American Culture and The Organized Church and Wired Jesus Podcast Tom Lyberg on 26 Jun 2008 02:26 pm
Wired Jesus Podcast #43 – Losing My Religion
Here’s the long awaited #43. I apologize for the sound quality – I had the air conditioner running and it was louder than what I realized.
Recently I have been pondering the rise and decling of Starbucks and their efforts to reconnect with their core values. What I see happening is their origins of offering a coffee experience in community has given way to selling a coffee product for corporate profit. While they are trying to make a turnaround, I see the same thing happening in the church, not just now but throughout its history. This is just my wired take on the situation.
No featured congregation with this podcast – just a little too much going on today to get that done too.
Enjoy!
Download the podcast here.
Links:
The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet
Know Magazine – Creating Passionate Consumers
Seattle Times – Starbucks Contrite, Ready For Comeback
on 26 Jun 2008 at 7:45 pm # Mark Allender
Very interesting.
If I may add an insight or two — one of the problems I think that both Starbucks and The Church both suffer from is that they both started out “indie” and ended up as “The Establishment.” Starbucks started out as being “the cool alternative.” The place where those in the know go. You said it yourself — Starbucks has become more than just a brand — they’ve become a cultural icon like Elvis or McDonalds or apple pie.
By way of a metaphor, take the American Revolution. Some of the big-name revolutionaries – Sam Adams, Thomas Paine – after they actually got the independence they were fighting for, sort of petered out. They were really good at leading revolts, but no skill at all at actually establishing order and leading a nation.
Christianity is in a similar rut – at least in America. The Gospel started out being The Good News. A new way to live. A revolutionary idea about morality and ethics. These days, we are simply SATURATED in Good News.
I can see three churches out my front window, and on Sunday morning, I can hear the church bells from a fourth if I have my window open.
From a marketing standpoint, the “Christian” brand is a tired one. The average “spiritual consumer” may not understand the tenets of salvation, but nearly everyone in America is familiar with the icon of “Christ on the cross” or “The virgin birth” or “Walking on the water” or “Water into wine.” By way of percentages, there is very little about the Church that represents “the cool alternative” – “the spot for those in the know.”
on 30 Jun 2008 at 8:08 am # Kyrkans framtid » Blog Archive » Om Svenska Kyrkan och Starbucks
[...] nu över 15000 försäljningsställen i 44 länder… När jag för några dagar sedan fick det senaste avsnittet av Tom Lybergs podsändning Wired Jesus Podcast nedladdat i iTunes, fick jag anledning att återvända till boken. Och så fick jag anledning att [...]