Early on in our church plant I was in line at my neighborhood Starbucks waiting to order. The cup of choice for the day? My usual tall coffee. Just coffee. No frills. No froth. In front of me was a frazzled middle-aged woman in spandex gym clothes with a large oversized purse hanging on one arm and a small dog resting in the other. I quickly found myself in a situation that has become one of my quintessential pet peeves of all time – waiting in line behind “slow coffee orderers”. Please, be prepared when the barista calls on you, that’s all I ask! I had a feeling it was not going to go well, but had no idea just how much of a train wreck it would end up becoming.

What you need to know is that no more than 50 yards across the parking lot of this Starbucks is the most popular bagel shop in town. It’s a Brooklyn style shop, not so much concerned with decor but certainly committed to making a mean bagel. It’s a hallmark of our city. In light of the bagel shop’s proximity and it’s commitment to making premier, top quality bagels, this particular Starbucks stopped selling bagels. Nobody was buying them. They were going across the parking lot to get their good bagel fix. And rightly so. Every night this Starbucks was throwing away perfectly fine, over priced bagels. So they eventually ditched them all together. A smart business move.

Unaware of this brilliant, contextually conscious decision on the part of Starbucks, my frazzled, spandex wearing, suitcase toting, dog carrying friend proceeds to order – triple venti, 2 pump vanilla, soy, 180 degree, no foam, extra hot caramel macchiato…and, a bagel. The barista furiously writes the drink order on the side of the cup while politely explaining to her how they no longer serve bagels at this particular location. No big deal, right? Well, you would have thought the barista had called this lady’s dog ugly, dumb and stupid, because something resembling a 2-year-old’s tantrum ensued. She wanted her bagel, and she wanted it now. So while everyone else in the place now fixed their attention on the mayhem, I slowly took a step back to make perfectly clear I was not involved with this and it was not my fault! This was certainly far worse than I could have ever anticipated, and yet disturbingly entertaining at the same time.

Apologetically, the barista tries to explain to our friend the reasoning of Starbucks and encourages her to go across the parking lot if she wants a really good bagel. The lady and her dog are not having it. The barista, who had maintained her composure throughout, looks at her intently and says something brilliantly clear, concise and on point: Ma’am, we are a coffee shop, not a bagel shop.

With that, the order was complete, and a young church planter was indelibly marked by a simple yet profound truth about vision, leadership and the art of doing a few things well.

The temptation in ministry is to manufacture programs that God is not behind and package them in such a way so as to convince people He is. We tend to equate  being “all things to all people” with building out niche ministries to suit every felt need that ever walks in the doors of our churches. We believe the more ministries we can print in our bulletins, list on our website and tout before other churches in town legitimizes and substantiates us as a church. Unfortunately, in the end, our attempts at being “all things to all people” has left us in the precarious position of hardly being anything to anyone. We’re simply stretched too thin, with lots going on but not much happening.

As I lead a young growing church with a young growing staff I am daily faced with decisions that can ultimately keep us on track or in the end severely divert us. I’m constantly asking myself who are we, who are we not, what has God called us to and what decision needs to be made to keep us on the right trajectory? Has God called us to be a great coffee shop or a great bagel shop?

You might say, why can’t you be both? I would answer, you can, but why would you want to? It’s a divided focus, a breakdown in clarity about who you are and what you do and eventually ends in a fragmented system. I submit to you that you can be both, but it’s not necessary, and might not be the most beneficial. But where’s the creativity, you ask? Won’t things get stagnant? Where’s the room for expanding ministry and thinking outside of the box? I suggest there is much room for all of that, just now with a more strategic and streamlined focus.

You can be a great coffee shop without losing an ounce of variety – serve your coffee with thousands of different flavor combinations. That’s what Starbucks does. Or you can be a bagel shop without it becoming monotonous and stagnant – serve several different types of bagels with different flavors and different spreads on top. Do one or the other well, and do it with style, with flavor and with variety. But don’t try to be something you’re not.

God has called, equipped and resourced you to do the ministry He wants to do. Don’t try to be something He never intended you to be. Be intent on stewarding well what He wants you to be.

At the end of the day we need to know who we are, what we do and why we do it, or we’ll be so disjointed in our approach to ministry we’ll end up lost in our own system. We need the clarity and confidence in our strategy to know what to say yes to and what to say no to. We also need enough confidence in what we do well to uphold and champion what another church in town is doing well, even if it’s something we would never do ourselves (like the barista who says we don’t do that here, but we know a place in town that’s great at it).

I’m afraid our churches are losing their influence in our communities because the centrality of the Gospel is increasingly diluted by the complexity of programming. Perhaps we’re trying to impress people, or compete with the church down the road. Or perhaps we’re simply doing too much, and in the end not doing much at all.

For many, it’s time to refocus and remember – the first and foremost thing we must “do” well is the Gospel – in our lives as leaders, in our churches and in our cities. Everything wins if we do, everything loses if we don’t.

CHURCH PLANTER:
Slow down, dwell deep in the Gospel, press into your community and let the Holy Spirit arouse in you the kind of work He wants to do in your context. Steward well the ministry God is doing in your people as the Gospel is pressed down into them and be aware enough to follow where God is leading as the Gospel begins to materialize through them. This ultimately becomes the vision and direction of your church, and sets the trajectory for who you will be as a church, and who you won’t be.

PASTOR:
Using the Gospel, the mission of God and your understanding of the context around you as your grid, identify three things you need to do well as a church. Commit your time, energy, prayers, money and people to doing those three things with excellence. Have the courage to stop doing certain things, and to start doing others. Your staff will thank you for the direction, your church will thank you for the vision, your city will thank you for the impact, and you will thank yourself for removing the burden of non-essentials from your shoulders. In the end, everyone wins. In the alternative, everyone loses.