February 27, 2008

“It’s All About the Coffee”

Starbucks closed last night – every Starbucks store in the US. Imagine how many people went into withdrawal! Why did they close? In order to retrain their staffs. About what? How to make coffee, how to sell coffee, and how to focus upon coffee. In an interview that I heard while driving (so I may not have this quote word-for-word), the Starbucks CEO was asked about this, and he said, “It’s all about the coffee. We have diversified so much into other good things that we need to get back to making sure we all know that it is all about the coffee.”

Of course as I heard that interview, I thought about the church, especially our United Methodist Church here in Indiana. Do we need to have a time of remembering our basic mission? We do lots of good things, many good ministries, an amazing amount of good deeds. That is all fine. But … here is the lesson from Starbucks ... it is all about Jesus.

We are followers of Jesus Christ, we are inviting people to live their lives after the model of Jesus, we are the Jesus people. We respect other religions and the good intentions of other humanitarian groups, but for us, as Christians, it is all about Jesus.

Surely this season of Lent reminds us of this truth. We are following Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem, his obedience all the way to the Cross, and his pathway to new life at Easter. Sometimes during the Christmas season I see signs that say, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” That statement is really much more true of the Lent/Easter season. Jesus is the reason, Jesus is our Savior, Jesus is our model, Jesus is the One who leads the church. It is all about Jesus.

It is not about clergy careers or clergy benefits. It is not about church buildings or accumulating endowment funds. It is not about video projectors and computers. It is not about worship styles or music choices. It is not about conference or district or local church structures. It is not even about any mission project, no matter how valuable that project might be. It is really about Jesus – following Jesus ourselves, inviting others to follow Jesus, and helping to transform the world according to the Spirit of Christ. What a world it would be if we helped everyone to focus upon living in the Spirit of Christ – the Spirit that brings love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-discipline.

It is all about Jesus. We don’t have to close our shops (like Starbucks) for retraining, but Lent invites us to stop, make new priorities, and follow Jesus.

from Bishop Michael J. Coyner

Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church
"Making a Difference ... in Indiana
and around the world"

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