The Starbucks Gospel

“Starbucks will never even come close to changing the world like Jesus did, but it has made a significant difference in our culture.” That’s a quote from the very creative The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion by Leonard Sweet. He drew lessons from Starbucks on connecting with seekers while he was, I suppose, sipping a decaf. He adds, “The experience-oriented Starbucks world we live in calls for an equally evolving perspective on how we do church.”

Sweet wrote that people buy latte or mocha frap not for the caffeine but for the experience. “In the same way that Starbucks strives to create the best experience for enjoying coffee, we need to step into the best experience of faith… With Christianity, it often seems like we promote ideas and methodologies rather than inviting people to simply experience God.” People want an engaging, relevant faith. They do not want mere intellectual faith. They long for a living faith.

I read of a pastor who asked an actor how come people flocked to watch the actor’s plays but not to listen to the pastor’s preaching. The actor winked and said, “I portray fiction as if it is the truth. You present truth as if it is fiction.” That’s a sad but true commentary. We live our Christian lives as if what we believe is fiction.

But we are called to invite people to a relationship with the Lord, not to a religion. We must share the Savior, not a set of ideas. We persuade people: “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8, NIV)

Thus, we are to live our Christian experience in such a vibrant way that seekers get attracted to our Lord Jesus. We are to talk about our faith in such an exciting manner that people are not bored but instead are motivated to accept Him. Our faith is already relevant. We are not making it relevant. We just need to show how significant it is through our words and works.

Brethren, let us live with a Grande passion!

Note: You may download a summary of The Gospel According to Starbucks from http://www.christianbooksummaries.com/library/v3/cbs0336.pdf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Ubus-ubos Biyaya, Bukas Nakatunganga”

Image
That’s what my mother always told us when we were still kids. (Translation: “You spend everything today, you will have nothing tomorrow.” ) Image source: So, What's New ? Dionie did just that. Last April 2008, he won PHP14,125,032 in the Lotto 6/42 draw. Excitedly, he “lived the life of a millionaire, something he had been longing to experience. He lived in a P4-million house in a posh subdivision, drove around in a sports utility vehicle [which he bought the very same day he claimed his prize] , and gave goodwill money, ranging P1,000 to P 850,000, to relatives and friends. He also gambled daily, womanized, and went on regular drinking sprees.” (Source: Manila Bulletin ) He estimated that he squandered a minimum of P100,000 almost every day. He also lent money even to people he did not really know. “I just gave them and told them not to pay me back.” (Ibid) His bank had to issue him a special card so he can withdraw huge amounts of money quickly from the automated teller m
Read more

God Knows Judas Not Pay

In the National Geographic Magazine (May 2006 issue), in its cover story, The Judas Gospel , Professor Eliane Pagels of Princeton University claimed that the so-called gospel of Judas “ changes the history of early Christianity. ” Even UP Professor Randy David took notice of the Judas Gospel: “Strictly from a sociological standpoint, I think the discovery of the Gospel of Judas makes Christianity a far more interesting religion than what centuries of metaphysical theology has made of it.” (A Gospel for the Postmodern, Phil. Daily Inquirer, April 16, 2006) That’s why I spoke in our Young Pro Fellowship a few days ago on God Knows Judas Not Pay (A Biblical Response on the Judas Gospel). I believe opportunities like this hype on the Judas Gospel or the Da Vinci Code opens a door for us to share the true Gospel. For those who did not attend last Thursday, let me share briefly why we reject the Judas gospel. I came up with the acronym J-U-D-A-S. J udas was portrayed as a traitor in the Bibl
Read more

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!”

Image
Forty years ago, this expression became known as a description of blind obedience.   Source: Los Angeles Times On November 18, 1978, members of Peoples Temple, a cult group in Guyana, drank Kool-Aid drink laced with cyanide to commit a mass suicide “at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones”. [1] According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica , “The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. ”  [2]  What made those people submit to such atrocity? According to Stella Morabito, a senior contributor to The Federalist online magazine, Peoples Temple is “Exhibit A… [of]  the dangers of the cult mindset or how vulnerable all people are to cult tactics.”  [3] She pointed out that, Coercive persuasion has immense power to shape and twist the human mind.  …[Jones’] utopian preaching of a humane world in which all lived happily in harmony resonated with the
Read more