Run with God

Leonard Sweet: The Gospel According to Starbucks

I mentioned earlier that I wanted to delve into Sweet's newest book, The Gospel According to Starbucks, so let's go ahead and explore it deeper.

Don't think of this book as one of the "Gospel According to...." series. You know, Gospel According to The Simpsons, The Sopranos, Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc... This book is really not about Starbucks. Other than a Venti-cup of bad coffee analogies and random coffee facts, it's not about Starbucks. It's about the Christian life. Sweet says that like Starbucks runs its biz, we need to live our life on an EPIC Scale: Experience, Participation, Image Rich, and Connection.

As I mentioned SoulTsunami is one of my favorite books. And while I loved SoulTsunami, The Gospel According to Starbucks started with a bang, but didn't quite connect with me in the second half. It was good Sweet. BUT it wasn't where I was at. I read the first half of the book in about two hours, but struggled to get through the rest.

Here's what I got from the book (unless referenced, all quotes are direct from Leonard Sweet (with page references):

* "Intellectual arguments over doctrine and theology are fine for divinity school, but they lose impact at the level of daily life experience. Starbucks knows that people live for engagement, connection, symbols and meaningful experiences... Life at it's very best is a passionate experience, not a doctoral dissertation. (5)

* "Jesus never traveled more than eighty miles from his boyhood home, but no one would accuse him of living on a small scale." (19)

* Ever heard of a Kopi Luwak Coffee Bean? They sell it at $600 per pound. Want to know why that's significant? Read what wikipedia says about the "cup of crap, yes crap" you'll drink. (29)

* Following Kopi, it's amazing how God continues to use trash. "Doves" are nothing more than a trashy pigeon. Moses was a murderer. David an adulterer. Esther a harem girl. Ruth an idol worshipper. (27-30)

* "The gospel was not meant to be comfortable or safe. Jesus does not invite lukewarm faith, the brand practiced by the Church of Laodicea. Instead, God promised to spit the lukewarm out of God's mouth." (33)

* "In spite of being engineered to sell coffee, Starucks does everything corporately possible not to create a preplanned compelling experience for the customers, but to help customers create experiences for themselves." (34)

* "Authenticity is not about being more relevant but about being more Jesus. Do you speak with a Jesus voice? Do you see with Jesus eyes? Do you listen with Jesus ears? Do you touch with a Jesus touch?" (49)

* "The cross is beautiful because it reveals love, the substance that bonds between beauty, truth and goodness together." (57)

* "It makes me nauseatingly sick that half a dozen megachurches in USAmerica cast the molds for what goes on the the majority of Christian churches around the world. It's not their fault. It's ours." (60)

* "When focus groups are now being used at all, they are designing products, not evaluating and judging products already on the market." (70)

* "Missional means: to participate in the mission of Jesus in the world, to incarnate in the experience of our lives and our communities the good news of God's love for the world. We must become a GOOD (Get Out Of Doors) Church." (82)

* "Jesus' goal was not that everyone understand him, but that everyone experience him. In fact, Jesus didn't expect everyone to get his revolutionary message. He did invite everyone, however, to hear God's story, to become part of God's story, and to learn about others who joined God's story or were seeking God's presence." (92)

* "Technology isolates us at te same time it connects us, thereby stimulating us in a hunger for the very thing it deprives us of." (143)

.... I'm Baaaack

Vacation was incredibly restful. But, if you know me, you know even my vacations have to be "project-oriented". I read two books and Amy and I watched six movies, along with a ton of relaxing time. I did miss my Internet, though. Here's some random musings from the trip:

* There was a thunderstorm warning that hit when we were leaving town. Rain was pouring. Wind was so strong it was blowing branches off trees. I gotta say, I've driven in at least four hurricanes since I've been back in Miami, and that is the most scared I've ever been driving in Miami. (It still doesn't beat frozen roads in a Texas blizzard.)

* I read a book on blogging (Clear Blogging) by Bob Walsh. Didn't learn that much. However, there was an interview with the CEO of ProBlogger.net, Darren Rowse. Darren (who used to be a pastor of a church in New Zealand), started blogging back in 2002. Bob Walsh (author) speculated that meant that Darren was "one of the first thousand bloggers out there." Darren agreed. This is significant b/c I was doing SushiRocks back in 2002. So theoretically I'm one of the first thousand too! (Please don't read pride into that statement, but if you do, go ahead and give me credit for inventing the Internet too!)

