Coke & Missions: What Missionaries Can Learn From a Softdrink Company

Several years ago while on "furlough" in Atlanta, Georgia, I was looking for some type of memory hook to include in my presentations to churches that would serve as a way to help U.S. Christians weave missions more into their daily routine. I found what I was looking for while reading the newspaper. Specifically, an article covering a recent stockholders meeting of the Atlanta based Coca-Cola Company. In this article, then CEO and Chairman of the Board, Roberto Goizueta was quoted as saying to the stockholders present:

"Not long ago, we came upon an interesting set of facts: A billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago Christianity emerged. A billion seconds ago the Beatles changed music forever. And a billion Coca-Colas ago was, yesterday morning. What we are trying to figure out at the Coca-Cola Company is how can we make a billion Coca-Colas ago this morning."

This grabbed my attention and my heart. Soon after this I heard someone state, "More people in the world today have access to a bottle of Coca-Cola than they do the gospel message of Jesus Christ". I had found my hook and began to do more investigating and found that there were many similarities between the vision and goals of Coca-Cola and missions. I wrote Mr. Goizueta and asked for permission to use his billion hours quote in my mission presentations. He graciously gave permission and wrote in a letter to me the following.

"I believe that our Company's history truly is illustrative of what can happen when thousands of dedicated people work toward a common goal. If that dedication can serve as model for others in their endeavors, that is indeed, gratifying. Your letter reminds me that, from time to time, observers have been kind enough to suggest that Coca-Cola people work with "missionary zeal". It's one of the highest compliments we could ever received."

Quickly, a sobbering thought overwhelmed my senses, that a company that makes and distributes sugar water has found a way to put it's product in front of most of the people in the world while the Christian church is still stuggles to come close to matching Coke's distribution efforts.

The following represents lessons I believe we can learn from the Coca-Cola Company and apply to our missionary efforts.

Coke lists the following reasons for their unprecedented success:

     1. Research the culture for the most affective advertising.
Missionaries should do worldview research to find the bridges and barriers to presenting the gospel message of Christ.

     2. Committed and dedicated workers.
Missionaries must be focused on the vision and task of taking the gospel to every person.

     3. Meeting a need before anyone else.
People do not care what you know until they know you care.  Many times we have to touch lives before we can change hearts.

     4. Adapting their products to local tastes.
In missiological terms we call this “contextualization”. 

     5. Giving local people a stake in the success of their ventures.
Don’t do for others what they can do for themselves. Teach them to do what they cannot do for themselves and then let them do it.

     6. The Company takes pride in being a worldwide business that is always local.
a. Bottling plants are locally owned and operated by people native to the area.
b. Bottlers provide the capital.
c. Most supplies are purchased from local sources.
It is our responsibility as missionaries to help initiate work that is both indigenous and non-dependent as possible.

When you go to the Coke museum in Atlanta, and I highly recommend that you do so, you will see a video that shows almost all of the ways that Coke is distributed around the world. The video show product distributions from typical locations like stores and restaurants to the unusual such as from pushcarts and the backs of camels. They have mastered what we called in New Directions, “WigTake”. Are we will to do whatever it takes to get the gospel to everyone of these same locations?

Several years ago Coke introduced a new contoured can shaped with an indentation like the traditional Coke bottle. See photo. When asked why Coke was doing this, Roberto Goizueta replied, “When you hold one of these new Coke cans you will know for sure it is a Coke, even in the dark.” I have often wondered that in this world of darkness, does a lost world know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ simply by our touch?

The Coca-Cola Company’s biggest mistake ever. April 23, 1985 will go down in Coke history and folklore as the day the sun stood still. This was the day that Coke introduced a new and “improved” Coca-Cola. It was the first formula change in the history of the Company. The response was swift and overwhelming. People did not want a change in a product that they had come to know and love.

In our efforts to make the gospel more palpable to a lost world we must be careful that we do not change the “original formula”. Contextualization should change only how the gospel is presented not the gospel message itself. I believe most lost people do not reject the gospel but the reformulated gospel as presented by those who truly do not know how to live and express the “normal” Christian life.

“In the midst of massive changes sweeping the world, people everywhere take comfort in knowing that there are some things that never change, things that they can count on.” Quote from the Atlanta Coke Museum

People will not find “the real thing” in a soft drink, but only in the person of Jesus Christ. We can only hope and pray that one day, Christ’s church will be as dedicated and committed to her task as Coke is to its task.

“some of the text for this blog was taken from a PowerPoint developed by Curtis Sergeant”