Book Review –
The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet

One benefit of long flights and layovers is the ability to knock out a book rather quickly. Leonards book was really an easy read. If you don’t know much about him, Leonard is one of the premier guys in the country with regards to the Post Modern movement. He speaks regularly and has authored a number of books.
I was immediately fascinated with the book and couldn’t put it down. I completed it well before we ever arrived in Lima.

At the heart of the book was what the author calls EPIC faith – Experiential, participatory, image rich, and connection based. Throughout the book he draws analogies with how Starbucks has really captured the essence of this flow.
He correctly states that people today are longing for engagement, connection, meaningful experiences, not simply intellectual arguments.

The church had once been a place of power, but has lost ground in many circles to simply being a intellectual endeavour.
Starbucks has managed to create a lifestyle for many. They have discovered that coffee is a hospitality drink and they have gotten people to pay $4 per cup of coffee, not just because the coffee is generally good, but primarily because they have created a coffee drinking experience! People will pay almost anything for a meaningful experience these days.

He talks about how people seek out a 3rd place, somewhere apart from home and church where they can socialize. At one time the church represented that 3rd place that people built their lives around, but that era has long since passed in most places. Being replaced by a bar or a coffee bar experience.
Leonard challenges people to live for God as with a grande spiritual passion.

Starbucks goes to great lengths to ensure that nobody has a bad experience. Our churches might do well to put the same time and attention into creating great experiences for those who walk through the door.

I also believe that he correctly talks about Christianity coming to life through participation in God’s redemptive plan. Scripture memory, intellectual theological arguments, etc are useless if a person is not living them out. We need to encourage our congregations to be participatory. Participatory in terms of worship experience, the message, but even more so in terms of engaging the world around us.

At different times in church history, the church was the place where the arts and great creativity flowed from, somewhere we lost our way, but need to strive to gain it back.
In terms of his EPIC analogy – Images are a key. TV and the internet have revolutionized the way people process information. These needs to translate into the ways our messages are communicated as well. EPIC preaching he says delivers through the passion of images in a global and local context.

The final C is connectedness and this is perhaps where God has been working on me the most. In the area of real and genuine friendships. Starbucks helps facilitate this by creating safe welcoming environments that facilitate conversation.

As I write this I am alone in a hotel room in Arequipa Peru and I believe with all my heart that God is speaking to me about the necessity in my life and in the lives of others to have real, vulnerable, down to earth relationships. He has communicated it to me through multiple means, this book, another book simultaneously that I am reading, confessions of a pastor, through the IPOD message on community that was the first to pop up by brian Houston of Hillsong Church. If the things are coming in 2’s and 3’s I need to listen. This is perhaps what God wants me to hear and place value on while I am here. To take what he is doing in my heart and apply it when I get back.

I have difficulty as a pastor and individual opening up to real genuine friendships sometimes. Partly because of the role in life, but also because at times when I have opened up I have been hurt, or people like my sponsor have passed away and that level of relationship takes a great deal of work and effort. Is it worth it, yes. So, I probably need to get to work on it with more diligence again..

As he wraps things up he challenges the church to reclaim it’s role as the community builder in society. He reminds us that Jesus’ final assignment to man was not a work assignment, but rather – he chose to call us friends.. hmm..

Some big questions abound –
How can we build the church to make it a place where such connectedness can happen in our context?
A place where community and life can revolve around God and passionately seeking Him.
How can we challenge people to live their lives with a spiritual passion that is grande and not luke warm?

I encourage you to buy a copy of the book, read it, post your thoughts, join this conversation so that we can come up with ideas that might vastly improve the way we minister in our area and beyond.
The conversation is the relationship!