A View from St. Arbucks

I am the proud owner of a Starbucks Gold card.  I was reminded of the benefits today.  For the second time this month, when I ordered my Grande Pike I was told it was free.  Okay, I will admit under usual circumstances spending almost three dollars for a cup of joe might seem like a little bit extravagant but for me it is a dose of reality.  You see, a lot of young folks hang out during the day at Starbucks, and it leads to some pretty great conversation.  There is no better place to observe current culture than at a Starbucks. .So, at least one day I week I do my writing at the Starbucks close to our house. 

My routine is always the same.  I order my coffee and find an open spot.  I open up my laptop and set my Bible down next to it.  I also usually have a couple of other books that I have brought along for reference.  I have discovered that having my Bible open next to me is a great door-opener.  I also try to position myself so that I can occasionally make eye contact with those around me.  It can lead to some interesting conversation.

Today was a good example.  The battery on my computer was running low and I was searching for a place to plug it is.  A young man noticed my dilemma and offered to move some of us stuff so I had access to an outlet.  Turns out  he is a pharmaceutical representative who was using the space to make out his weekly report.  He inquired about what I was doing and so became a conversation.

I was working on my new book, Tear down the Silos and Pitch a Tent, on the future of the church in America. It turns out my new friend was a fellow believer who also serves as worship leader at the small church he attends.  As we chatted he began to share his frustration with his generation and his inability to connect with them on matters of faith.   Like me, he is concerned about the future of the church as we struggle to equip young leaders.   He noted that the worship community he is part of has a fair number of young families and that there were a number of young children.  There was a void, however, when it came to single young adults his age. 

We ended up discussing some way to make that happen and we ended up our conversation with a prayer.  I got back to working on my manuscript and he got back to his weekly report.  Hopefully, he was as encouraged as I was. It was just another St. Arbucks encounter.