* Leonard Sweet is by far one of my favorite authors (SoulTsunami is one of the reasons I went into ministry). Upon reading Sweet's new book, The Gospel According to Starbucks I discovered that the same principles (EPIC= Experiential, Participatory, Image Driven, Connected) that I loved in SoulTsunami were discussed word for word in TGATStarbucks. Good read, I'll try to blog it this week.

* How do people watch TV without TIVO? Really! If you don't have a DVR PLEASE GET ONE. You waste so much time watching the stupid crap that's on TV. It's so much more enjoyable when you can filter through the crap and only watch what you want...

As for the movies we watched:
* Ocean's 13: Great Flick! Love the Modern Day Rat Pack! They've come a long way from the Frank Sinatra days! It's interesting to watch the cultural differences between Sinatra's Ocean's 11 and where Ocean's 11-13 end up. In Sinatra's Ocean's 11, no one wins (watch the movie, very depressing). Then watch Ocean's 13, where it's not a matter of Clooney's crew winning, but how slick they look doing it.

* Pirates Of The Caribbean (At World's End): Eh, I love the fact that movie trilogies like The Matrix and Star Wars define the rules and conventions of their movies early on (and then stick to it). I love even more that Pirates literally makes up the rules rules as they go. I'm glad I saw it so I can folow the story, but POTC 2 and 3 both left me wanting...

* The Departed: Best mob movie I've seen in years (Disclaimer: I haven't seen many mob movies lately). Any time you put Jack Nicholson in a Martin Scorsese Movie, I'm happy. I had seen all but the last 20 minutes of the movie before, and it was good to get an ending on the film. (Spoiler: For what it was worth, I thought the ending was hilarious... but that's just my sick sense of humor).

* Napoleon Dynamite: Believe it or not, this was the first time I had seen it. Honestly, I know it's a cult-favorite, but really? It was probably the worst MTV film I've seen (once again, haven't seen that many...)

* Lady In The Water: I am a huge Shyamalan fan. I've been through film classes studying this guy. I've taught classes that focused on this guy (and the Auteur Theory). I love this guy, and I can honestly say that this movie STUNK! While it was a good movie, it doesn't belong in the same sentence with Shyamalan's other works. He ran out of gas. Know what the worst thing is? Having expectations put so high that there's no way a person can constantly meet them. Scary stuff. I hear rumor Shyamalan's done making films. If so, that's a sad day for American cinema (one of many sad days to come in American cinema...)

* Kolya: I love subtitles. There aren't many of us left in this country. Great mix of Czech/Russian cinema. It brought me back to film school days. I love movies that make you think.

I guess I got to get away to get things accomplished...

Psalm 124: Our Help is in the Name of the Lord

You ever find one of those scriptures that haunts you? I'm not talking about little angels and demons with pitchforks sneaking up on you and saying "BOO!". I'm talking about a scripture that your mind goes back to with every passing moment, trying to work out the finer details... you strain in an attempt to read between the lines, knowing that there's something else there.

I'm in the middle of one of those now. I bought a CD (I do know a great place to buy them from) called "Please Don't Make Us Sing This Song". No, not kidding. It's a folk-rock CD, filled with some of my favorite artists that no one has ever heard of. Waterdeep (Don & Lori Chaffer), Derek Webb, Jami Smith, Jill Phillips... these are all regulars on the Nano. But there was this one song that I couldn't process. I've been commuting back and forth to West Palm, and I must have repeated this song dozens of times, working it through... Seth Wood's "O The Deaths We Would Have Known If You Had Not Been With Us" based verbatim on Psalm 124. While I've never heard of Seth Woods and have enjoyed Googling him and "The Sad Accordions" for the past hour, I do think we need to look at some other things. Buy the CD, listen to the song. If you like Acoustic Rock, you'll love it. Let's move on.

Psalm 124

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 If the LORD had not been on our side— let Israel say- 2 if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, 3 when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive; 4 the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, 5 the raging waters would have swept us away. 6 Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. 7 We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Told you it was powerful. Look at the passion of the scripture: "men attacked", "anger flared", "flood...engulfed", torrent...swept", "raging waters", "torn by teeth". This is literary genius. This scripture is as visual as I've seen in a long time... I don't know about you, but I get the feeling there was some bad stuff going on. I became obsessed. What's going on? Who's attacking who? Flood: literal or figurative? And what does a snare drum have to do with anything?

