Back to Basics - The Starbucks Church

I was very intrigued by an event that happened yesterday across our nation. At around 6:00 pm local time every Starbucks store in the U.S. was closed for approximately three hours so an estimated 135,000 employees could attend a back-to-basics training session. Their training consisted of watching a video message from Howard Shultz, their Chief Executive Barista, and being reminded of the simple yet important mechanics of brewing the perfect cup. They were also given a pep-talk and reminded of the importance of the customer experience.

I wouldn't consider myself a coffee connoisseur by any means and yet I would agree that Starbucks does deliver a consistently good 16-ounce-double-shot-mocha-hold-the-whip. I have a couple of friends who feel closer to God in a Starbucks than just about anywhere else. In fact, I meet with one of those friends at a local Starbucks every week. We used to meet at a Moxie Java that was walking distance for him but when a Starbucks opened up just down the street he insisted that we meet there instead even though it meant a good 5 minutes of additional drive time for us. The things we do for our friends...

I visited a Starbucks today because my wallet was too fat. Not with money, unfortunately, but rather with several plastic gift cards I'm still carrying from the holidays. I still had $1.35 on a Starbucks card that I needed to get rid of so I could thin down my wallet and avoid a trip to the chiropractor. My drink was perfect and my customer experience was good too. The barista greeted me with a smile and got my drink order started while I waited for the cashista to come to the register. I wanted to talk with him a bit about the training from the night before but, ironically, he was a little to busy to chat with the customers so I just got a few quick responses.

Part of the campaign was a new motto: "Your drink should be perfect, every time. If not, let us know and we'll make it right." I appreciate consistency and quality but in reality I'd put up with a lesser quality drink for a better overall customer experience. I'm sure that Howie reads my blog regularly so here are my suggestions for improvement:

• Turn down the freakin' music. When I go to Starbucks it's usually so I can visit with a friend. It would be really cool if I could actually hear them talk.
• Remove those torture devices you have around the tables and replace them with some comfortable chairs.
• Introduce America to Teh Tarik (pulled tea). You make a good Chai but if you added Teh Tarik to the menu... Dang!
  

I think closing the stores for this training was a bold move. I liked it and it made me wonder what it would be like if we did something similar in church. It seems that so many churches these days are compromising the basics in order to run their churches like a corporation. I understand the pressures that drive a church, especially larger ones, to be run more like a business. However, we can never afford to trade relational basics for a rigid corporate structure in a community of believers. Isn't this what Starbucks did? They slowly traded away the things that made them truly great in the first place and their customers began to seek out the smaller coffee houses with the atmosphere that Starbucks used to have before the advent of the automated machines. Before their employees became jaded assembly line workers that never knew the Starbucks that existed before it traded its culture for the bottom line.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we put a big sign on the door on Sunday morning that says, "Church is closed for training, come back next week", but what if we lay leaders and pastors got together for some back-to-basics training? Basics like these from Robert Fulgrum's book entitled "All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten":

• Share everything.


• Play fair.


• Don't hit people.


• Put things back where you found them.


• Clean up your own mess.


• Don't take things that aren't yours.


• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

At first glance that seems like a rather unsophisticated list. It's nothing like what you might find in someone's magnum opus on church leadership with 99 principles guaranteed to propel your staff and congregation into the next wave of post-modern evolution. And yet, I have to laugh when I think about one of the issues that is discussed most frequently amongst the leadership of my church, namely the policies and procedures associated with coffee. Hot topics include:

• Who gets to use the coffee bar and/or equipment?


• When is it appropriate to use the good coffee versus the coffee for the masses?


• Whe gets coffee for free and who has to pay?


• Who's responsibility is it to clean up the coffee decanters?

I've seen all of the principles on the list above violated over the coffee issues with the possible exception of "Don't hit people".

Perhaps I can spiritualize things a bit more. How about these basics from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount according to Eugene Peterson's "The Message"?

• You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.


• You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.


• You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.


• You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.


• You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.


• You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.


• You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.


• You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

I too have been found guilty of putting policies, procedures, and programs ahead of people and I am thankful for the reminder that I need to put people first. In his book entitled "Revolutionary Leadership" my pastor, Tri Robinson, teaches us that structure should serve the culture and never the other way around. That is a basic principle that Starbucks and I should always remember.

