Leadership Journal

The scene was surreal. In the middle of a busy rush at Starbucks, one of my fellow baristas discovered that my "real job" was working at a church down the street. Acting as if she had never come in contact with a live pastor before, she began squealing with delight, telling every customer and employee of her discovery.

This revelation caused a spontaneous spiritual combustion at the store, and I listened as a group of people circled around the espresso bar and regaled me with stories of their spiritual history.

Selma went first: "I think Christianity has an important place in society. I don't personally follow it, but I figure, whatever makes you happy, do it."

Matt quickly followed, revealing the painful interactions he had experienced: "Christianity is for simple-minded people. When they talk to you, they act as if you are a robot. They have an agenda to promote, and if you don't agree with them, they're done with you."

Tatia thought about Matt's comments for a moment, and then added her own. "I don't know if that's what bothers me so much. What really gets under my skin is that all the church really wants from you is your money."

Justin put the finishing touches on the conversation, and seemed to summarize everyone's feelings when he said: "Look, we all know that 'God' is out there at some level, but no one has a right to tell another person what 'God' looks like for them. Each person is free to express that however they want, but they should keep their opinions to themselves."

Such was my baptism by fire into the emerging culture. In that moment I realized most of the training I had received in "evangelism" didn't fit my Starbucks friends. The biggest barrier wasn't their lack of information; it was their attitude. They were biased against Christianity. How could I engage these people in a way that bridged the gap between their current spiritual condition and a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ?

This encounter happened in the late 1990s while I was working at Willow Creek in Axis (the ministry for 20-somethings). Willow had been on the front lines of evangelism since its inception in the 1970s, but as the church aged, we began to notice a trend: the attitudes of the not-yet-Christians in the emerging generation were changing. Amid increasing interest in spirituality, fewer and fewer 20-somethings were translating that spiritual interest into church attendance.

Axis was born in 1996 to wrestle with the question: "What does it take to effectively engage the emerging generation with the message and life of Jesus?"

I was privileged to work with Axis for five years. To speed up my learning, I also took a part-time job at Starbucks. Since I had grown up as a pastor's kid, I thought I understood evangelism. But my three years at Starbucks taught me that simple formulas and canned presentations were woefully incomplete if we were to connect with this generation.

So Selma, Tatia, Matt, Justin, and others at Starbucks became my new instructors on evangelism. ...