I've poured over commentaries. One says that David was celebrating the release of Israel from captivity - ie Moses (attacked in slavery, flood being the parting of the sea). It might be my X-Files mentality showing, but I think there is a conspiracy here keeping me from the truth. Other commentaries echo my thoughts. To quote Matthew Henry, "David penned this psalm (we suppose) upon occasion of some great deliverance which God wrought for him and his people." Geez, when Henry doesn't even know, you know you're in trouble.

In the end it doesn't really matter. Let's just speculate that it's a new event. Bad, angry people wanting to kill you. Torrential storms on rough waters. Not a pastoral place for the people of God. You got some serious smack going down, and what are the children of God going to do? Be better children of God. Sacrifice two lambs. Throw the strange guy off the boat towards the whale. Look at the scripture again.

"If the Lord had not been on our side." (v1, 2). READ: He was already there. When the men attacked, when they surrounded us, when they were going to kill us, the Lord was there. When the floods came and the waves were on top of us, dragging us away, the Lord was there. How great is it that we have a God that doesn't want to see us dead? I mean that, not at all funny. Why does the Lord have to be on our side? Christian/Jesus/Holy Spirit thing I get it. You're missing the point. What if God chose to side with everyone but us and we were obliterated? What if God enabled our enemies to overcome us? What if the flood would engulf us? the torrent sweeping us away? Why does God choose us? Therein lies some of my "haunting". Regardless of our failures, evidently God wants us around, and is willing to come to our rescue, preventing us from being "torn by their teeth". (v6)

What did/does God do? "We escaped like a bird (sparrow) out of the fowler's snare and we have escaped" (v7). First off, translation. Fowler = Bird Hunter. Snare = drum hunting tool similar to a noose, lasso. The picture here is that we are trapped. It's not that God prevented us from facing our enemies, or even a struggle. READ: Big Bird Hunter traps us, ties a noose around us, choking us, coming close to killing us... when the noose breaks and we run free. I dunno. Sometimes I feel that 21Century Church (USA) thinks that being a Christian means God prevents our suffering. God wants us rich, happy, and more powerful than everyone else. But this is different. We are not the hunter, but the huntee. Our neck is in the noose, and it is choking us. We feel pain. We struggle on our own. We do not overpower our enemies. They live to fight another day. The Lord does not smite them. We get to the point where there is no escape without help and then the noose breaks. Help does arive. He saves us.

"Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth" (v8). This is what I cannot get out of my head. I'm trying to work it through. At the mere mentioning of the name, help arrives? I don't think God works that way. I've never viewed God as Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice: mention his name 3 times and he shows up. He's bigger than that, and doesn't need our help. As surely as His name is the Lord, He will be on our side. I don't know about you, but I sleep better at night knowing that the Maker of Heaven and Earth is "our help" (v8) and is regularly "on our side" (v1).

Things I'm taking away from this scripture:
1) Thank God He's on my side: If my enemies are "capable of swallowing us alive" (v3), then I certainly want God on my side. If He's not with me, what hope do I have? I'm floss! (ref v6).

2) Thank God I'm not in as deep as they were: My troubles are nil compared to King David's. I remember meeting a popular Christian rock group during a video interview several years ago. One of the questions I asked was for their brief testimony. After hearing each testimony about how God saved them from abusive parents, alcoholism, drugs, the sin-lifestlye, etc. We got to the lead singer who said "honestly, God saved me from the best. I grew up in a Chrisian home and never had to deal with that." Blew me away. But if our God is capable of saving us when the "flood would have engulfed us" (v4) you know he's capable of doing it now. How great is it that we don't have this fear in 21Century Church (USA). Freedom is a great thing...

3) Lest we forget... British Poet Rudyard Kipling wrote "Recessional" in 1897, going into detail how the British Navy was able to overpower and conquer the seas, spreading the "dominion" of the monarchy far and wide. Yet, as powerful as the Navy becomes, Kipling tells of it drifting away until it compared to the dwindling "Ninevah and Tyre". Governments, Kingdoms and Powers come and go, yet as long as we can keep the Lord on our side we can survive the tumult. Or as Kipling would say: "Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget!"

O Lord, Let us never forget. When we are surrounded, engulfed and overwhelmed please be our help.