Rob Touchstone: brewing faith, business, and purpose

When you sit across from Rob Touchstone, you quickly realize that coffee is just the medium. The real story is about connection, purpose and faith lived out loud. From roots in youth ministry to the founding of The Well Coffeehouse, Touchstone’s journey epitomizes how business and mission can meld seamlessly when love and intention are in the driver’s seat.

A graduate of Lipscomb University in the late 1990s, Rob Touchstone majored in Bible and Youth Ministry, a natural fit for someone drawn to serving others. He began his career as a youth minister in Alabama before moving to Tennessee, where experiences within the church became both inspiring and challenging.

While his work nurturing the youth was rewarding, Touchstone grew increasingly uncomfortable with the insulation of the church. “It often felt like we were coddling those already inside rather than reaching out to those outside,” he reflected. That realization would become a defining pivot point.

He started taking his youth group to a local Starbucks instead of holding gatherings within the church walls. The casual, conversational atmosphere opened up deeper and more authentic conversations and drew attention. Often, strangers approached him and his students, inquiring about what was happening. Those encounters planted a seed: what if faith could be lived out in everyday spaces, over something as simple as a cup of coffee?

That seed grew into The Well Coffeehouse, not just another coffee shop but a designed space to break down barriers and build community. The mission was simple yet profound: create a space where people connect, while using business to fund tangible good in the world.

The name “The Well” carries a double entendre. It reflects the company’s commitment to providing clean water through its profits and evokes the biblical image of the well as a place of encounter, inspired by the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. Just as that well became a place of connection and transformation, The Well Coffeehouse aims to be a space where people gather, share, and experience community. Their vision statement, “We love coffee, We love people even more,” was coined by Touchstone with conviction, capturing the heart of both mission and ministry.

When he launched The Well at 37, it wasn’t from a place of comfort, but conviction. “We were living paycheck to paycheck,” he recalled. With a dream and a prayer, he approached a church member for help after “praying in circles.” That man donated $30,000, and Touchstone and his team fundraised the remaining $50,000 of their $80,000 startup budget.

They rented an old Burger King for $2,000 a month and repurposed it as their first café. The community, against all odds, showed up and never stopped coming.

After just 18 months, the building was demolished, and it seemed like the end of The Well’s story. Instead, it became a new beginning. The team found two new locations, one in Brentwood and another across from Lipscomb University in Green Hills, and decided to open both.

From there, it snowballed. Their third store opened in Bellevue, and soon, opportunities started coming to them. The fourth location in Indiana came to be when someone reached out and asked if they would consider opening a Well there. Later, the same thing happened with a mall location in Cool Springs, another request from people who believed in the mission and wanted to bring it to their community.

Each new store amplified their impact, and allowed them to build an even stronger team, including eventually hiring a CEO and building what Touchstone described – not realizing his own pun – as a “well-oiled machine.”

This sets The Well’s model apart for more than just great coffee. The company pays a certified living wage and works directly with coffee farmers to ensure fair compensation. The statement, “Create impact,” remains at the heart of every decision.

Touchstone and his team now hope to create a sustainable business model that could one day inspire or lead to hundreds of similar stores. The goal is not to replicate a big chain like Starbucks, but to multiply that kind of meaningful, Christ-centered community found in their existing locations. Touchstone himself does not take one dime of profit from The Well. For him, it has always been about the impact, not about the income.

Even as the business flourished, Touchstone never left behind his pastoral heart. In 2014, he started holding Sunday services inside The Well for those without a church home. His approach to ministry-one of love rather than condemnation-resonated deeply with many.

It wasn’t long before his work again caught the attention of Lipscomb University. Ray Eldridge, now former Dean of the College of Business, asked Touchstone to come speak to students about how they could integrate their faith and work. That invitation became a full-time calling. Eldridge asked Touchstone to establish an academic center, “The Center for Business as Mission,” which would explore how business can serve both profit and purpose.

Touchstone led the center until 2022, when President Candice McQueen encouraged him to expand his vision further by helping launch the “Center for Vocational Discovery,” dedicated to helping students discern calling and meaning in their professional lives.

Outside of teaching and writing, Touchstone has maintained a busy entrepreneurial life, though he still manages to preach part-time. He served at a church in Nolensville for 4 years and still guest preaches at churches across the Nashville area. For him, these moments of teaching and connection remain grounding. He summarizes his philosophy succinctly: faith should be lived and not spoken of; it should show in the way we love, serve, and create opportunities for people to flourish.

It’s not about building a network of coffeehouses, or leading university initiatives for Rob Touchstone. It’s about connecting the dots between sacred and secular spaces, proving that mission can live in the marketplace, and that compassion can fuel commerce.

When asked what propels him forward, he doesn’t refer to profit margins or plans for expansion. He talks about hope. “Hope for growth,” he says, not just for The Well or for his students, but for anyone looking to find meaning in what they do.

As Touchstone says, “My vocational journey has helped me to see that all work is sacred and an opportunity to live on mission. Whether in a church, coffee house, or classroom, I am so thankful for the work I get to do as a way to partner with God in the work he’s already doing.”

In the end, it all comes full circle. A simple cup of coffee, when brewed with intention, can create an impact far beyond what we can imagine.