A World Without Service. Really?

Bloomberg Business reported this month that technology is replacing personal service at Panera Bread. Chipotle invested 10 million dollars in its technology network last year so that you can order and pay with your mobile app and retrieve your food at a special location inside the store—all without ever interacting with a human being. Starbucks will be rolling out something similar nationwide by year’s end.

A world without service? Really?

I have been contemplating for several weeks what these realities will mean for me and how I interact with those I come in contact with each day. I am concerned that these self-serve devices are eliminating the relational lessons to be learned from serving and being served.

This week at OnQ, we’re looking at serving together and how experiencing truth in action can deepen relationships and spark spiritual conversation. But in the context of Bloomberg’s recent findings about technology, I’m wondering what a world without service might end up looking like.

What happens when I choose not to be served by a person? Being served by someone is humbling. The sometimes uncomfortable reality is that wherever I go throughout my day, be it the grocery, the post office, my child’s school, or a fast food establishment, someone else is offering their time, their skill, and their energy to do something for me that I didn’t have the time, the skill, or the energy to do for myself.  If I forego the opportunity to receive and thank someone for their part in fixing my meal or ringing up my groceries, what am I saying? Whether I realize it or not, my actions often communicate something I don’t intend: I am selfish and have a tendency toward self-absorbed living. Something done for me also does something in me if I let it.

And what happens when I choose not to serve? Because I want to be a person of influence, I need to consider what my actions convey about the upside-down reality I believe: to be like Jesus, I must choose to view others as better than myself and serve them with my life. When I disconnect from the opportunities life presents me every day to serve others—a myriad of seemingly small, insignificant, and sometimes unnoticed actions—I elevate myself above my neighbors and isolate myself from community. I cannot nudge anyone’s journey toward faith if I am unwilling to engage the person in front of me and choose to serve.

Marshall McLuhan was a communications theorist who coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” That means my life is being watched and that my actions often express my message before any words come out of my mouth.

So what is the message being communicated if the Bloomberg reported trajectory about service continues?

I want to be known as someone whose actions spark deeper connection and cultivate spiritual curiosity. I think you do too. So, as you go about your day today, allow someone to see the truth by making it a priority to be a servant and to humbly be served. Actions speak louder than words.

Jenn Nahrstadt
Friend of Q Place