to me because they either did not know the content of this book, did not know how to apply it or refused to use what they knew. All of their marriages were in trouble, and they hoped to reverse years of poor decision-making and relational conflict.

“Ask Him (the Holy Spirit) to give you the courage to change what needs changing, no matter how hard it feels at the moment. And above all else, expect God’s favor on your life as you humbly submit to His guidance while you move through this resource.”

The call-to-action steps in the website articles make them great homework assignments for helpers to use with clients, Rick said. This accountability can keep couples moving in a positive direction until the next counseling or mentoring session.

Other website entries address helpers’ needs more specifically. One such listing titled What to Do With the Stubborn Couple includes a podcast, video, and eight chapters of written content, including how to connect with Life Over Coffee leaders if the helper needs more guidance.

“Every discipler eventually discovers the hard truth: you cannot change anyone. You can teach, plead, warn, comfort, rebuke, exhort, and patiently walk alongside them, but you cannot flip the internal switch from stubborn to soft, from self-righteous to repentant, from proud to humble. That work belongs to the Lord alone. This truth is humbling in every discipleship context, but it becomes acute when you are trying to help a couple who seem more committed to winning arguments than winning each other back to Christ,” Rick wrote.

Sometimes marriage champions use Life Over Coffee’s material to train groups in their churches. Rick encourages leaders to contact the ministry for a group discount when buying in bulk.  He is more interested in making the resources affordable for the good of the Kingdom than making a profit.

Often leaders who connect with Life Over Coffee wish for a deeper relationship. For $25/month they can join the Leader Over Coffee private forum. They’ll have access to thousands of frequently asked questions and complex answers they can peruse at their own pace, as well as interaction with the ministry’s leadership team.

Some leaders feel called to train further to offer biblical counseling. Life Over Coffee created its own Mastermind course offered online, because those who pursue this equipping are often deeply rooted in service, work and family life. “It’s not reasonable to ask them to uproot and go somewhere to sit in a university setting,” Rick said. The program continues to expand its content to offer more course options.

Not everyone is suited to become a counselor. The Mastermind program has been carefully crafted to train people to help others most effectively within their own sphere of gifting. Rick’s long-ago experience with the pastor still stirs his passion. He designed the Mastermind class to offer meticulous teaching and supervision to ensure that those who graduate under his tutelage are not ill-equipped and do more harm than good.

“Our program is thorough because we don’t want someone counseling or helping until we are confident they can be competent,” he emphasized. While he prefers his personalized Mastermind approach, as a Fellow with the ACBC, he does supervise students seeking certification. However, he applies the same philosophy of rigorous examination with the ACBC students as he does to Mastermind students, monitoring more than 50 of a candidate’s counseling sessions and 10 Zoom meetings.

Like all non-profits, Life Over Coffee relies on donor dollars to make the vast majority of their resources free to those in need. Visit and share www.lifeovercoffee.com. You’ll be sure to learn something valuable as you browse through the many entries.