Everything Matters: Starbucks and Christian Worship
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What has Starbucks to do with Christian worship (aside from the fact that many mega churches now "proudly brew" their coffee)? More than you might think. I enjoyed working at Starbucks while I was in seminary. It really is an ideal job for a seminarian: I received a pound of coffee a week (on top of being wired to the gills at work!), fair pay, a fun place to work, and most importantly a lot of practice at remaining charming when people are being rude to me--not that the clergy have need of such a skill! I also received a black apron emblazoned with the Starbucks logo and the phrase "Everything Matters." That is the link between Starbucks and how we ought to view Christian Worship: Everything Matters.
Consider this: Starbucks contends (on a corporate level, your mileage may vary with your local baristas!) that literally every aspect of their coffee making and selling task truly matters. It matters how the drinks are made, where the straws are placed, what music is playing, how long it takes the customer to be served, whether a store has an adequate supply of those helpful little stoppers that keep one from spilling coffee in the car, and so on. There is no trivial or unimportant aspect of the Starbucks experience; it all matters. If it is worth obsessing over every aspect of a coffee experience, how much more important is it to thoughtfully consider every aspect of worshipping God? I humbly suggest that the Church needs to demonstrate at least the same level of attention to detail when bringing people into the transforming presence of Jesus Christ as Starbucks does when serving people their daily doses of caffeine.
Why is this worth going on about? Quite simply, everything we say and do in Christian worship says something about how we understand God, humanity, and our relationship to Him. While there are many beliefs that people carefully work through and decide to hold, most people most of the time simply discover what they believe, rather than decide (whether this is good or not is another thought for another day). If one has spent years singing only about fire and brimstone, it is difficult to view any other facet of God than His righteous judgment. On the other hand, if one has spent years singing about how great we are and how Jesus is lucky to have our fabulous selves, it is difficult to not end up talking to God like we are the spoiled brat from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This one:
Neither option is recommended. If we truly recognize how we are all shaped by the language we use in worship, the theology we repeat in liturgies and in the hymns and songs we sing, we can only respond by caring about every single word and liturgical action. Everything matters. This is why some of us (myself certainly included) get so worked up when talking about liturgical change. It is not that change is bad; we must worship God and proclaim the Gospel afresh in every context and every generation. It is quite simply that the words we repeat day after day, and the hymns we sing week after week will so shape the people of God that change is worth undertaking carefully and deliberately. The stakes are simply too high to fail to question the theology contained in music and liturgy already being used as well as those being proposed for use, whether it is a local question or part of denomination-wide liturgical revision.
This is not just for Anglicans and Roman Catholics. All Christians need to question what is said, sung, and done in worship in order to ensure that practice is consistent with professed theology. Growing up Baptist, I remember discussions over where in the service it would be best to take up the offering. I confess that at the time I found such discussions tedious. However, if everything matters, that does too. If the offering is collected after the sermon, is it a tip for good preaching? How about if it is collected at the end as people are leaving when everyone can plainly see if their neighbors remembered their pledge envelope? It is admittedly not the gravest example, but even an action as seemingly simple as the collection of money must be carefully considered, for the words spoken around it and even its place in the liturgy communicate something to the people.
Remember the words of Scotsman Andrew Fletcher, "Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws." (Many wrongly attribute this to Plato, which would admittedly give it more weight if the attribution were true!) We might tweak this for the Church and say, "Let me make the liturgy and music of the Church, and I care not who makes the canons or writes the House of Bishops position papers." Our repeated worship together forms all of us and our beliefs far more substantially than canons, the Articles of Religion, or any other top-down statement. It would be difficult to overstate the influence of corporate worship on both corporate and private belief. Everything matters, indeed.
Just the other day during Morning Prayer I prayed as I typically do for the parish I serve. I happened to use the prayer for the parish contained in Saint Augustine's Prayer Book (1967 rev. ed., 1993 new size) instead of the 1979 American BCP and I was deeply struck by the differences in the two prayers that a casual observer might call "basically the same." Read them both and see what stands out to you. The differences are far greater than older idiom and newer.
First, from Saint Augustine's (p. 36):
Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth, mercifully hear the supplications of us thy servants, and grant unto this parish all things that are needful for its spiritual welfare; enlighten and guide its priest(s); strengthen and increase the faithful; visit and relieve the sick; turn and soften the wicked; rouse the careless; recover the fallen; restore the penitent; remove all hindrances to the advancement of thy truth; bring all to be of one heart and mind within the fold of thy holy Church; to the honor and glory of thy Name. Amen.
Now, from the 1979 American BCP (p. 817):
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Are these "basically the same," or are there differences that matter? What does it mean that one prays for the priest(s) and the other doesn't? Are there really wicked people in the parish? How did praying for the removal of hindrances to the advancement of God's truth not make the cut? And the question that matters most: how might one's view of parish life be shaped differently depending on which of these prayers one prays for years?
The point of this example and of this whole post is not to argue for one version of something over another. There are obviously positive elements in both prayers. Neither prayer is heretical. It is simply to suggest that everything we do in worship matters. It matters how we address God. It matters if the theology contained in worship music is deistic at best. It matters how we engage the senses. It matters if and how we include children. It matters how we baptize, how we bless, and how we celebrate. There is not an inconsequential moment or element in all of Christian worship.
Let us learn from Starbucks. It would be a shame for later generations to say that we were not nearly as concerned with every aspect of properly worshipping God as Starbucks was with every aspect of selling coffee.
Everything matters.
