Welcoming - "The Gospel According to Starbucks"

Changing how your parish welcomes new members into their parish is the first important step to put the new member on the road to transformation. Getting someone to visit you church once is not the answer. But providing visitors with not only the spiritual experience but a strong social experience as well makes a visitor want to return again and again

One of the goals of most food and retail operations is to create an environment where you not only receive a quality product put also provide opportunity for social interaction and becoming a member of a group of regulars that interact with each other on a regular basis. You can see this at a McDonald's, Hardees, or other similar places where their "regulars" gather each morning to discuss issues and the events of the day.

In The "Gospel According to Starbucks" by Leonard Sweet, points out that Starbucks has created a model of welcoming and acceptance, that can easily incorporated into your parish community.

This is not about your parish turning into a Starbucks serving coffee. pastries, and expensive coffee drinks (See video, "If your church was run like a Starbucks") to welcome newcomers, but rather that Starbucks has understood the importance of connecting with the culture–in fact they have transformed the culture. If you go to Starbucks they expect you to know “their” language -Venti, Grande and Tall (large, medium and small). People go to Starbucks not only for the experience of indulging in one of their coffee drinks(which many claim to be a spiritual experience) and to be able to connect with others that are having the same experience as well.

Starbucks believes there are three places that are important in people's lives. There goal is to become "third place"

From the Starbucks Marketing Plan (click here to download)

“The idea was to create a chain of coffeehouses that would become America’s “third place.” At the time, most Americans had two places in their lives – home and work. But I believed that people needed another place, a place where they could go to relax and enjoy others, or just be by themselves. I envisioned a place that would be separate from home or work, a place that would mean different things to different people,”

The Importance of Third Place

Third place is important to individuals as an extension of their home or work environment. Third place provides membership, friends, and feeling of importance within this new group. It is a place that is inclusive, promotes social activity. Conversation with others is the central activity, and has "regulars" who welcome "newcomers".

Relationship to Church

The church provided a place to meet, a sacred space where community gathered for governing, for mourning, for relationship building and working together for the good of the church".

So what has changed?

The community's expectation of regular church attendance. Fifty years ago, the expectations were that you attended church each week, or perhaps would have to explain to members of the community when you did not attend. As much as 65% claimed to attend a church of their choice on a regular basis.

Today, while 65% still claim an affiliation with a church community, around 35% attend on a regular basis.

So what happened?

According to Leonard Sweet; "instead of going to church to connect with God and others in meaningful relationship, people start going to church to be convinced of a transcendent truth, or if already number among the convinced, to have their beliefs...confirmed by ...others."

Members of our churches have turned inward and become more exclusive rather than inclusive. We are no longer seen as others as the 'third place", especially when other establishments provide a similiar quality of product, and a much more welcoming environment.

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