Venti Vision
Ken (who by the way has one of the coolest looking blogs in blogland) passed along an interesting article from a recent issue of Psychology Today. The article talks about the rapid growth of Starbucks and, among other things, attributes that growth to the "Starbucks experience" rather than the coffee. Here are some highlights from the article and the questions and thoughts it raised in my mind:
Vision. "From a base of just 100 stores 15 years ago, Starbucks has grown into a 13,000-strong coffeehouse armada. It operates cafes in all 50 states and in 37 countries… The company now opens more than 2,000 coffeehouses per year, an average of six new stores a day."
The company’s current goal is to have 40,000 stores worldwide. Does anyone else read that and think our vision for the Church pales in comparison? We complain about and try to discredit the ministry of churches that are approaching 40,000 people while this company (that’s just trying to sell more coffee) is trying to open 40,000 unique locations. Aren’t we thinking too small?
Intentionality. "At Starbucks, nothing is accidental. Everything the customer interacts with, from the obsessively monitored store environment down to the white paper cups, is the product of deliberation and psychological research. The coffeehouse as we know it is a calculated creation…"
It ticks me off that Starbucks has demonstrated this much intentionality in selling coffee while the Church embraces a passive (or maybe it’s just lazy) approach to spreading the Gospel.
Community. "Starbucks filled America’s need for a public gathering spot–…a ‘third place’ with home and work being place one and two. This became Starbucks’ community rallying cry: It wasn’t a coffee company, but a place for bringing people together through the social glue of coffee."
Here’s an example of a need that people had that could have easily been filled by the Church. Maybe we’re too focused on arguing about what we’re against instead of being what the Church was intended to be in people’s lives.
Atmosphere. Starbucks interviewed coffee drinkers and found that they "talked very little about the coffee itself, but quite a bit about feelings and atmosphere… The coffee wasn’t the point–the feel of the place was."
Here’s the reality–Starbucks just wants to sell more coffee. But, we don’t hear blogging baristas complaining about how Starbucks has watered down the coffee because they’re actually paying attention to people’s feelings and the atmosphere of their stores.
What if God gifted artists to create an atmosphere for people to be more receptive to hearing the Gospel? What if God created some people with the gift of hospitality to design a welcoming environment for people to hear the Gospel? What if God gifts people and directs them through the Holy Spirit to think about effective building design, sound systems, video capabilities and children’s ministry so that more people might hear the Gospel? Is it possible that we’re trying to put God in a box by limiting how he chooses to reach people?
I happen to believe God will use methods we’ve not seen before to reach people who have yet to commit their lives to Christ. As I’ve read through the Bible again, I’m amazed at the variety of different approaches he used to get people’s attention and transform lives. I don’t think God’s done creating. And, I don’t think he’s done redeeming people’s lives.
Awesome.
Thanks for that stretching challenge.
Great insights Tony. I couldn’t agree more.
I recall Mark Batterson saying (in reference to their church run coffee shop):
“Jesus didn’t hang out at the synagogue. He hung out at wells. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture.”
Besides the obvious in this comment by Mark, I picked up an added little something. I think our churches, in many respects, try to create an atmosphere that invites people in. This is not a bad thing as it logically makes sense but as the statement says above… Jesus hung out AT the wells. He went to them. He didn’t spend so much of his time trying to figure out how he could get them to come to him. It was more about creating ways to take himself to the people.
It’s just something that has been in my mind a lot these days. “How can I/We do a better job of taking HIM to them?”
Tony
Thanks for your continued passion and thoughts about the church and strategy and vision. I so agree with you. Keep helping us be the church God had in mind a couple thousand years ago.
ONLY GOD.
John Bishop
You told us Ken has one of he coolest looking blogs in blogland. I really want to check it out. Can you post a link to his blog?
Tony – Thanks for your post. I appreciate passing along highlights from the article and also a response in light of the church. I particularly resonate with the points that you make in intentionality and vision.
It is important to be intentional about our spiritual life as individuals (spiritual disciplines) and also about our life together in community. An emphasis on one without the other can be weaker than a combination of both.
