“Passion for everything we do. Integrity. Spirit and drive. Respect.  Personal—one human being… at a time. This is our belief.” 

Those are great concepts, aren’t they? And they might make you think about our Christian faith and how we live it out in community.  But do they remind you of coffee?  These words are copied from the Starbucks Green Apron booklet, a training guide given to employees at every Starbucks store in the country.

Crazy, huh?  The Starbucks people get it—being friendly, showing courtesy, having spirit and drive and integrity are all good for the coffee business. 

They are also good for the church!  Who doesn’t love to be greeted with enthusiasm? Who doesn’t enjoy the warmth of a welcome that is genuine and intentional? Those Starbucks folks have the right idea. But I’ll tell you a secret. We knew all that stuff first!  We did!  And we can apply it just like they do. Right here in our church home, every time we welcome a visitor, we can be just as personal—more so!—than any Starbucks employee offers while serving a cup of joe.  And while we aren’t selling anything tangible, when you think about it, we really are selling a concept to visitors:  if the person senses genuine warmth and welcome, we have likely sold that person on a community that will welcome him or her.   It’s all about sharing the love of Jesus with people, and we are all called to do this every day.  

Recently I spoke with a friend who said she didn’t think that attending church on a regular basis was necessary, she and her husband really don’t need that.  Well, perhaps they don’t, but that’s not what the Word says. There’s that stuff in the Bible like not forsaking the assembling together— you know?  It says that because I need her to be there!   

A church community is bigger than any one person. Every one of us grows and matures when we dig in, give of ourselves, and attend church regularly. Imagine a cog that is engaged with other cogs in a car’s gearbox. If teeth are missing, the gears will slip—and that can mean that the engine doesn’t move the vehicle forward. The engine’s power is not being utilized.  The car can’t get to where it needs to go, not because the engine won’t start, but because the gears have tiny missing parts. It’s the same with a church family. We, the church family, are all teeth on those gears. When we are absent, the energy necessary to propel the church forward is missing!  We need each other.  I say this as much to myself as to anyone else because I won’t pretend that there weren’t times that I slept in on Sunday morning.  But they are fewer than they used to be, and I hope that is true for you too.

Let’s let the coffee crowd remind us of a valuable lesson, and renew our commitment to attending worship faithfully. But let’s go beyond that. If you don’t have a place where you regularly serve at your church, then you are missing out and so are we! We need each other. Church shouldn’t be just something you do on Sunday morning.  Regular coffee drinkers do that. It’s a place where we meet, grow, give, and serve so that God can challenge us and build up His body of believers!   On top of that, the hospitality team at my church makes a pretty mean cuppa joe, so you get great coffee AND great worship and opportunities to serve when you join us!

Won’t you bring your passion to the forefront and share your personal spirit, drive and integrity with this church family?  Dig in!

See you on Sunday morning!