The Sacred Art of Collaboration
( from Modern Monk Coffee)
Why Modern Monk believes the future tastes better when it’s crafted together.
There’s a game many of us played as kids: King of the Hill.
Get to the top. Stay on the top. Push everyone else down.
It was fun when we were nine.
But many of us kept the same game going as adults.
Business, ministry, startups, social media—so much of modern life is built on one-upmanship, on the anxiety that someone else’s success threatens ours. We talk about “competitive edges,” “market share,” “brand dominance,” as if flourishing is a zero-sum game.
And many of us are exhausted—
exhausted from building brands,
exhausted from maintaining a digital self,
exhausted from trying to stay at the top f a hill no one actually wants to die on.
I was talking to a man who runs a very successful business the other day. He was confessing this kind of exhaustion to me. When I gently asked how his soul was doing, he smirked, winked playfully, and said…
“It’s lonely at the top.”
But I saw the fatigue in the corner of his eyes and the quivering lip behind the forced smile.
Perhaps it is lonely at the top. Pop culture certainly repeats the phrase often enough.
But there’s an older saying—one rooted in maritime wisdom and echoed in the way of Jesus:
“A rising tide lifts all ships.”
Not some ships.
Not the biggest ships
All of them.
This is the logic of the Kingdom.
This is the way of neighbour-love; love your neighbour as you love yourself.
And this is the heartbeat behind our newest collaboration.
The Julian Hard Cider Story
A few weeks ago, our team at Modern Monk partnered with Julian Hard Cider—and I need to say it plainly: their founder, Paul Thomas, is a force of nature.
Paul is relentless about quality. Not in a 📢 or flashy way, but in the kind of quiet mastery that’s been earned over decades. When I visited their tasting room, I met employees who have been with him for years upon years. In an industry known for burnout and turnover, that kind of longevity is rare.
You don’t build that with hype.
You build it with integrity.
With care.
With relationships.
With commitment to craft.
Modern Monk shares those same values—our Rule of Life for coffee: Mission, Selflessness, Excellence, Ethics, Faith, Trust, and Living the Rule.
So when two companies carry the same DNA, collaboration doesn’t feel transactional.
It feels like family.
It feels like vocation.
Tasting Collaboration
And here’s the part I didn’t expect:
You can taste the collaboration.
This coffee is rich and layered—smooth, rounded, deep.
But then you get this lovely apple tartness from the Julian cider fermentation, a brightness that snaps at the edges of each sip like a playful bite.
It’s a coffee with personality.
A coffee with story.
A coffee with harmony.
This kind of product isn’t just “good coffee.”
It’s a testimony of what happens when two crafts collide:
when cider makers and coffee fermenters bring their histories to the table,
when ideas cross-pollinate,
when creativity compounds,
when teams learn from one another,
when we submit our egos and elevate one another’s gifts.
The flavor itself becomes a parable:
we are better together—more complex, more interesting, more beautiful—when we dream together, build together, and bless one another.
You can taste unity.
You can taste shared vision.
You can taste what happens when the tide rises and both ships lift.
Why Collaboration Matters Right Now
In a world obsessed with individual achievement, collaboration is a quiet revolution.
It refuses the scarcity mindset.
It rejects the fear that someone else’s success diminishes ours.
It embodies the teachings of Jesus:
“Whoever wants to be great must be a servant.”
“Give, and it will be given to you.”
“Look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Collaboration is discipleship in practice.
It is leadership without ego.
It is hospitality brought into the creative process.
It is the death of “King of the Hill” and the birth of a kingdom where we celebrate one another’s flourishing.
And it is, quite literally, delicious.
The Coffee, the Cider, and the Calling
Our Julian Hard Cider collaboration is more than a beverage—it’s a picture of what we believe at Modern Monk:
• creativity is communal
• excellence is shared
• craft is sacred
and the world is better when we make things with one another, not against one another.
This is ora et labora—prayer and work—brought into the modern world through a cup of fermented coffee.
What’s Next
Our tide is rising, and we’re bringing friends with us.
Upcoming collaborations include:
Principe Winery — Ramona, California
AleSmith Brewing Company — San Diego, California
Each holds its own story, its own craft, its own community of makers pursuing excellence in their corner of the world.
And if this collaboration has taught us anything, it’s this:
When the tide rises, every ship in the harbor rises with it.
And maybe—just maybe—that’s the kind of world God always intended.
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