Just for fun, ask this question to a group of church leaders: Is an attractional model of ministry or incarnational emphasis more effective? Then sit back, as a vigorous discussion is sure to follow.
Attractional ministry implies that the church’s basic strategy for reaching the lost revolves around getting “seekers” or the “unchurched” into the church building. Once inside, the opportunity to present the gospel defines the primary opportunity for evangelism. This is often known as an “invest and invite” approach.
In contrast, the incarnational emphasis of a missional mindset focuses on living and sharing the gospel “where life happens.” The emphasis is placed on the church “disassembling” itself for the primary work of evangelism in the nooks and crannies of everyday life.
In the attractional mode, big church buildings are important, and the church gathered is the consummation of evangelism. In the incarnational mode, fluid and flexible communities of faith are important; the church scattered is the consummation of evangelism. A common rally-cry against the attractional model is that the church should be measured by its sending capacity, not its seating capacity.
The missional reorientation described above represents an important shift in focus from methodology to identity.
This issue of SUMS Remix looks at solutions that will help you understand that distinction, and equip the church to leverage everyday moments in their lives to share the gospel:
Embarking on a culinary quest, particularly in search of the perfect hamburger, is not merely a gastronomic endeavor but a personal journey fueled by passion, curiosity, and a desire for culinary exploration.
There’s also the irresistible aroma of a hamburger grilling, soon to be followed by grabbing it with both hands and biting into an explosion of texture and taste.
Today I’m beginning a periodic series on the quest for the ultimate hamburger, reflecting on personal experiences, and expressing it through the following three lenses:
Literary – the writing, study, or content of literature about the hamburger
Culinary – of or for cooking hamburgers, both by restaurants and in my home
Arbitrary – based on random choice or my personal whims
It’s the official launch of #BurgerQuest!
Hamburgers are a mouthwatering delight, captivating the hearts and taste buds of Americans for generations. These simple yet irresistible sandwiches have achieved an unparalleled status in American cuisine, representing a delectable blend of flavors, convenience, and cultural significance.
Beyond their culinary appeal, hamburgers have woven themselves into the fabric of American society, symbolizing shared experiences, nostalgia, and the American dream.
Why burgers, and why now?
My earliest memories of hamburgers are at the Dairy Queen in Mt. Juliet, just a couple of doors down from my aunt and uncle’s house on Highway 70. Run by the Shaver’s, it was always a treat to walk across the Church of Christ parking lot, order burgers and fries, and take them back to my aunt and uncle’s backyard to eat them.
Visiting downtown Nashville to eat at Krystal’s was memorable for more than just the experience of those little square hamburgers that even a child could eat in just a couple of bites. On one such trip, running ahead of my parents at a crosswalk, I ran into the back of a car that had run the red light. I was not injured, and the car kept going. We still got the hamburgers.
In Madison, a suburb of Nashville, I can remember going to my first McDonald’s – no inside seating, but there were picnic tables under the golden arches that were more advertising than architecture.
Upon acquiring my driver’s license in 1974, and working at my dad’s gas station (Adams Gulf) after school and on Saturdays, one of my favorite work assignments outside the station was to drive the three miles to the Superburger in Mt. Juliet and get my dad’s favorite order: “one of those burgers with everything on it, and an order of onion rings, too.” That order was ingrained in my mind, and both items are still among my favorite meals (but I’m a lot more choosy about my onion rings!).
Also with a driver’s license and a car (1956 Candy Red Oldsmobile) and a group of friends who stuck together since childhood was the drive in the other direction, away from MJ toward Nashville, to Hermitage Hills and the “new” McDonald’s – a regular trip almost every Sunday night after church in high school.
There are many more, but you get the point:
Nostalgia and childhood memories triggered at least one reason for the #BurgerQuest.
How many recollections of family outings, backyard barbecues, or special occasions are centered around hamburgers in your memories?
It may be one of the stronger reasons driving the quest for the perfect burger: the desire to recreate those cherished moments and flavors.
But it’s not the only one…
Launching the quest for the perfect hamburger is a deeply personal and multi-faceted journey. It is driven by a myriad of motivations, from nostalgia and personal experiences to culinary curiosity, inspiration, and a desire for creative expression.
