Stop the Willow

One of my goals for this break was to read the book The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet. I picked this book up off a table of free books in the hallway outside the youth office at New Covenant. At first glance, I thought the book would be total trash, but I was still intrigued because I like the Gospel and Starbucks coffee.

After reading this book, I have definitely begun to rethink the way of doing church. Sweet's premise for the book is that the church has given up being a lifeboat to give over to a yacht club model. We preach "feel good" instead of Christ. He doesn't say all of this, but the vibe is there.

I'm not writing this to bash the church. It's made of people just like everything else. This whole post is to say that Sweet has some good points in this book. One of those points is that the church needs to stop conforming to the models of a few megachurches. That's right... The title of this blog is referring to Willow Creek. I love Willow Creek, I'll must admit. But when churches start drooling over Willow Creek and implementing everything Willow Creek (or Saddleback, or any other megachurch) does, they begin to lose something. That something is uniqueness. One of the things that Starbucks does right is that every store is different inside. Not any two Starbucks coffee shops are the same. It provides a sense of uniqueness that is attractive. So attractive, in fact, that some people are in the habit of collecting Starbucks'. They are consumed with visiting as many Starbucks stores as they can. They want to experience the uniqueness that each has to offer.

Also, Starbucks employees are different. Although many of them wear the same uniform, I've seen many different kinds of people working at a Starbucks. This is one of the things I've come to appreciate about Starbucks. You aren't told how to look. You aren't made to remove all the piercings, cover the tattoos, or have the right hairstyle. The baristas are all allowed to demonstrate their uniqueness to some extent.

Anyway, this book has a lot to offer the church. I think it has so many good points, and it was definitely an interesting read. I would recommend it to anyone out there who is a pastor, elder, or church leader.