Granny Flipped Me Off

I was driving home from a meeting over coffee (well, chai actually) with my friend Chad yesterday when I encountered granny. I was driving on a two lane road that has been under construction since the end of the Jurassic age and came to a red light. On the other side of the intersection I could see a sign showing that the other lane --the left one-- ended and merged into mine. A 4x4 pickup pulled up next to me. You know the type: Large, loud, and altogether intimidating. The kind that is usually driven by a man who is trying to compensate for other shortcomings in his life, whatever they may be… I surmised immediately that as soon as the light turned green he would step on it to ensure that he would get ahead of me and not be forced to merge in behind me. Life is all about winning and losing for the overcompensators of the world. I knew I could take him with my Maxima but smiled to myself and conceded ahead of time that I would let him win. After all, it was his ego that was starving, not mine.

The light turned green and my stereotype proved accurate as the big 4x4 thundered to life and leapt out into the intersection leaving me in a cloud of dust and diesel. Fortunately, I had my AC set to recirculate for just such an occasion. Now, in my mental book entitled "Greg's Rules of Driving Etiquette" when one finds oneself in a merge situation there is an every-other-car rule. Apparently the guy in the punkmobile behind the pickup either hasn't read my book or doesn't think it applies to people who live at the center of the universe. You know what a punkmobile is, right? It's one of those cars driven by a young guy in has late teens or early twenties who's monthly insurance bill is more than his car payment. The ride is usually a Honda Prelude or Civic with the suspension removed that looks like a piece of crap decked out in chrome. It has dark windows too, of course, to prevent me from seeing inside, as if I were interested. The guy in the punkmobile is either trying to get high on diesel fumes or he's overcompensating too because he practically drives up into the bed of the pickup to ensure there isn't enough room for me to take my rightful place in the black cloud.

As I pass through the intersection and approach the merge sign I check my mirror and notice that there is a third car to my left who's driver is apparently oblivious to the fact the lane they are in is ending. It's a nice clean Ford Taurus. You know, the kind of car that is driven by little old ladies to church on Sunday. I'm not sure what she was doing out on a Thursday during rush hour but there she was with her little blue wheelchair permit bouncing back and forth over two bony hands in a death grip at the top of the steering wheel while she put everyone else in harm's way. Apparently she comes to the conclusion that I am not going to yield for her even though she is behind me and I have nowhere to yield to unless I want to harvest the construction cones to my right. Her face transforms into that of a dyspeptic gargoyle as she brakes, swerves in behind me, and plants one of her bony hands firmly on the horn to give me a lecture.

This is where things get ugly. I raised my hand an pointed to the merge sign on the right to justify myself. It was a useless gesture since we had already passed it and as soon as I did it I realized it was a mistake. I saw a look of shock appear on Granny's face but it was quickly replaced by rage. If she had clenched her teeth any harder I'm sure her dentures would have exploded and fragmented teeth would have blown out all over the front windshield. Then she took her gnarled fist off the horn and to my utter horror she extended one defiant, bony, finger toward me. I'm sure she saw my jaw drop via my rear-view mirror. I'm sure that I will have that image indelibly burned into my memory for the rest of my life.

As we pulled up to the next light I thought about getting out of my car and explaining to Granny that it was all a misunderstanding but I quickly realized that a good outcome was not likely so I just sat there under her recriminating gaze. Fortunately she turned at that intersection before she could bore holes through the back of my head and I was able to continue on in peace. At this point I took a nice deep breath and let it all go.

During the remainder of my drive home I thought about my encounter with Granny. The whole thing was kind of funny really, and it dawned on me that there must be an illustration in there somewhere. Here are some possibilities:

They don't make Grannies like they used to.
"My what bony fingers you have Grandma." "All the better to flip you off with my dear."
Objects in this mirror may be more sociopathic than they appear.

All kidding aside, I think there really is a lesson here about judgments. I made several about the drivers of the vehicles around me. Maybe the person in the truck --I don't even know if it was a guy-- was on the way home from the store with some medicine for a sick daughter. And maybe the person in the punkmobile was almost out of gas and thought they could make it home if they stayed in the pickup's draft. Okay, that's a stretch but I really couldn't come up with a valid reason they were such a jerk. And that leaves Granny. I'm not even going to try to defend her driving but I can certainly see how she might have gotten confused and thought I was cutting her off. With eyesight and higher brain functions so obviously impaired, it's no surprise that she also misinterpreted my "helpful" gesture as an in-your-face coup de gras.

I wonder how many times I have made a mistaken judgment about someone? I wonder how many times my higher brain functions or higher heart functions have been impaired and I have responded inappropriately? So, the lesson here for me is one that I have asked God for many times. I've asked the Lord to help me respond rather than react. Yesterday he showed me how ugly it can be when someone reacts rather than responds. I doubt I would have heard the message if the person hadn't been a sweet little old lady. Thank you Lord for the lesson.

"Oh, and Lord… Next time Granny goes down that road can you let her see the merge sign correctly?"

