I'd love to see your new car.

So, last week, my friend Roman and I were been meeting at 6 am.  Crazy, right? Well, maybe not.

A couple of weeks ago we had talked about starting a small group for college students.  The week before the first night of the study we (mostly Roman, I just agreed) decided that we should meet in the morning, every morning leading up to Friday.  Well after the 2nd day, it stopped seeming so crazy and was becoming a great thing.  The days were proving to be better because of the great start we were getting.


We started getting a better idea of what God wanted from the group, and on Wendesday, we were talking a lot about community.  What it looks like, what it SHOULD look like and how do you create it?


Well while we were sitting there we noticed things about the Starbucks we were in.  This was a community, a strong one.


The famous Barista.  There is one woman there, and I wish I knew her name, but she loves her job.  She knows almost every person that walks through the door by name.  She knows the drink the get, the car they drive and something about their life.  Most of the time she wasn't creating small talk, she was asking them how something went the night before or how they're day looked.  She was having real conversations with the people in that small, 5 minute window that she got each day with them.  Then, we noticed her walk out the door and was takling to a customer by his car.  When she came back in, she was telling the other baristas about this guy's new car.  The guy had bought a new car, and she stopped everything she was doing to go see it.


The customers.  I'm not sure if this Starbucks got lucky and collected all the nice, friendly, life-enjoying customers or if its a product of the enviornment the employees have created.  My money's on the second one.  I've hung around a lot of different Starbucks, and I've never seen one that only has friendly customers.  There was a lady throwing away her trash and noticed the guy who was sitting at a table had some trash  People were holding doors for each other, and left and right others were complimenting each other.  It really was a sight. 

So, what did I learn?  Well, one big thing I learned is that a part of community is in the small things.  I hope that I can remember that the next time I see someone with a lot of trash on their table or hearing someone mention that they just bought something.  If you're there for the small things, then people will know that you're there for the big things.  Being there is the key.