“The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.”

It was a bold move by Starbucks and I applaud the desire to use their nearly ubiquitous platform to create dialogue about an important topic.  It was in the execution that the strategy faltered.  We were asked to talk about something in a place and at a time that was out of context and felt forced (My favorite quote was from the PBS news host, Gwen Ifill who said something to the effect, “I’m just not ready to talk about race relations before my first cup of coffee).  But, just as it felt contrived, just as importantly was that the barista’s initiating the conversation were not experts on the subject, or as best I can tell, weren’t trained or aligned on what the objective of talking was in the first place.  It might have worked if Starbucks had committed to collecting one word from every customer about race relations and then putting that in a database for later communication or actions.  We would have accepted that baristas were experts in collecting one word (although recently one did write my name as “Roasty” on the cup).  Starbucks’ efforts here should remind us that good ideas with poor execution can equal good turning to bad.

I write often about our witness and if we are professed believers how we are the reflection of our Lord in our workplaces, whether we like it or not. We can learn something from the Starbucks example.  If we are genuine in our love for God, authentic, consistent and committed to our following of Jesus and we show up with that consistency, then we get a chance to talk without judgement about our relationship with Jesus to those who open themselves to us.  But, if we are just the opposite we can more likely expect the responses to our conversation starters to be received much like the coffee consumer who just wants the right order as soon as they can get it so they can get in the car and drive off to somewhere else they want to be.  Let’s look at today as another opportunity to build our credibility for Christ so we are always ready to properly execute with our message when the conversation moment arrives.

Reference: 1Timothy 1:5 (New Living Translation)