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The Video: Speaking Starbucksian

There is no doubt that Starbucks has their own language. Tall, Grande, Venti... (Let's call it Starbucksian). For the most part, churches have their own language too. Having your own language is sometimes a valuable weapon in your marketing arsenal, but yielded without planning and precision, it can be deadly to your culture. Basically, it’s a two-edged sword. On one hand, if you don’t know the language, you feel lost and on the "outside." However, if you know the language, you feel "included," special and "in-the-know."

"Code" language is a very insider thing. Many churches will ask, if insider language is a bad thing, why does Starbucks do it? Simple. They want insiders. As an outsider, you learn the secret code by ordering a drink. If you don’t know it, someone is standing right there, looking you in the face and helping you engage your transition between outsider and insider. They are there to even suggest a drink. When someone has a puzzled look on their face, you quickly hear... "Would you like something hot or cold?" "Would you like something sweet?" They are literally trained to identify a newcomer and immediately make them comfortable without any kind of embarrassment. They are "hands on" to steer you into an addictive Mocha Frappucino. After you visit about three times, you are the master. You’ve got your drink and your size down pat. You’re an insider now. The bridge to that point was built very deliberately by Starbucks themselves in an effort to create insiders. Brilliant!

Now, why is this not working so well for churches? One, most churches speak Christian-ese not as a bridge to gain insiders, but as a validation tool with other insiders. AKA: I prove my spirituality in the number of three-syllable Bible words I can say. As churches, we often make it difficult for visitors to understand our code. We don’t have interpreters waiting to greet visitors at the front door, their job solely to explain everything we intend to say. When someone does indicate they might not know our ways, many churches throw them under the bus and make a show of them—asking them to stand up, raise their hands, and fill out forms.

If the visitor tries to follow along, our insider jokes and language—the very stuff that rallies the troops and makes believers feel like they’re in the cool "in-crowd" (the “God is good.... All the time” stuff from the video)—all of those insider jokes just remind them that they’re outsiders.

What's the key? Just that: a key. It’s like a map that you need to read the key to understand the symbols. The key is a bridge. The key is an explanation. Without explanation, you leave outsiders out. Without the barista telling me what the stuff is, I’m lost. With the barista carefully explaining the coded language, I’m on my way to becoming an insider. So, insider language in itself is not the issue unless it is left to resolve with out deliberate explanation.

Make this commitment: never let a service take place where you don’t break down church vocabulary for the visitors present and tell them the story behind our inside jokes. The secret behind this is two-fold: if you commit to it, 1) you’ll build stronger bridges and 2) you’ll get tired of bringing in so much context to all your insider verbiage, that you'll cut it down to the minimum.

As a church, do you have your own language? Do your inside jokes leave an outsider feeling further outside? It’s time to build a bridge. Change your language or commit to bridge-building. Without it, your church might be good at winning over other Christians, but you will leave a lost and dying world dying to know what you’re talking about.

© Richard L. Reising

Published on Thursday, December 18, 2008 @ 11:45 AM CDT
4 comments

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  • Kathy @ Virtual Impax

    When you're in "deep" you don't recognize that you're using "insider" language. Usually, it takes interaction with an "outsider" to reveal those "insider" terms.

    As I read this post - it makes me think of all the "insider" things that happened at Christmas Eve services which I found comforting - and which "outsiders" may have found "off putting". Talk about a paradigm shift!

    Posted on Fri, Dec 26, 2008 @ 10:31 AM CST

  • Vince

    You got it right on the spot. I've always hated that we make new comers stand up for us to greet them. It puts all the pressure on them and makes it "easier" for the church members to say a meaningless "Welcome"

    Posted on Mon, Jan 5, 2009 @ 9:38 PM CST

  • Ike

    So true, being somewhat new to Starbucks, I can totally relate to that first timer feeling. But like you said, they immediately tried to set my mind at ease, even letting me know where I could sit to enjoy my drink and informing me about some of the other perks of being at Starbucks like wireless internet.
    So I ask myself, why am I as a pastor not doing this more in church? Like informing people of the nursery, helping them identify who the ushers are, etc... thank you for this post.

    Posted on Thu, Jan 8, 2009 @ 9:18 AM CST

  • John L

    Leonard Sweet wanted to name his latest book "The Gospel According to St. Arbucks" but his publisher wouldn't go for it :-)

    Great video, but I wonder if it goes far enough? We're still thinking of church as an "attractional" event. We employ "marketing tools" towards the goal of sustaining our top-down, building-centric, CEO-pastor organizations. But the Western mega-church is now largely indistinguishable from pure capitalist business models (save for Jesus).

    I think people like Wolfgang Simpson, Tom Sine, Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole and others are helping us form a more organic understanding of healthy ecclesia - moving us from an attractional understanding to a missional understanding. Our "marketing" is our transformed life.

    Posted on Fri, Jan 9, 2009 @ 10:58 AM CST

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