Olive Oil Divine Podcast

The Divine Room: Where Faith and Olive Oil Meet

• Greg & Shirley Mueller • Episode 5

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How Does Your Divine Room Tie Into Your Mission At Olive Oil Divine?

At the heart of Olive Oil Divine lies something unexpected—a sacred space where faith and fine culinary products beautifully intersect. Greg and Shirley Mueller take us on an intimate tour of their "Divine Room," a purpose-built prayer sanctuary nestled within their specialty olive oil store in Johnson City, Tennessee.

This episode reveals how valuable retail space deliberately set aside for spiritual purposes has become central to both their business identity and community impact. The Divine Room features a handcrafted seven-foot cross made from weathered wood that once formed Greg's deck—boards against which "friends and family leaned and spilled their coffees for 20 years." Behind it stands a wall constructed from the very pallet boards that delivered their initial inventory when they opened a decade ago.

More than just an aesthetic feature, this space serves practical spiritual purposes: housing a prayer journal for visitors' concerns, offering a quiet retreat for local pastors, hosting small groups, and providing a place where people can literally nail their heaviest burdens to the cross. Their commitment to creating this sanctuary reveals a business built on values deeper than profit margins—one that honors the divine guidance they credit for their success while offering something more nourishing than even the finest olive oils.

To learn more about Olive Oil Divine visit:
https://oliveoildivine.com/
Olive Oil Divine
2517 N. Roan Street
Johnson City, TN 37601
423-707-7087

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Olive Oil Divine podcast, your go-to source for culinary inspiration. Join Greg and Shirley Muller, owners of Olive Oil Divine, as they share tips, stories and insights to make you a kitchen hero. From authentic extra virgin olive oils to rich-aged Italian balsamic vinegars, We've got everything you need to elevate your cooking. Live divine.

Speaker 2:

Olive oil divine isn't just about selling oils and vinegars. It's about creating an experience. The divine room is a special place within the store, but how does it connect to the heart of the business? Welcome back everybody. Skip Monty, your co-host, slash producer, back in the studio with Greg and Shirley Muller Greg Shirley, how are you guys doing today.

Speaker 3:

Good morning, Skip. It's great to be here. We're doing wonderful.

Speaker 4:

Good morning, Skip. It's great to be here.

Speaker 2:

Good morning, shirley. Great to be here as well. Great to be here. Good morning Shirley. Great to be here as well. So it looks like you guys are in a pretty special place there. That's your divine room, correct it?

Speaker 3:

is? This is a room that's located at the back of our sales floor that is open to the public. We call it the divine room. It's kind of like a prayer room, a war room, if you've ever heard that term. This is our prayer war room, where we come in and just meditate. You can see the cross behind me.

Speaker 3:

This is a special room that we designed purposefully from the very beginning of the planning of our business. This room was actually designed and built specifically for this reason. It wasn't just an afterthought that, hey, we have this room, let's do this. We wanted to give credit and glory back to God for directing us to even start this business and then some of the mountains that he helped us overcome to get the door open on day one of our business 10 years ago. So this is just a way of honoring him in return by sharing the love of the Lord with our community, with our customers.

Speaker 3:

We have pastors come in here, Our customers will walk in and curious and it's just a very special place. Sometime, maybe on a future episode, we can give you a walking tour. But we're sitting at a table and behind us is a cross that I made. It's made out of two-by-fours, it's about seven feet tall. Oh wow, the pallet board slats you see behind it. Those are all palette boards that came off of palettes that delivered our initial product 10 years ago or something to do with starting the store. So it's kind of special because we've taken items that have stories and mean a lot to us and created this room and around us is a hutch with full of mementos and there's bookshelves and olive wood, prayer trinkets and just you know things and gifts that have been given to us by other believers over the years of our business that have made their way in here, and it's just kind of become a museum of the history of Olive Old Divine and its spirituality, and it's a very peaceful place.

Speaker 2:

Wow. So you built the cross and did you build the wall? I did.

Speaker 3:

The wall again. I just took the slats off of all the pallets I saved and brushed them off and then nailed them up there and then the cross is actually built from, weathered, treated, two by fours that came off of my deck on the back of my house. That was in place for 20 years so I had a lot of friends and family who leaned up against those boards and spilled their sodas or coffees against those boards. So there's a lot of meaning in those boards and then to build it into a cross that we could symbolize our love for Jesus, which is special to us, and then we. It's just a very warm, warm place and you can see the lighting. We have our overhead lights on now for the video, but typically this room is a little dimmer and we have the colored lights behind the cross to accent it and it just gives a very peaceful feeling in here.

Speaker 2:

Wow, wow, incredible. So how does that tie into your mission at Olive Oil Divine?

Speaker 4:

Well, as Greg said, we sell great products, quality products, but it also ties into we want a healthy body. We also believe what makes our body healthy is spiritual, what our walk is with Christ, what our walk is with Christ.