As I begin this quest with my own unique perspectives, tastes, and influences, I hope you enjoy this path of culinary discovery with me. Through this journey of passion and dedication, I looking forward to the joy of exploring the vast and delicious world of hamburgers AND also connecting with others who share their love for this iconic dish.
The announcement is coming Friday 6/30, but here’s a teaser.
To capture the complexity of even simple things requires looking at it from multiple angles, the first of which is literary – the writing, study, or content of literature about the object in question.
Of course you knew I would begin there.
The stack you see in the image is my beginning point, but I have no doubt my journey will uncover additional delicious delights about the humble hamburger…
… and that’s just in books!
Pull up a chair, slide into the booth, sit at the lunch counter – let the #BurgerQuest begin!
So, assuming you are paying attention to your surroundings, how do you enter into a conversation that will help you connect better with people around you?
Surprisingly, one of the most important tools that you need to develop in your communication skills is not your mouth. It is those two things on either side of your head.
Use your ears more than your mouth in a conversation, and become an active listener.
The most basic explanation of active listening is that is is the kind of listening that involves the use of one’s full concentration. The goal of this type of listening is to understand the person delivering the message.
Active listening is a skill which you have to develop over time, constantly practice, and fine tune along the way.
Here’s a tool developed by Dave Ping to help you listen to other people and establish a better connection with them.
Whether you’re talking with a relative, a neighbor, a friend, or a co-worker, the more you know about the person’s likes, dislikes, anxieties, and hopes, the easier it will be to connect with his or her world to establish, and then grow, a relationship.
Download the form above, and use it to listen and observe, filling in the blanks as you think the other person would.
Any answers you don’t know can serve as opportunities to listen more and to grow in your relationship.
Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech. (Proverbs 1:20–21, NIV)
Wisdom invites people to learn from her, but she does so not from the ivory tower but outside, in the public square and public places of the city. Wisdom is developed only in experience. No matter how hard they study, the graduates of medical school, law school, and business school will become truly wise in their fields only out in the open, that is, in real-life experience.
Proverbs is not an “inspirational” book with statements that immediately jump off the page at you. Wisdom cannot be conveyed by a series of TED talks or “executive briefings.” It is inaccessible to people too busy for its method. It comes through first with experience and then with deep, honest reflection on that experience.
The journey from the Proverbs of Solomon to the writings of Socrates (via his student Plato) is not as strange as one might seem:
Wisdom is humility, accepting that we know very little or nothing at all.
Socrates describes this conclusion when he states “I am wiser than that man. Neither of us probably knows anything worthwhile; but he thinks he does when he does not, and I do not and do not think I do”. Socrates is considered the wisest man in Athens by the Oracle, because instead of assuming he possesses wisdom, he accepts that wisdom is often unattainable and that we should instead continuously pursue new and truer knowledge. (from Plato’s Apology)
Socratic wisdom, then, is humility: a recognition of your own ignorance.
To continually move past this ignorance, the Socratic method uses questions to examine the values, principles, and beliefs of students in a dialogue, not a one-sided monologue by the teacher.
Wisdom emerges only as we ask thought-provoking, searching questions:
When did I last see this illustrated in my life or someone else’s?
Where do I need to practice this?
How would my life be different if I did?
What wrong thinking and attitudes result when I forget this?
Jesus, often spoke in parables and answered questions with other questions, trying to get us to reflect, think, and grow in wisdom (Matthew 13:10; Luke 20:4; John 16:29).
What has happened to you recently that was significantly good or difficult? Have you reflected on it with others to learn wisdom from it?
I’m reminded of a wise saying by my father:
It’s okay to be ignorant – it just means you haven’t learned something yet.Just don’t be stupid – stupid is terminal.
Doc Adams
My journey to becoming a Modern Elder is all about reciprocity.
Giving and receiving. Teaching and learning. Speaking and listening.
Everyone gets older, but not everyone gets elder.
The first just happens (if you’re lucky and healthy). The other you have to earn.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest Commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
Matthew 22:34-40, NIV
What about the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke’s gospel?
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.
Luke 10:25-37
Do you think that Jesus meant we should love our actual neighbors – those who live next door, behind us, or across the hall?
We may live in the most connected time in world history, but as a society we are as isolated as we have ever been. People drive alone to work, sit alone in an office, eat alone, drive home alone, and watch TV alone, all while our neighbors are doing the same thing.
