Tom and Jennifer Morrill at Carpenter’s Cup Coffee in Enfield. All photos © Duncan Green.
Tom Morrill of Enfield is bad at telling people no. He’ll be the first to tell you. As the pastor at New Beginnings Church in Lebanon, owner of Carpenter’s Cup Coffee in Enfield, and manager of his own carpentry business, Morrill has built himself quite a schedule. Oh, and he also home schools his five children.
“‘No’ is a learned word, not a reflexive word,” Morrill says. “Some people say no to everything, just naturally, and it's hard to get them to say yes. I’m just the other way.”
As a man of faith who values community and working with his hands, Morrill says his three jobs satisfy his “social, physical, and spiritual bugs.” With the help of his wife Jennifer and their kids, ages nine to 16, the family somehow manages to make it all work.
Morrill says he always asks himself two simple questions when given an opportunity: “Can I?” and “What If?” From spiritual work to taking on carpentry projects to opening Carpenter’s Cup Coffee, Morrill tries to focus on the impact his efforts can have on those around him, and worries about fitting it all into a day later. He attributes his success to his tight-knit family. Jennifer says keeping an organized schedule and “being in it together” is what really makes it possible.
“In marriage, some seasons it's giving, some seasons it’s taking and working through things together, over the years we’ve gotten good at realizing what season we’re in together,” she says.
Morrill grew up in Dorchester, NH, and attended the Calvary Christian School in Plymouth before attending Pensacola Christian College in Florida. During his studies, he met his wife in English class. After chapel one day, he asked her to dinner. They were married in 2006.
Upon graduation, the couple traveled the United States representing their school, putting “100,000 miles on multiple vehicles.” In 2008, they wound up in the Upper Valley after Morrill accepted a job as an assistant pastor at the three Calvary churches in Plymouth, Tilton, and Lebanon.
Morrill’s Church, formerly Calvary Baptist Church and now New Beginnings, located on Riverside Drive in Lebanon.
In 2016, Morrill became the lead pastor at Calvary Independent Baptist Church in Lebanon, which last year Morrill renamed “New Beginnings.” As a religious leader in the community, Morrill said he wanted to make his church a place where anyone could worship, particularly those who had felt “betrayed” and “let down” by previous church experiences.
The name, New Beginnings, is meant to offer newcomers, returners, and those trying to rediscover their faith a fresh start.
Despite spending much of his life in the Calvary Church, he felt that the Independent Baptist model needed to evolve to serve the various types of worshippers in the Upper Valley. He hoped a rebrand would make the congregation feel more comfortable for a broader group of people. And while he knows some people probably didn’t like it, he’s okay with it.
“I've never seen Tom stressed, frustrated, or upset. He is cool under pressure,” says his neighbor Aram Donigian, a former infantry officer who now teaches business administration at Tuck Business School. “...Whether it’s pressure at church, the coffee shop, or his carpentry work, he just possesses more resilience than the average one of us.”
As the church has evolved in the past year, Morrill says his goal is to embrace the community, not the building. Where most churches hold services in the same space every week, the Morrills enjoy leading prayer across the Upper Valley. He describes how many churches need to use the majority of their budgets just to keep up the building and pay pastoral wages, leaving little behind for service work and investment in the congregation. With New Beginnings, the goal is to flip those figures the other way.
On Sunday, the coffee shop served as his church, his tables and couches as pews. “A church isn’t a building, it’s a community,” he says. “We hope to continue this tradition and hold gatherings in people’s homes, new apartments, and anywhere else.”
Carpenter’s Cup Coffee opened on Main Street in Enfield in August 2025. They offer a wide array of beverages, sandwiches, and baked goods.
Tim Matthewson, a bartender at Hoptimystic Brewing down the street from the shop, was enjoying a coffee and sandwich last Thursday afternoon while he worked on his laptop. He said Morrill’s most impressive skill was his ability to connect with others despite everything else on his plate.
“When I first walked in (to the coffee shop), Tom asked my name and took an interest in me,” says Matthewson. “The second time I came in, he immediately remembered my name and who I was. That really stuck.”
The pastor began offering carpentry services in 2020 and continues to work on various projects whenever he has spare time. For a few years he had an employee who worked with him, but given his busy schedule and various other responsibilities, he now operates solo. He designed and constructed the coffee shop space beginning in 2024, aiming to build a comfortable, modern-feeling space while also paying homage to traditional New England woodwork. The café opened last August. “All the wood you see here passed through my hands multiple times,” he said with a chuckle.
From the sound-reducing paneled wall behind the counter to the art displays crafted by local artists around the shop, Morrill passion for handcrafted products, good coffee, and community are on full display.
Carpenter’s Cup Coffee features art for sale crafted by local artists in the Upper Valley.
Donigian says he’s hired Morrill multiple times for carpentry projects at his house. For many years, he sent his children to Jennifer’s bible-focused Awana after-school programs. Now the coffee shop’s lavender latte is his favorite beverage in town. Despite knowing Morrill for many years, Donigian says he has no idea how the family manages it all.
Julie Eckert, the president of the Enfield Village Association, jokingly said Morrill may view her as “a bit of a nemesis,” because most of their interactions come when she is asking him to help out with a job or to volunteer for an event. Despite his packed days, he always does his best to help out.
“We've already got so much in American culture that makes us super busy,” says Morrill. “And the question is, what are we going to choose to do? Our culture puts a lot of expectations on us … in my work, I try to step back and be there for people, not expect things from them.”
Duncan Green is a rising senior at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where he is studying journalism and history. Next fall, he will be taking on a lead producing role for the Newshouse, a campus publication covering SU and the city of Syracuse. Duncan graduated from Lebanon High School in 2023 and is based out of Plainfield this summer.
