A few weeks ago I spoke at a men’s retreat near Georgian Bay. During one of the talks, I spoke briefly about how Starbucks has a history of taking advantage of people; specifically, about 70,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers in the Sidamo region.

After lunch, a good-looking man about 30 came up and sat down beside me. He wasn’t all too pleased.  He informed me that he was the regional manager for every Starbucks from London to Guelph to Kitchener to Waterloo.  He’s in charge of training hundreds of managers of Starbucks, each who manage dozens of employees.

He wasn’t happy that I’d said the things I said. He fed me the line that ‘Starbucks buys the most fair trade coffee in the world.‘ I reminded him that they also buy the most UNFAIR-trade coffee in the world, and that the numbers are substantially higher.

I was very honest with him- his company’s shareholders care about one thing: profits.  The only reason they’re buying fair trade at all is because the people are letting their money speak. Starbucks realized that if they didn’t change, they were going down.

The manager agreed.  The most of the company cares not for people, but for profit.  But he also insisted that he was different.  As a Christ-follower, in a very secular environment, he’s finding ways to subvert the corporate model in favour of the least of these.

He told me how the week before, he spend a few thousand corporate dollars to take 6-7 store managers downtown to a drop-in centre. They spent the afternoon cleaning tables and chairs and floors for about 70 homeless people.

Because unlike what his company values, this man is creating a culture that cares.

Maybe God is calling you to create new culture.
Maybe God is calling you to create a new community.
But maybe, God is calling you to simply transform the culture within a community that already exists.

All three are very necessary for the Kingdom of Heaven to grow.  Find your place.

Jay