I believe that starting new faith communities is a powerful way that God will continue to work in the world to reach those who have not heard or responded to the good news of Jesus Christ. A bold vision requires faith to put into action.
Oops. I intended to include the link to Ken’s blog, but it got dropped somehow. Should be fixed now.
tony
“The article talks about the rapid growth of Starbucks and, among other things, attributes that growth to the “Starbucks experience” rather than the coffee.”
From my experiences the reason most churches that are booming today, are booming because of the experiences they have set up, both emotional and asthetic… not because of the complete Gospel of Jesus Christ being presented. Starbucks does’nt present the facts about what consuming large amounts of coffee will do to your system and the church doesn’t preach repentance and how that will absolutely suck the desire for the World right out of you. Instead we take what the World has (or what other churches are doing) and repackage it.
Not cool. Not Creative… definately not Christlike. The people in these churches usually have the mind of Bill, Tony, Dave… whoever their pastor is… not the mind of Christ.
Jud, based on your experience, what churches aren’t presenting the Gospel? All the churches I’ve attended in my life have taught on repentence and the need to turn from life without Christ to a life with Christ. I agree with you. A church without the Gospel really isn’t a church.
tony
“what churches aren’t presenting the Gospel?”
Well, the last church I was at for one. A church I won’t name but is well withing the bounds of the 6 degrees of seperation from you and your church. Three years into my attendence at this church I had an interesting conversation with a man who was a part of the church the entire time I was there. He was really fired up about his studies in Buddhism, Native American spiritualism (a sort of pantheism) and Hinduism. He was so full of joy at how he discovered how well they blended with the “Gospel” message.
This man was at this church every time the doors opened.
After strongly disagreeing with what this man I went through about a year and a half of observation and reflection. What I discovered is that when “the gospel” was presented at this church, the concept of REPENTANCE was almost never introduced as a part of the conversion process. When it was the pastor seemed very nervous and ran through it very quickly. Instead “Accepting Christ” was the call. Wha!!! Accept Christ?! He did’nt come to be “accepted” He came to rule and reign in our hearts ! Besides I personally know people of all religions that “accept” Jesus… as a prophet. Where the absence of repentance really stood out at the church was during times of communion. The 20 or 30 times we observed communion while I was there … we had 100% of the crowd every time take communion with never a mention of the qualifications for observing communion from the pastoral staff.
What I’m saying is that while HIRELINGS are perfecting the mood, ambiance, and overall experience of church services the correct teaching of the WHOLE Bible is neglected.. and the church, aside from stickers on the bumper are more and more like the World… of the World… because hirelings have resorted to bringing the World into focus instead of the WORD.
Pastoring has become a profession. No one makes tents anymore.
Tony,
What’s really interesting is that Howard Schultz the CEO of Starbucks believes that the move to being mega has actually hurt what they value.
Here’s a quote from a leaked internal memo.
“Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand. Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines.”
It’s a fascinating read.
http://starbucksgossip.typepad.com/_/2007/02/starbucks_chair_2.html
mark
tony…I was in Thailand for about 16 days two years ago. I know I visited at least THREE different Starbucks, maybe 4 and one of them I was in more than one a day…. they had my attention. As does God who has rocked our home through the teaching at NS (all of you, not just perry!) I’m not going anywhere, no matter what the naysayers say…not even jud that has posted above!
Thanks for all you do at NS….to takes an awesome team to get it all done in the awesome manor that you guys do!
Thanks man!
Jane
What a great analogy! Community, such an important part of the mix, but a challenge in a mega church. I am excited that Newspring now has a coffee shop!! It will add to the NS experience, which is all carefully designed to point folks to Jesus through communicating the message in a creative and excellent way. The coffee shop can be a great place for community to happen. It would be awesome if the coffee shop at some point could be open at times other than Sun. I can envison informal Bible studies meeting there, perhaps coffee house book talks, or musicans sharing their gifts: people interacting and connecting around a brew (a different kind of brew than a lot of people are connecting around).
What a great place to hang out. It could also be a place where seekers could come and dialog with Newspringers. Give it some thought NS!