Dropping the “Soup”

Photo by Kelly Common (Unsplash)

Campbell’s Soup is dropping the soup. After 155 years, the company known for its namesake canned soups, will now be known as Campbell’s Co. CEO Mark Clouse said in a statement that this “subtle yet important change” will retain the company’s iconic name “while better reflecting the full breadth” of its current portfolio.

Translation: Campbell’s has been about more than just soup for a long time now. You may not have known it, but Campbell’s Co. owns brands like Prego sauce and Goldfish crackers. Earlier this year they completed a $2.7 billion acquisition of Sovos Brands, the maker of Rao’s pasta sauces. 

They aren’t the first to make such a subtle change. Dunkin’ Donuts dropped “Donuts” from their name, becoming known as simply “Dunkin’”. Because, as a business, they were about more than donuts. Most of their business comes from beverages, and by dropping the “Donuts” from their name they can now freely pursue being “beverage-led.” Also, in just being Dunkin’, they leave their pivot foot in place for if (more likely, when) they aren’t beverage-led anymore. Who knows what the future will hold? Right now, 58% of their sales are beverages. In years to come, 58% of their sales could be bagels. They just don’t know. 

It was for this very reason that in 2011, Starbucks Coffee became just Starbucks. Then-CEO Howard Schultz noted, “It’s possible we’ll have other products with our name on it and no coffee in it.” Even Weight Watchers became “WW,” opening up a new mission that is less focused on dieting and more focused on health and wellness.

It may seem like only a name change, but it reflects that these companies know what business they are in—and what business they aren’t. It’s an important thing to know.

In the late 1800s, no business matched the financial and political dominance of the railroad. Trains dominated the transportation industry of the United States, moving both people and goods throughout the country. Then a new discovery came along — the car — and incredibly, the leaders of the railroad industry did not take advantage of their unique position to participate in that pivotal transportation development. The automotive revolution was happening all around them, and they did not use their industry dominance to take hold of the opportunity. 

In his seminar based on his bestselling book, The Search for Excellence, Tom Peters points out the reason: the railroad barons didn’t understand what business they were in. Peters observed that “they thought they were in the train business. But they were in fact in the transportation business. Time passed them by, as did opportunity. They couldn’t see what their real purpose was.”

Could this apply to the church?

Ever heard of the Baptist Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)? The “Board” was the catchall agency of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination for all things local church—preaching, worship, church growth, discipleship and, of course, Sunday School. But did you notice something odd about that list? All were aspects of the mission of the church, but only one – Sunday School – was a program or method. And yet it was the very name of the agency.

Why?

Because it was a method/program that had become enshrined to the level of orthodoxy. 

The mindset, even in the early ’90s, was pervasive, particularly in the SBC: Want to grow your church? Sunday School. Want to disciple believers? Sunday School. Want to increase stewardship? Sunday School. Want to end global warming? Sunday School. Again, even the name of the catchall agency for all things local church was called the Sunday School Board.

Today, the Baptist Sunday School Board does not exist. They changed their name away from a particular program to something more mainstream (Lifeway Christian Resources).

They finally dropped the soup.

So what business are you in? I can tell you what businesses you are not in. Just like Campbell’s isn’t solely in the soup business, you’re not in the Sunday School business, the Awana business, the Upward Sports business, the Men’s Fraternity business, the Catalyst business, or any other programmatic business. 

Let’s dive deeper: you’re also not in the small group business, women’s ministry business, men’s ministry business or any other sub-ministry business. All of these may be well and good and helpful, but they are not your business and should not be treated as such.

Do you know what business you’re in? It hasn’t changed for 2,000 years. You are in the worship, ministry, evangelism, community and discipleship business. And how does that translate into a specific mission? That, too, has not changed: our mission is evangelizing the lost, assimilating the evangelized, discipling the assimilated and unleashing the discipled.

So where do you need to drop the soup?

James Emery White

Sources

Wyatte Grantham-Philips, “Campbell Wants to Say Goodbye to the ‘Soup’ in Its Name. It Isn’t the First to Make Such a Change,” AP News, September 11, 2024, read online.

Vanessa Romo, “Dunkin’ Deletes Donuts from Its Name,” NPR, September 26, 2018, read online.

James Emery White, Rethinking the Church, Revised and Expanded (Baker Books), order from Amazon.

James Emery White, Hybrid Church (Zondervan), order from Amazon.