Last week, I went and saw “Horton Hears a Who!” in the theatre. I was reminded how much Dr. Seuss reminds me of Biblical themes. So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about the Seuss series and some of the things we can learn from it.

We’re going to start with Horton Hears a Who. We’re going to use quotes to make our points.

1. Children matter, just like adults.
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

OK, I know I’m kind of preaching to the choir on this one, but it’s something important to never forget. Every child from the youngest baby to the oldest preteen are just as important as the “grownups”. While we can’t use the same approaches with kids as we do adults, they have an amazing ability to understand God and who he is. Remember that they aren’t stupid! (more…)

This is part three of a three-part series.  Read parts one and two first.

What Starbucks has figured out #3: Follow them home.

Part of the Starbucks experience we mentioned last time is something very important: follow-up.  Starbucks doesn’t want your experience to end at the door, they want you to take it home with you.

Think about the last time you visited Starbucks.  You probably left with a refreshed, warm mood.  Just a pretty happy place to visit, right?  Their stores are designed to give you a feeling of being welcome.  Partners are trained to help make you feel like you belong.  When you have a bad experience, you get a card good for a free drink next time you visit.  When they make a decision that may not have been best, apologies abound and they insure that they make it right.  Good customers get recognized, and when you walk in they start making “the usual”.  All of it is done to give you an experience that you take home, and they follow up when they do something.

So what do you do for follow-up?  What do people have that “follows them home”?  When you do something wrong, do you apologize and fix it, or do you deny it and try to avoid it?  Follow-up is so extremely important.  Letting people know that you care and wanting to know if they have any questions after an event is important.  In it’s most basic form, it’s a postcard or letter saying, “We’ve been thinking about you.  Are you interested in any of these things we offer?”  You could go up to having a team of visitors who go to visit those who attend to check up on them.

I know, follow-up has been pounded into your head as a children’s ministry worker time after time after time.  That’s because it’s so important!  Following up on the experience someone had allows you to stay connected to them and share the love of God with them continually.

So as we wrap up our series on Starbucks, just remember these things: training, experience, and follow-up.  Make sure you do those three things, and you’ll be well on your way to improving your ministry.  They’re not everything though, so insure that you continue to improve in every area.  Make your ministry so remarkable, people can’t help but talk about it.  And while you’re at it, go grab a Grande Nonfat No Whip Peppermint Mocha. (Evan’s favorite!)

This is part 2 of a three-part series.  To read part one, click here.

What they’ve figured out #2: Experience is central.

Think about the last time you walked into a Starbucks.  The aroma of the coffee, the feel of the store, the laid-back atmosphere.  What you walked into was more than a restaurant: it was an experience.

From the beginning, that’s what Starbucks was about: the experience.  Everything they did focused on what it did to the experience.  Why the craziness over experience?  Because Howard Schultz, once again serving as CEO of Starbucks, feels that their stores should be the third place.  The third place is the place that isn’t home (first place) and isn’t work (second place) that you can go to hang out, enjoy a good coffee or two, and just unwind.  They desire that their stores feel accessible, fun, and a place where you could sit down and have a meeting.  When you walk in, Starbucks wants you to feel as comfortable there as you would at your own home.

But even as CEO Howard Schultz himself will admit, somewhere along the line the experience got lost in the business.  They moved to flavor-lock packaging, destroying the full coffee smell that they had when coffee arrived in large bins.  A tendency towards a “cookie cutter” store design led to what some called “sterility”.  And perhaps most famously, they introduced breakfast sandwiches.  Longtime patrons hated that the toasting sandwiched ruined the coffee smell so much, that one of Howard Schultz’ first acts when he returned as CEO a few months ago was to begin the demise of the breakfast sandwich at Starbucks.

Think about your ministry: do the parents at your church feel welcome and accepted when they bring their kids in, or do they feel guilty until proven innocent by a full cavity search and metal detector?  OK, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but you know what I mean.  Security is important, but you do have to strike a balance between security and welcoming both current and new parents to your ministry.

How do your kids feel in services?  Do they feel like they’re taking part, or like they’re watching a show?  Are they comfortable, feeling like they’re at home?  That experience is key to getting kids to feel like they fit in.  You know you’ve all had this kind of kid at one point or another: the first-timer who’s extremely attached to his parents.  Won’t let go of his mother’s leg.  Absolutely resists coming.  That sort of child is the child you should focus on that day.  Have a special worker sit right by him and comfort him and involve him.  Include him in games or prize giveaways.  The experience you create is critical.

Experience is hard to keep up.  It’ll take work.  It is so worth it, though.  Experiences that people have as children at church will continue to shape their image of the church into their adult and teen years.  You may think that that Sunday School teacher that teaches an OK class is fine to leave in place.  That’s dangerous thinking.  That class is, whether you or the child realize it or not, shaping their image of the church and will impact whether they or their future children will come to church in the future.  You can’t settle for mediocrity.  Ministry needs to be best.   Remarkable, you might say.  Go above and beyond.  Now that’s the way I see it.

Over the next few days, I’m going to use my favorite topic (Starbucks!) to discuss some things that Starbucks has figured out that most children’s ministries haven’t.  I’m dividing it up into three parts, this post right here being part 1.

What they’ve figured out #1: Train, train, train.  Then keep training.  Train until you’re blue in the face.

Starbucks obsesses over employee training.  Partners (not employees, it’s a way they make employees feel more dedicated to the company) learn intricate details about coffee, equipment, experience, customer service, product quality, and company history.   Massive regional training centers ingrain the “Starbucks gospel” into their managers.  Periodical checkups are done on every corporate shop.    They’re even closing their stores on February 26 from 5:30 to 8:30 PM to do product quality re-training.  Training is so key, they sometimes spend up to $3000 per employee just on training.

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Today is a very important day.  It’s the day Mac users from all around the world visit the veritable “Mecca” of Mac-dom (a.k.a. Moscone West Expo Center in San Francisco), and many more gather with them via text and video feeds online.  Today is the day of the Macworld keynote address by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.

Yes, every single blogger here uses a Mac.  We’re totally sold.  Why has Apple been able to gain such rabidly fanatical users?  The answer comes in a quote from H.J. Heinz (the ketchup guy) many years ago: “To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success.“  That’s why.  Computers and MP3 players weren’t anything new when Apple released their versions of them, but they did them radically well.  They did something so well, that the users that stuck with them were fanatics.

In the past 25 years, personal computers have gone from a few thousand users to over 1 billion users.  There are almost as many computer users as Christians in the world.  Christians took 2000 years, PCs took 25.  Why the difference?  Because PCs were so revolutionary, they spread like wildfire.

What if you could get the kids and parents in your ministry to be just that fanatical?  Aim for it.  Tell your kids that their faith is nothing to be ashamed of, but is to be shared with everyone how absolutely amazing it is.   Push your kids to that level.  You might be surprised to see a sudden explosion of growth.  Kids are the church of today, and can spread God’s love now.  But childhood is so vitally important in faith formation, you may, as a childrens’ pastor, reach more people than you could ever imagine through one small child.

Keep pushing.  Keep proclaiming.  Keep praying.