I have been working part-time at Starbucks for about 3 1/2 months now and its been a great time. I am pretty committed (at least for now) to continue working there for a while on top of my time at the church. It’s really a great chance to get out of my church sub-culture and not spend all my time around Christians. I know a lot of pastors who would be hard up to say they know more than one or two people who are not followers of Christ. As pastors, we traditionally do a great job of telling people they need to be reaching out to their friends and be in authentic friendships, but the nature of our own jobs makes it so hard to actually practice what we preach. I know of some pastors who acutally fired themselves from their own church and got themselves “real” jobs. The thought was that they wanted to be shephards of their people while still living “regular” lives. I think there is something to be learned from their example.
My time at Starbucks has been a great experience. As you can imagine I see the same people every day (some people are just downright addicted!). The challange however is actually having conversations with them outside of the time it takes me to make their drinks. Of course, i also have my friendships with the other employees that work there too. Either way, its hard going into a job like this as a “pastor” because they all have their pre-conceived notion of what a pastor is and/or is not. I just pray I don’t ruin the name “pastor” to all my co-workers! Pray for me as I seek to build some authentic friendships…for the sake for friendship. Hopefully in the process we will share lives…and naturally my faith…