Starbucks and Christians: The Comparison

I have a good friend named Matt, who is by far the biggest fan of Starbucks you have ever met in your entire life. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Howard Schultz himself is not this excited about Starbucks. Something you may or may not know about the mega coffee company is that they call their employees "partners." If you work for Starbucks (which from now on in this blog, will be referred to as St. Arbucks because I like that better), you are not an employee, you are a Partner.

One of the coolest things about being a Partner at St. Arbucks is that you automatically have this unspoken bond with other Partners. All you have to do is walk into another St. Arbucks store, flash your Partner card, say what other store you work at, and boom! You're in; instant friendship.

Many times, I've witnessed Matt walk into a St. Arbucks store, even stores out of our home state of Tennessee, and he'll mention he's a partner and then the conversation begins. Several minutes later, my Zen Tea will begin getting cold and I have to usher him out, on with our task at hand.

So where's the comparison here? Well, it's more like a comparison of what we as believers should be. We should be more like Partners. As believers we should be able to have instant bonds with other believers. We should be willing to serve one another as Partners do with a smile and the same fervor as we would the "regular paying customer." Think about it. When was the last time your church partnered with another church to do something for the community that wasn't about inviting people to your church? You just SERVED wanting nothing in return? When was the last time another church asked you to be part of something they were doing and you said YES and wanted nothing in return? Wanted no recognition for the act of service?

Like it, love it, hate it...doesn't matter. I think we as believers can learn a lot from what it means to be a Starbucks PARTNER.