Lessons from Starbucks

By Dr. Greg Wiens

On Father’s Day, I received a Starbucks gift card from my sister-in-law. I can tell she knows me well and has studied my habits! This morning, when I went to buy a “Grande, no water, no foam, Soy Chai, 165 degrees”, I realized why I enjoy the Starbucks experience (as do millions of others around the world). I walked into my favorite Starbucks and, as I began to say my order, the barista said, “Hi there, I know what you want.” They know exactly what I like! In fact, they have a card with my name on it and my favorite order written on it, in case there is a new barista who doesn’t know me.

As I waited for the familiar faces behind the steaming black machines to bring forth my favorite froth, I realized I feel special here. They demonstrate they value me as an individual. When I come in, they truly know my face, name and my unique tastes. I also nod to Jay (a chef), sitting in his usual chair in the corner reading his newspaper. I see him there quite often and he and I know each other. We each make it a point to welcome the other. We also have a mutual friend named Ken.

In his book “Pour Your Heart into it”, Howard Schultz tells how Starbucks had grown to about 500 restaurants before they realized people weren’t really coming for the coffee, but for an experience of being accepted for who they are, not what they do. On their jobs, people feel valued because of what they can contribute to the bottom line of the company or the cause of the corporation. At home, they are valued for the role they fulfill in the family system. But, here at Starbucks, (Which, has been identified as “the third place”) people feel welcomed and valued for simply being themselves. This is the place between work and home.

Our culture is the place where people are valued for their contribution to the bottom line, the family, the cause or the corporation. Because of our mobility rates, most of us do not live close to extended families, but live in close proximity with a lot of people who don’t know us, our hearts, our passions or our desires. So our value is solely determined by what we give to others.

The sad fact about this is that the church was intended to be a place of community where people can build healthy relationships, with God and with people. This is what Jesus is talking about when He tells his disciples that the world will know that we are his disciples by the love we have for each other (John 13:35). When we come into a growing relationship with Him, it is demonstrated in our desire to build healthy and loving relationships with those others. Churches should be the first place people go to find love and acceptance.

Unfortunately, today, the under-40-year-old-crowd see Christians for what they don’t accept (Read Unchristian, by Kinnaman and Lyons) rather than their love for others. This research indicates that most unchurched people in this age bracket identify Christians as being against things like abortion or homosexuality. Christians are therefore known by what they judge, not by what they love.

If this were true, most of these individuals are not going to come to church for love and acceptance because they would feel condemned. I know it is easy for you to think this is not true of the church you pastor, lead or attend. However, I visit a lot of churches each year, and it IS true of many of OUR churches. How do I know? Because when I visit, I really don’t find others interested in me. Nobody is concerned about who I am and why I might be different from him or her. Too few people really take the time or the effort to get to know me and understand me.

So often, new people come in to visit churches and no one knows their name (except the pastor: and he/she gets paid to know their name!). Few people have talked with them enough in a non-threatening way to know what they like, dislike or desire in life. If there are pre-assigned greeters filling this role, everything is forgotten the next week.

Healthy churches create a culture of valuing people for their uniquenesses. Healthy churches expect people to have different tastes and intentionally try to know and understand what makes each person different, not to judge them, but to serve them better. This is what Starbucks learned. In fact, Shultz tells how once they realized this; it required a major shift in the way they did business. Until then, they had only made coffee “the right” way, but once they discovered this, they realized they could make it “many different ways” to better serve their clients. What are you willing to change so that lost people will feel you value them?

Healthy churches never change the gospel, but they present it in a way to serve people who don’t know Christ. You would never explain the gospel in English to someone who only knows Spanish, in the same way; you must present the Good News of Christ in ways that people can understand. For many of our churches today, this means intentionally creating safe places where people can share their differences and where Christians can help these individuals find Christ and grow in Christ uniquely, not as a program or system where everyone must fit into a cookie-cutter-approach.

This all begins with individuals in the church, meeting new people in a way that values their differences. We learn their names, we ask questions. We accept their differences and value their distinctives. We go out of our way and take them out to lunch or dinner. We invite them into our homes. We meet them where they are, knowing that Christ will grow them into much different people in His timetable. Christ has called us to build disciples of lost people, and it all begins with learning who they are and accepting them.