Watching the Creator Create

A year ago I attended a Focus training seminar here in Boise which I have blogged about a couple of times. Recently, I was privileged to be given the opportunity to participate in a Focus seminar as a Training Assistant (TA) where I helped as others went through the same process that I had. It was both a rewarding and profoundly moving experience. Although I can't provide details due to confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, I very much want to put my experience into words inasmuch as I can.

There is a movie I remember that conveys a powerfully relevant picture. The 1990 movie "Awakenings" tells a poignant story of rebirth. Here is a brief synopsis from IMDB:

A new doctor finds himself with a ward full of comatose patients. He is disturbed by them and the fact that they have been comatose for decades with no hope of any cure. When he finds a possible chemical cure he gets permission to try it on one of them. When the first patient awakes, he is now an adult having gone into a coma in his early teens. The film then delights in the new awareness of the patients and then on the reactions of their relatives to the changes in the newly awakened.

I see striking parallels between the awakening in the movie and the one that occurs during the Focus training as people more fully understand who they were created to be and how they can live their lives going forward. It's like they are given a small glimpse of what relationships and community could be like if we lived as our Creator intended us to. As a friend of mine put it during the training, "It's like watching the Creator create."

I was blessed to watch as people's lives were transformed by a process that allowed them to be awakened. There is a statement in the Declaration of Independence that I had not been aware of until recently that describes the state in which we often find ourselves: "...mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." Although this declaration was made in the context of an oppressive government, it is nonetheless true in the larger context of life in general. As I stand and survey the shackles with which I am encumbered I am galled to observe that most are of my own devising. What joy is found, therefore, when I take my keys and allow myself to be free.

Serving as a TA was undoubtedly a sacrifice but it is truly better to give than receive. In giving I have received so much in return from each and every person in the training. I am excited to see what they do now that they have been awakened!

My Google Valentine

Today on the Google search page there was a graphic for Valentine's Day (see picture) that I really liked. The reason that I thought it was special was that it featured an elderly couple. Culturally, it seems that we often associate romance with a beautiful, healthy, young couple and, yet, I think this older couple epitomizes Valentine's Day because they have withstood the test of time. In a day when most marriages don't make it to the 40th anniversary there is something spectacular about an older couple who is still stoking the fires of passion. Well done Google!

It seems that this time of year is always very busy for Sharon and I with V-Day sandwiched in between Sr. High and Jr. High winter camps and other community or ministry events like dinner banquets, marriage classes, or personal enrichment training. We celebrated for a few minutes last night and maybe we'll get another few minutes together tonight. The good thing is that romances is something we can celebrate all year long. We don't need to wait for this one day each year to remember how much we love each other.I was driving home from the store where I bought Sharon's gift when Superchick's song, "We Live" played on the radio. I love the chorus and it seem apropos for the season that Sharon and I just went through so I put it in her card:

We live, we love, we forgive and never give up

Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above

And today we remember to live and to love

If we bury that wisdom in our hearts then we too shall one day celebrate a very geriatric Valentine's Day.

Things To Do Before I Die

Since I was a teenager I've kept a list in my head of things I want to do before I die and thought it was time to put in down on "paper". What better place than my blog?

Of course the list changes over time as new ideas come to mind. I even added a few from other lists that I looked at and thought up some new ones myself as I wrote these down.

Now I just need to figure out which of these I am going to do this year!

Things To Do

Drive one of the fastest cars in the world
Go skydiving
Go to Tahiti/Fiji with Sharon and stay in a bungalo over the water
Stay at a bed & breakfast on the isle of Iona in Scotland
Go on a guided tour of the Holy Lands
Take a Mediterranean cruise
Fly in a jet fighter
See an Irish dance musical in Dublin
Sail on a Yacht
Take Sharon to Italy

Preach a real sermon in church
Own the best gaming PC money can buy
Go on a missions trip to Asia or South America
Dance the Tango well
Experience weightlessness
Write a worship song
Watch a space shuttle launch
Drive the Autobahn
Ride in a hot air balloon
Bungee jump
Make love on a tropical island beach
Climb a mountain
See the Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza
See a full solar eclipse
Visit Mt. Rushmore
Be 100% debt free
Write a book and have it published
Look through an observatory telescope
See a miracle

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Already Done

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Get married
Go scuba diving
Ride a bullet train
Make love in the wilderness
Sleep under the stars during a meteor shower
Have a house built for me
Go skinny-dipping
Drive the Amalfi Coast in Italy
See the Grand Canyon
See the Coliseum and St. Peter's Basilica
See the third world
See the redwoods
Go to Washington D.C.
Attend a Petra concert
Father a child
Fly first class
Give the Heimlich maneuver
Go sailing
Go whale watching
Go to Disneyworld
Go white water rafting
Baptise someone