Bigger than Coffee

Did you know when you vote today, Starbucks will give you a free tall cup of coffee?
I saw their promotion for it a few days ago.
It's true, in fact if you haven't seen the promotion, go here and watch it.
Go ahead, I'll wait, it will only take 60 seconds.


Honestly, I'm not a "huge" coffee person. I blame it on my two years in the coffee business where drinking eight cups of coffee a day was the norm.
But something inside of me wanted to go today.
I can't tell you how excited I was to wake up today, go vote, and drive fifty minutes to get my free coffee.

Oh, wait. Fifty minutes to get to the nearest Starbucks?
I could. I want to. I don't mind the drive. Gas...hmmn.
Not going to be able to go.
Depression sets in.
But why?

As I updated my status on Facebook and watched the number of people who went to Starbucks climb, saw the video promotion be passed around, watching the video again for the third time.....I saw it.

I saw what it was that is "bigger than coffee."
I saw what it was inside me that got me all excited.
I saw what it was that caused thousands of people to want to flock together.

Community built around a common goal.

Making community, country and the world a better place. It is that thought that I want to rally behind. It's huge, it takes more than one person to achieve it, it takes a tribe, a group of people who want to make it happen. People are doing it.
Starbucks has always known they don't sell coffee, they create community.
I saw one time in one of their stores a "now hiring" card. The back of it read, "When you work at Starbucks, you can make a difference in someone's day by creating an environment where neighbors and friends can get together and reconnect while enjoying a great coffee experience."

They see themselves as a company that purposes itself to create meaningful environments where people connect with one another.

This excites me because in the church world, I'm a small-group-open-transparent-change-the-world type of guy. This is why small things never stay small. People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Big vision attracts. Anything that starts small and has big vision will become big. The key is not throwing stones at 'big." The key is making sure "big" remembers what's its purpose.

Selling coffee or connecting people?
Holy huddle or connecting people to Jesus?
Talking or doing?
It's bigger than coffee.