The Starbucks Experience

I have recently been reading this book called, "The Starbucks Experience". Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the book that I would like to share with you. "In 1971, the Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice store started business in Seattle, Washington. Before that first Starbuck opened its doors, people stopped by the corner coffee shop for a 50-cent cup that came with the promise of free refills. For some of us, the morning was not complete without a visit to the convenience store, where we poured our own black, murky brew into a white foam cup. To kill the taste, we doused the mixture with gobs of powdered cream and sugar, and stirred it with a thin red plastic stick (which was supposed to double as a straw). We would hand our change to an apathetic cashier who performed the job just well enough to earn the minimum wage. It was an unvarying and uninspired customer ritual and transaction. Despite the monotonous nature and poor quality of this transaction, most of us didn't know that there was any other way to "enjoy" coffee. While we were slogging through our days with freeze-dried, burnt, or lackluster home-brew, Howard Schultz, Starbucks former CEO and current chairman, asked an intriguing question: 'What would happen if you took the quality coffee bean tradition of Starbucks and merged it with the charm and romance of the European coffeehouse?' His answer: Starbucks could transform the traditional American coffee experience from the ordinary to the extraordinary. By all accounts, Howard's concept was an ambitious idea. How do you change people's view of coffee? After all, coffee has been with us for centuries, and there seemed to be little impetus for a major shift in customers' preferences. How do you inspire a coffee drinker to give up her regular routine while also getting her to pay six or eight times more for rich, exotic coffee blends when 'ordinary' is all she's ever known? Besides, who would make time for a European-style coffeehouse experience when one could grab a cup while buying milk, gasoline, and a newspaper?" ~ Joseph A. Michelli

So if Starbucks can get people to pay way too much for a cup of coffee as well as carve time out of their busy schedules to hang out in their "house", why can't the church take a much better product (Jesus) and do the same? At the beginning of the quote, Michelli describes the average coffee drinkers routine with words like: "murky", "kill the taste", "monotonous", and "poor quality". Sounds a lot to me like the average church goers weekly church experience, and we wonder why church goers are so reluctant to invite friends or people they know to church.

I have friends from Quincy, Illinois who absolutely love their church, The Crossing. Whenever Steve or Susan meet people they are always asking them if they go to church. If they don't attend church, Steve and Susan will tell them The Crossing is a place they need to check out. What makes The Crossing different? The Crossing is passionate about people experiencing Jesus and engaging in a relationship with him, and they will do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Likewise, here at IC Church of Christ we go out of our way to do whatever it takes for people to experience and know more about Jesus. From the handshake at the door, to the coffee and breakfast food, to the music, video, and message--everything is done to create this thought in everyone's mind: "I didn't expect that!"

Now we can do better, and we are always trying to improve, but the cool thing is doing church this way is fun! I mean really, who wants black and murky when a vanilla latte is available!