Recently I got to sit down with one of my best friends, Joey Wulf, whom you might know from here and here. As always I love talking with Joey because he is one of the few people I feel most connected to. We began discussing my time at Starbucks (over three years now) and how funny of a place it is. I mean funny in this way: I originally started working at Starbucks because I needed a job (I had been jobless for 6 months), and also because I wanted to work in a place that stretched my concepts of loving people that normally go unloved. I know, Starbucks might seem like a funny place for that, but I get the feeling that often the people working in retail/food are some of the most unloved. Our culture has delegated them to service, aka servitude. Servants. It is a role of doing what the customer wants, when they want it, and how they want it done. No questions. As Starbucks says, the answer is always “Yes!” This has worked out great for Starbucks as a business theory, but terribly for many of the ground level baristas who struggle day in and day out with some of the most insane requests. And I feel many other retail/food employees can agree.

But over 3+ years things have changed for me. Most people might know that I would like to work somewhere else, and currently I’m working towards a PhD so that I can hopefully one day teach, but in this moment Starbucks fulfills a funny role in my life; and this is what Joey and I were talking about. Often Christians have sought ways to bring the Gospel to the rest of the world through tracts, movies, books, crusades (why do we still use this word?), and songs, but despite all of this we’ve never brought the Gospel into the world like Jesus did, by incarnating it. Despite growing up in the church and even attending Bible College while working at Starbucks, it was ironically Starbucks (and albeit the books/people/conversations I was apart of) that taught me best what it looks like to live Gospel-y. It was my time at Starbucks that taught me more about speaking/acting the Gospel in everyday language than all the camps I went to. It was involving myself in the lives of co-workers and customers, tabernacling (if you will) among people that taught me most about what the Gospel looks like. It was spending time listening to the people around me that taught me what it looked like to be real with them, like Jesus was real with the people he came in contact with; mourning, rejoicing, being frustrated, being tired.

But always there will be a tension that exists, a question that people raise every time you are at work? To whom does the Gospel go to? Do you spend your time reaching out to the hundreds of customers that come in through the drive thru? Or only focus on your co-workers? Or maybe only on the regulars? I cannot claim to have the specific answer to any of this, but I had some thoughts after talking with Joey about what living the Gospel may look like at Starbucks (and the rest of the world).

1. It isn’t about being happy: I have heard probably a dozen of times that baristas should be smiling all the time. We’re actually told that as the people who are there to give customers their coffee, we see people at their worst part of the day, and we are to be at our best. People won’t be happy or energetic; they come to us to get to that point. So because of that we’re often not allowed to show much emotions outside of smiles and thank-you’s. And I think sometimes that church asks the same thing. But Christ mourned, was angry, enjoyed eating, and showed the myriad of emotions that human beings are capable of displaying. Maybe we should begin to act like human beings that are created in the image of God, a God who came into human flesh and showed real emotions. The Gospel doesn’t require us to be fake, but to show real emotions. And not only show emotions, but to acknowledge those of others as well. Co-workers have often struggled with what to say when a customer tells them they are going to a funeral, or the hospital, or start crying. I think as Gospel-beings it might start being time we acknowledge the misery of a world in sin. We should acknowledge that people mourn, and not just spit out a “you know, Jesus can restore your joy.” As Gospel-beings it is time we start living out not only the joy and peace, but also the passion of Christ, the suffering spirit.

2. Sometimes it is not about the customer (it is about your co-worker): I know anyone who has ever worked in retail/food might be a little confused about this one, but hear me out. The customer is the end of the business for many retail/food workers, the person who keeps you employed, who pays your checks, and so the customer is seen as the most important person. But as a Gospel-being our concern should not always be for the customer, but our co-worker. It is our co-worker that sees us for hours a day, that struggles alongside us, that has crappy days and wants to go home. If you pile upon them all of the requests from the people out there without reserve, they will resent you for it. It doesn’t matter if the customer wants it, you have to think about the people who really see you daily. The 30 second interaction with the customer is less important than the eight hour long day you spend with that other person. It can be the most meaningful for your co-worker to see you struggling alongside them, to push and strive to help them out, to be sacrificial to them, than any 30 second interaction with a customer that just wants their coffee. If you want to be able to speak into the lives of your co-workers, don’t be the person that they resent for being lazy or abusive. Die to your c0-workers, and you will gain a greater influence in their life than anything else you do. Protect them from the frantic cries of customers, and they will more than likely trust you.

3. Grace isn’t just for you: I feel silly saying this, but learning to live out grace to the people around you should be an important part of living out the Gospel. Grace isn’t just a transaction between you and God, but especially flows out to the people around you. And hear this, it is always scandalous. The grace of God is a grace that goes to those who don’t deserve it; rather it is a grace that goes out to enemies. If we truly seek to live out the gospel, we will most importantly show grace daily to those we work with, and also to our customers who can sometimes be the most mean people ever. Grace isn’t a God-and-me thing, it is a God-through-me-to-those-around-me thing. Grace is not an enclosed circle, but an open embrace seeking to draw the other in. I think often the people of God are some of the most lacking when it comes to grace, the very people who didn’t deserve the grace in the first place. In a way Starbucks’ “always say yes” rule captures this. I hate to say that, but sometimes grace demands that we smile and allow abuse upon us because as people living out the Gospel we must suffer the abuse of a sinful world like Jesus did.

4. Somedays you’re not Gospel-y: After those last two comments, though, I want to almost restate comment number 1 again. We have our bad days, our days of giving customers decaf coffee, when we aren’t very full of grace or compassion. That is okay; grace also comes to you. And sometimes this can be significant to the people around you as well because you become more real to them. You are not a fake robot that believes everyday is Friday; you are a fellow sufferer that hasn’t gotten it all together yet, and never will in this age. I honestly believe that allowing those around us to see our good and “bad” days can be more significant that always painting a smile on your face. I return once again to Jesus and his own events of mourning, anger, and depression. Be real as Jesus was real, and they will see the Gospel lived out.

This is not a definitive list, but it is a start of how to live out the Gospel in Starbucks (and most other jobs, I would think). We can be more influential living out the Gospel than just merely “speaking” it. I have had more heartfelt conversations because I learned to live out the Gospel than I ever did trying to slip Jesus into a conversation so that I may sell him or her the Gospel.

And what about you? Add to the list, grow it. Let us figure out how to better speak-act out the Gospel.

Cameron

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