Implicit in the Great Commandment is the admonition to break out of that isolation and walk across our yard or down the hall and make a connection to our neighbors – those who live closest to us.
This issue of SUMS Remix looks at solutions that will help you connect with and love your neighbors, and lead your church to do the same. The solutions include:
Imagine people who love one another enough that they will not allow any need to go unmet, that they will be truthful enough to confront and encourage each other no matter what the cost. Picture a community that collectively finds joy even in the midst of tragedy.
This is what happens when you love your actual neighbor.
Communities and cities can be transformed by the simple obedience of a small group of Christ followers who put others’ needs above their own.
Pizza may not fit your definition of comfort food, but it comes close in our family.
A semi-tradition for many years in our family has been Friday Night Pizza and a movie, usually consisting of whatever local pizza store (almost always one of the national chains) had the best deal going on. On the same trip, we would go by the video store and pick up a DVD to watch.
Netflix and then Amazon Prime changed part of the equation, but the pizza part remained intact.
As the years went by and our family dwindled, pretty soon it was just Anita and I – functional empty nesters, as our youngest son was a full-time culinary student and worked in a restaurant, or was out with friends. Along with that change came a realization that there were a lot of pizza restaurants in and around Charlotte – 371 by my count on Urban Spoon in 2011. I pondered (and my wife Anita humored me): what if we go out for pizza on Friday nights, and try a different place every time?
Thus was born the Adams Family Pizza Quest.
Beginning in early 2011, I led the Adams Family Pizza Quest, a weekly pursuit of the quintessential pizza. My family and I (well, mostly me; the rest just humored me) utilize a 5-slice rating system that measures menu selection, crust, base ingredients, toppings, overall pizza goodness and ambiance of the restaurant. I actually have a nerd version that has 35 points, but after a round of boos and garlic knots thrown in my direction I hastily retired it.
By late 2013, after almost three years of weekly excursions, only 1 pizza has earned 5 slices. That would be The Sicilian – Red sauce, sausage, cappicola, salami, oregano, basil, pecorino-romano and fontina – accompanied by an Italian Chopped Salad, from WaterStone Wood Fired Pizza in Lynchburg, VA. Anita and I stumbled on it by accident, walking downtown along the river.
Several others have earned 4 1/2 slices, many have earned 4, and a lot have earned 3. We’ve only encountered a few 2 slices, and in all honestly, not a single 1 slice rating (maybe we just naturally steered away from those joints).
Our favorite Charlotte pizza place is Zio’s Casual Italian off Providence Road. It was one of our early discoveries, earning a strong 4 3/4 slices; somehow we have found our way back there several times, taking friends who haven’t heard of it.
Other top restaurants are Mama Ricotta’s, Luisa’s Brick Oven, The Brickhouse Tavern, and Tony Sacco’s Coal Oven.
I could go on, but I won’t, as the Adams Family Pizza Quest comes to a close (sort of). After over 100 different visits in the greater Charlotte area, and a few across the country, my sense of adventure for pursuing the perfect pie has waned. Mind you, my taste for pizza hasn’t – I’m sure we will still be eating pizza on a regular basis.
Recently I celebrated my 65th birthday! But it’s also the re-birth of an endeavor I’ve been working on over the past few years…
For many years, I’ve been passionate about Guest Experiences – particularly those in a church setting. While I consider that to be a critical part of welcoming people into a church setting, I’ve felt unsettled – like there was “more to the story” of hospitality.
For the last few years, a growing place in my heart has been thinking about Guest Experiences in the setting of the home.
A part of 27gen is going to explore First Place Hospitality – and it just what it sounds like.
Hospitality in your home, your “first place.”
Come on in!
If we take the Great Commandment literally, we must open our eyes and our hearts to love the people on the street where we live. The act of loving our actual neighbors is one of the simplest and yet most powerful things that we can do to make an impact in our world.
The solutions to the problems in our neighborhoods can’t be found in governmental programs or getting more people to come to your church.
The solution is with people just like you in your neighborhood.
The solution is to get back to the basics of what Jesus commanded: Love God and love your neighbors.
Think of it as First Place Hospitality – building bridges to your neighbors in your “First Place,” your home.
Look for the most recent posts for BookNotes, Deeper Dives, Tools, or Home Hospitality Network features – new every Monday!
Interactions among people from differing generations can resemble a cross- cultural relationship.
