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The Gospel According to Starbucks

by Leonard Sweet  (©2007 WaterBrook Press)

Has your walk with God has become rather commonplace? Are you living your life with “grande” passion? If not, brew yourself a strong cup of coffee and settle in to experience The Gospel According to Starbucks. Leonard Sweet masterfully draws analogies between Starbucks and the Church, his main premise being that people don’t stand in line at Starbucks just to buy a cup of coffee—they come for the experience. It is the same with the Church—too many Christians line up to follow God out of a sense of obligation or even guilt, and consequently miss out on the warmth, richness and depth of an abiding relationship with God.

Sweet asserts that spiritual life should be characterized by and lived with grande passion—what he calls “life on an EPIC scale”—EPIC being an acronym for Experience, Participation, Images and Connection. It’s not about being strong or being first. It’s about being emptied of oneself so the power of the Holy Spirit can touch others through you. It’s about being willing to be unorthodox if the situation demands it, like when Jesus used His own saliva and made mud to heal a blind man. The Cross itself was considered a curse, yet Jesus transformed it into what Oswald Chambers aptly calls “the stupendous Atonement.”

Just as Starbucks cups warn you that the beverage you are about to imbibe is “extremely hot,” Sweet suggests spiritual seekers should be warned in advance—that following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. Jesus does not invite lukewarm faith, and His gospel is not intended to be either comfortable or “safe.” We do seekers an injustice if we imply otherwise.

If Christians hope to live with grande passion, according to Sweet, we need to incorporate three passions of the life of faith: provenance, beauty and rarity. Non-believers are not impressed that we attend church, but they will sit up and take notice if every Christian were actually living like a “little Christ.” Jesus calls us to get out of our comfortable pews and become preoccupied with participating in the resurrection life of Jesus!

I regret that limited space does not permit me to fully expound on the ways this book has stretched me and challenged me. For a full cup, I recommend buying your own copy.

PATTY KENNEDY is assistant web content editor for the national Women’s Ministries Department. She also writes book and music reviews for Pages and Tunes, a free e-newsletter provided by the national Women’s Ministries Department.

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