A New Pump Handle

150 years ago, 500 people died of cholera in just ten days in one London neighborhood, marking the beginning of another horrible epidemic. Victorian physician Dr. John Snow of London had already written a controversial pamphlet suggesting that cholera was not caused by "vapors,"but was instead a disease of the "gut," spread by contaminated water.

With the high number of deaths in this neighborhood, he studied the cases and was convinced that a pump at the intersection of Broad and Cambridge Streets was the sole source of contaminated water. In an emotional publicmeeting, he suggested removing the pump handle so no more water could be drawn from that location.

The rest is history. The handle was removed, cholera abated, and huge engineering projects were launched for sanitation systems and clean water across Europe. Dr. Snow's pump handle affected all of us. It led to improvements in the areas of sanitation and purification, and dramatically improved human life, lowering infant mortality rates and increasing lifespans.

Last week (26 February 2008) Starbucks got a new pump handle.

Were you one of thousands of unsuspecting people who were suddenly faced with an unexpected crisis? Heading into their neighborhood Starbucks to get a caffeine boost, customers were met with a terrifying reality: locked doors. Starbucks had shut down.

Okay, it was only for three hours (5:30-8:30). But for some of us the mere thought that all 7100 Starbucks in North America were closed was enough to jumpstart trembling hands and throbbing heads. Not even the knowledge thatDunkin Donuts was offering 99 cent "joe" to keep up community caffeine levels was enough to calm the no-Starbucks jitters.

Why did Starbucks take a three hour coffee break? To clean up their pump handle. The pump handle that had first turned on the Starbucks phenomenon had been so changed and corrupted that the company needed a new one.

Or in the words of CEO Howard Schultz, Starbucks shut down to open up andown up to its "first
love." Starbucks shut down to rediscover and rededicate the company to the "love, passion, and commitment" of the coffee experience. Starbucks had lost its original pump handle, and the one they were using needed to be replaced.

This quote is taken from the official Starbucks "Transformation Agenda Communication #8:"
Tomorrow evening, we will come together in an unprecedented event in ourcompany's storied history. We will close all our U.S. company-operated stores to teach, educate, and share our love of coffee, and the art of espresso. An in doing so, we will begin to elevate the Starbucks Experience for our customers. We are passionate about our coffee. And we will revisit our standards of quality that are the foundation for the trust that our customers have in our coffee and in all of us.

Howard Schultz insisted that this re-plumbing was designed to reconnect the company to the "soul of the past." "This is not about training," heinsisted to his employees, looking somewhat somber. "This is about the love and compassion and commitment that we all need to have for the customer." ("Starbucks Takes a 3-Hour Coffee Break," The New York Times, 27 February 2008)

It is a concept that sounds like a contradiction. Shut down your business in order to open up your business. But the same logic has been used by physicians for years. Doctors sometimes induce comas in patients with life threatening injuries, allowing them to regulate body temperature, reduceswelling, and stabilize fluid levels. Without experiencing the pain and anxiety that put additional stress on their injured body, these patientsare able to heal more quickly. They "shut down" in order to help the body come alive to health.

Maybe we in the church, the "body of Christ," should take our own "coffee break." Maybe we should consider a 3-day, or 3-week, or 3-month shut-down to reboot our churches in Christianity's original operating system. Maybe we need to find our original pump handle.
Our pump handle has been corroded partly because of our busy-ness. Look how busy we are. Our church bulletins tell the story of our busyness . . .. our weekly schedules, our outreach programs, our missions, our schools, our choirs, our committees. We feel good about our busyness. But has our"busyness" overwhelmed our true identity? Have we forgotten why the church exists at all?

Starbucks closed down to find the "soul of its past." Maybe the church needs to "close" itself off from all its programs and pageants and plans in order to rediscover why we are what we are.
And who are we? And why are we here? What was our original pump handle?