This is a rather old video (from 2008) that I stumbled upon recently. It's quite humorous, enjoyable, and very interesting! Although it's intended for churches, I think there is a lot that anyone can learn from it. Check it out!
I found it both laugh-out-loud hilarious and terrifyingly convicting at the same time. As a coffee junkie and former Starbucks barista, I couldn't help comparing the real environment of Starbucks to the environment of this "churchy" Starbucks in the video. This Starbucks was little proud (though probably unintentionally so), very cliquey, uncomfortable, and unwelcoming (the employees were so "in your face" and desperate that it was a little scary and turned me off). A real Starbucks, however, is relaxing, welcoming, helpful, and very relational; Starbucks baristas are actually encouraged to make relationships with customers, instead of simply advertising.
Maybe we as Christians can learn something from Starbucks. After all, our faith at its core is very relational. Take a look at the Gospels and the books of Acts. In addition to teaching the public about Jesus, the disciples and others also boarded with them, ate with them, and made friendships with them. For the longest time, Starbucks didn't advertise at all. (Even now their advertisements are rare occurrences.) They rely largely on the word of mouth. Maybe instead of luring and tricking our friends into coming to church with us to just "try Jesus" like a bunch sleazy used car salesmen, we should make an effort to attempt the much more effective (but also much more difficult) route: actually showing our friends the love of Christ every day through our actions and words.
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