A New Kind of Diversity, Tim Elmore
With five generations in today’s workplace, we can either operate as separate isolationist countries with generation-specific dialects and talents coexisting on one continent, or we can find ways to bridge these generational borders and delight in learning from people both older and younger than us.
In music, art, science, and just about everywhere else, diversity – diversity of age, diversity of background, diversity of thought – ignites the creative spark. Why should it be any different in the workplace?
We’re all just mirrors and reflections of each other. The more I help you grow a skill, the more valuable you are on our team, and the more your newfound skills can be learned and copied by others, adding more value still.
Building bridges across generations will happen when both sides realize just how much they have to learn from each other. When wisdom flows in both directions, there’s a huge collateral benefit for the company manifesting as gains in creativity, productivity, and communication.
Creating connections across the decades, if not a generation, between those who share employer and a mission can open up all kinds of possibilities.
Collaboration Practices
1. Create Psychological Safety
Your capacity to collaborate will improve if you create team norms that help everyone feel that the group is there to support you and the mission, as opposed to undermining you.
2. Make Collaboration Part of the Culture
Make sure that all action items at the end of a meeting are shared by two people rather than one. This forces team members to work together, come to mutual agreement, and present their findings or solution as a united front.
3. Study a Personality Tool that Resonates with You
Even the most emotionally fluent among us can benefit from personality-typing tools to help us better read other and build stronger personal connections. They are especially valuable in looking at how group chemistry is affected by the alchemy of the various personality types within the group.
4. Craft an Implicit (or Explicit) Trade Agreement
Specific individuals on your team may be very knowledgeable about a subject in which you feel lost. Start building a connection with that person and when you feel like trust has been established, ask them if they can spend some time teaching you about this subject. Make it reciprocal, forcing you to ask the question, “What do I have to offer?”
When was the last time you invited a promising young leader the opportunity to have a front-row seat to experience a healthy, collaborative team interaction?
Tom Peters – Seth Godin – Leonardo da Vinci: a unique trio?
All of us come into the world curious.
I saw it in the birth and development of each of my four children. In different but equally valid ways, I see it in each of my eight grandchildren.
We’ve all got it; the challenge is using and developing it for our own benefit. I think our curiosity is at its highest from birth through our first few years. A baby’s every sense is attuned to exploring and learning – everything is an experiment. They don’t know it yet; to them it’s just survival. Then in a few months, or years, their curiosity becomes vocal:
• Daddy, how do birds fly?
• Mommy, what does a worm eat?
• Why? How? When? What?
It’s easy to lose our curiosity as we grow into adulthood – after all, we think we know it all (or at least everything we need to know.)
Not really.
Great, growing, learning minds go on asking confounding questions with the same intensity as a curious three-year old. A childlike sense of wonder and insatiable curiosity will compel you to always be a learner.
From Seth Godin:
I’ve noticed that people who read a lot of blogs and a lot of books also tend to be intellectually curious, thirsty for knowledge, quicker to adopt new ideas and more likely to do important work. I wonder which comes first, the curiosity or the success?
From Tom Peters:
Swallow your pride, especially if you are a “top” boss. Ask until you understand. The “dumber” the question, the better! Ask! Ask! Ask! (Then ask again!). Above all, sweat the details – the weird, incomprehensible “little” thing that appears in Footnote #7 to Appendix C that doesn’t make sense to you. Probe until you find out what it means.
From Leonardo da Vinci:
Do you not see how many and varied are the actions which are performed by men alone? Do you not see how many different kinds of plants and animals there are? What variety of hilly and level places, and streams and rivers, exist? I roam the countryside searching for answers to things I do not understand. These questions engage my thought throughout my life.
A few questions for you:
• How curious are you?
• When was the last time you sought knowledge simply for the pursuit of truth?
• Do you know curious (really curious) people?
• Do you want to be a lifelong learner?
Without “why?” there can be no “here’s how to make it better.”
A question, thoughtfully conceived, can illuminate a room, a company, a life.
Chip Conley, Wisdom @ Work
Part of a regular series on 27gen, entitled Wednesday Weekly Reader
During my elementary school years one of the things I looked forward to the most was the delivery of “My Weekly Reader,” a weekly educational magazine designed for children and containing news-based, current events.
It became a regular part of my love for reading, and helped develop my curiosity about the world around us.
27gen.com 