Speaker 2:

Wow, well, that's an incredible thing to share. Now, this isn't a room that private groups can rent out or use for events. It is available.

Speaker 3:

It's open to the public as long as our store is open. It's open every day. Customers can come in and we have a prayer journal on our table. If they have something heavy on their heart, they'll write it down and Shirley and I pray over that, and if it's really something super heavy, they can put it on a piece of paper and just nail it to the cross right here behind me. Shirley and I pray over those on a regular basis. When it fills up, we take them down and take them home to our pit and pray over them and burn them and give them back to the Lord.

Speaker 3:

This room is open for pastors and for anybody to come in. It does serve a second purpose as kind of a meeting room. We've had the small groups come meet in here and if it's a church small group we typically won't charge, unless it's after hours or if they want product or food or something. But if it's just to come meet during the day, when we're open to pray or meet with someone, we have a lot of pastors that will come in here and just close the door and meditate for a few minutes, or maybe pray with somebody in here and just close the door and meditate for a few minutes or maybe pray with somebody. But it's a multipurpose room, but it is first and foremost our divine room and our way of just having a little bit of peace in our business.

Speaker 2:

Wow. So if a small group, let's say a Sunday school class, decided that they want to do something off-site meeting and it's after hours, that is something that you would consider yes we would, and right now the Divine Room will hold up to six people.

Speaker 4:

There's six chairs in here. We've had one of our friends bring her Bible study in. She's a small business but they did an after hours and we did food for them and then afterwards they did an olive oil tasting. We've done that before. During the day I'll be here at work and someone will come in and they just need a prayer and I'm able to pray with them. I get more personal with them. There's people that'll come in and just say may I use your divine room, and I'll say, yes, it's open to you as well.

Speaker 2:

And I say yes, it's open to you as well, wow, do you guys have a sign or?

Speaker 3:

anything out front that says there's a divine room, or just tell folks no, we don't have a sign, but there is a big window that is open up to the store and as you're browsing the store or walking in front of our hallway towards the back, you can look in the door or look in the window and see it. The lit up cross is an attraction, Of course. It draws people's attention. You know, we don't really advertise it. So to say, we let the Lord direct who needs to come in here and when, and it's been very effective so far by doing it that way.

Speaker 2:

Well, I was going to ask how does it enhance the customer experience when somebody comes in? But I could imagine there's people that are just blown away. I mean, you have people that are coming in strictly to look for some olive oil and then they say, wow, what is that?

Speaker 4:

Matter of fact, I had that experience yesterday. I had a group of ladies come in that were in from Allentown and they loved our products. They did all kinds of tasting, making notes of, when they get back home, what they're going to shop online for. They came in and they just said I love your business. God gave us the inspiration, he gave us the insight, he gave us the wisdom and knowledge. And then I'll say you want to know what really makes this business special? And they'll say yes, and I'll bring them to the divine room and they're just blown away that we have a room for our customers or anyone in the community that just needs time to themselves. I love it when customers come in and they get through the window and they see the cross and they look at me and say what is room?

Speaker 4:

and then that's my door and I feel the Holy Spirit says they want to know let's share share and I say, well, walk over here and I'll show you what the room is for and I'll talk to you about the room.

Speaker 3:

I've had businessmen come in here, look at this room and learn what it is and they say well, you could be selling product in here. You're taking all this expensive square footage and you're not selling anything. And I said well, let me tell you what I've gotten more in return by having this room as it is than any product I could have sold in here. So you know, I'll put Jesus in here any day over selling product.

Speaker 4:

Me too.

Speaker 2:

Amen, brother, Amen. Well, wow. So for some of our listeners maybe that have not visited your store before, what's your store address so that folks can maybe stop by?

Speaker 3:

We're on North Round Street. It's 2517 North Round. We're right across the street from the Waffle House and the Popeye's Chicken. So if you can just remember, the old people like us used to watch Popeye and Olive Oil on cartoons that's a good way to remember where we are.

Speaker 2:

I didn't even think about that. That's my daily chuckle. I'll get.

Speaker 4:

People will say well, where are you located? And I'll just say are you familiar with Popeye's in Johnson City? We're right across from them.

Speaker 3:

Olive Oil and Popeye Popeyes in Johnson City.

Speaker 2:

We're right across from them Olive oil and Popeye. That is so funny, oh my gosh. Easy to remember too. Wow, I think we'll end the episode on that note, but easy to remember for those listeners that want to check it out. It's a beautiful room, as you can see on the video, and it's an amazing thing. You guys are doing with a greater purpose than just selling olive oil, although that's important and it's good. But you've got a greater purpose and I'm thankful for that. Amen brother Amen.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to the Olive Oil Divine podcast. Don't forget to visit us online at oliveoildivinecom for our exceptional olive oils, aged balsamic vinegars and more. If you're local, stop by our store and discover how we can make you a kitchen hero. Until next time, live divine.