Heavenly Coffee From Starbucks

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from The Boston Globe, March 3, 2001, with a headline, “Church Blesses a Coffee Icon,” dateline, Munster, Indiana.  Outside the huge FamilyChristianCenter stands a life size model of the Last Supper.  Inside members can partake of coffee and dessert near a modern day icon: the round green and white logo of Starbucks.  The Seattle-based coffee conglomerate which has become ubiquitous on street corners and shopping malls and airports around the country has made its first foothold in a church and though this Starbucks has been compared to the money changers whom Jesus drove out of the temple in Jerusalem, members of this non-denominational church near the Illinois border find it well, a blessing.  “Why the fuss?” asks Sherese Irving, a 39 year old Cook County health worker from Calumet City, Indiana as she bought a tall coffee after service Wednesday night.  “I think it’s a great idea.  When I come in on Sunday it gives me a chance to sit down before a service, have a coffee and brownie and meet new people.  Isn’t that what church should be about?  What’s the harm?”  At the FamilyChristianCenter more than 6,000 people attend two services each Sunday.  Hundreds of drinks are sold and it’s not uncommon to see the members sipping lattes and mochas during service.  Even Pastor Steve Muncie sometimes holds a cup while preaching.  Believing that the way people worship needed to be brought into the new century, the younger Muncie, 42, designed a church that resembles an auditorium and presents services not unlike musical and stage productions.  The huge room pulses with gospel and rock music.  “This is an innovative church for the new millennium,” he said.  “Having a place to sip coffee breaks down barriers and that’s our intent.”  Muncie got in touch with Starbucks slightly more than a year ago, and a congregation member donated the $50,000 fee charged by the company to license and provide the FamilyChristianCenter with its traditional setup, espresso and coffee machines, and display cases.  Once the company’s well known sign goes up in the near future the cafe will look like any other Starbucks.  The cafe only two months ago began to turn a small profit.  Muncie expects business to grow in the summer when cold drinks go on the menu.  Once the story aired camera crews hit town and Chicago disc jockey Mancow Mueller berated Starbucks likening the company to the biblical money changers in the temple.  On Tuesday, Mueller phoned Muncie for a live interview questioning why the pastor would put a symbol of corporate America in his church.  I explained to him that there is nothing wrong with church and a good cup of coffee, said Muncie.  What initially proved difficult but has since been overcome is why a cup of coffee costs $3.35 rather than 50 cents, Muncie recalled.  We had to educate Northern Indiana on how to order.  Now, they’re hooked.

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, here we have an example of the church, it’s a local church, it’s an organization and they are doing what they can to bring people in, but the attraction here is to have an establishment on that serves the people.  But this is coffee, this is $3.35—this isn’t giving coffee and donuts in between services.  This is an example of the money changers, isn’t it?

Dave Hunt:

Well, I suppose that they want to make some money so the church can use it to the glory of God in His service.

T. A. McMahon:

A $50,000 way out of money, now it’s turning a profit.I suppose you could turn a profit if you didn’t pay the 50,000 that came as a donation.  Someone wanted coffee and they feel that coffee gives an opportunity for people to sit down and talk with one another over a brownie or whatever.  Tom, you’re going to have to convince me on this one.  Now, what’s wrong with having a coffee shop in a church?

T. A. McMahon:

Well, it’s true the church is an organization, I mean, it’s a building and you’re there to—what’s the function of the church?  We’ve talked about churches before that had a skeletal dinosaur out.  Remember the church of Godzilla in Zillah, Washington?  Isn’t this the church in the world and the world in the church?  What are we doing here?  Are you coming for latte and a brownie or are you coming for to feast on the Word of God?  What’s the attraction?  Remember, what gets them in keeps them in.  You get them in with that then you’ve got to keep moving it up.  Then we will have McDonald’s then we move to—or maybe something a little bit more elevated since we are at Starbuck’s level.  I mean, Dave, come on here.

Dave Hunt:

You’re saying that they would be better off without the coffee shop, that they could have a better fellowship in the Lord, that this should not be an attraction, in other words—

T. A. McMahon:

It’s an attraction distraction.

Dave Hunt:

It’s a diversion.

T. A. McMahon:

Well, it’s a distraction from feasting upon God’s Word.  We see entertainments in numerous churches, presentations of things and I believe you have lost the heart of worship, not because the music isn’t grand and wonderful, but because there you are sitting agasp maybe, for those who just like simple hymns but you are caught up in a kind of an entertainment modality here.  We talked about this last week with the Beverly Hillbillies Bible Study.  If it takes these kinds of things to attract and keep people interested, I just wonder why they are there.

Dave Hunt:

In other words, you think there might be some people who go there for the coffee?

T. A. McMahon:

For the convenience, for—now we have a church that’s based on comfort zone things, convenience things—you’re sitting there listening to somebody exegete the scriptures and you’ve got your $3.35 latte in your hand, blowing the foam off or whatever—

Dave Hunt:

How do you know they allow you to take those into the—

T. A. McMahon:

The pastor does it from the pulpit; he’s got his arm around it or whatever.  It just doesn’t mix.  I know it’s attractive but is it attracting for the right reason, that’s where I have problems with it.

Dave Hunt:

Tom, I probably am not the right guy to discuss this with because I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life, so I wouldn’t find any attraction in it.  I would say we have a bit of a distraction here but it’s not exactly heresy, it’s not false teaching.  So you’re telling us that they are kind of veering off a little bit and one thing could lead to another and it becomes hardly the—deny yourself, take up the cross and follow me atmosphere.

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, it’s the world in the church and the church in the world and we’re seeing more and more of that.  Just one more, as you said, distraction.

Dave Hunt:

I grant you that we are seeing a lot of it.  This is probably not the worst example.  Let’s have a worse one next time, Tom.

T. A. McMahon:

You don’t have to look very far.