The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.
I’ve used this illustration before and can’t resist coming to it again because it tells itself so clearly. More than 30 years ago, two grocery chains faced the same critical question: “What will consumers want 10, 20 and 30 years from now”, and they came up with two very different answers. A&P decided it was price and they continued to offer a limited selection at the lowest price while Kroger decided we’d all want greater choice and began to build the first versions of the monstrous super stores we’ve all come to know so well. I don’t think you need to tell you who “won”. Kroger and the super stores.
For a long time, I’ve personally believed that most of what you really need to know could come as an easy answer to an obvious question if you just new who to ask. Kroger asked consumers, A&P didn’t. Don’t know what to wear? Ask Stacey and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not to Wear”. Got a job interview? Someone knows exactly how to impress your interviewer, be it a spouse or a co-worker or a secretary. Anyone on the “inside”, really. If you only knew who to ask.
And then this in particular… In 2nd-tier corner offices all over major downtown sectors, there are marketing VP’s straining their brains deep into the night trying to come up with the next great strategy to get you and I to shop with them instead of someone else. The thing is – you and I actually know what they’re trying so hard to figure out… If they’d only think to ask us instead of themselves.
As an aside, here, I can’t resist a rant just in case there are any of those marketing VP’s listening – so hey – how about a little customer service? You may think I need a slickly worded ad campaign about vitamin B1 infused this and that… But in truth, I’d gladly give ½ my soul and pay a 10% premium for retail staff that didn’t flee to the next isle whenever I looked like I had a question and might make a purchase… Wal Mart sells things cheap, but where do you go when you want things sold WELL? Or how about the customer service rep at a Canadian Tire store last week that made me wait at her till while she placed a personal call, then carefully counted a mountain of “funny money” and put it neatly in her tray before even beginning to consider the useless peon of a customer who dared interrupt her routine with a purchase… The only way there could have been more irony is if she would have done all this and THEN place a “Till Closed” sign in front of me. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Do you see what I’m saying? It’s hard for any of us to escape our perspective – unless we ask and listen for another point of view. I don’t want us to be a church that doesn’t ask. And I don’t want to be a church-nerd burning the midnight oil trying to come up with some slickly worded Sunday message that is too many steps removed from what you really need to hear. So, for the 6 weeks starting January 7, I want to let you ask the questions. It could take our Sunday’s past what just one or a few minds could do.
So… If you could hear a message on absolutely anything you like – anything in the world – what would it be? Consider the possibilities not just in terms of what this might mean for you, but also for the people you live and work beside. Why not ask them, too? And have you ever wanted something said to them – perhaps better than you could say it? Have you ever been asked something you didn’t know how to answer well? Let’s be a church that asks and listens.
As an example, here’s 2 of the few questions are already submitted: “What do we "do" with sincere, moral, seemingly "godly" people who do a better job at living than most Christians but who belong to another religion?” And, “What is deliverance and does it still happen today? And is that what we should all be trying for?”
Now let’s take this one step further and make the whole series available on CD for FREE in a fancy jacket so that even if you can’t get someone to come, you can still take the message to them. It’s just one more thing which could be like “menthos in the pop bottle”. Remember, it will be small steps actually taken which can lead to surprising outcomes over time. So hit reply, write your question and let it all begin.
Be the menthos!
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THE WALLS
Don't be distracted by them. Our podcast goes out to over 870 people per week, so clearly our church involves more than just those that show up on Sunday. Let's learn to think like that right from the start.
ASK!
Click reply to submit a question for the series starting January 7th.
LAST SUNDAY
A Global Warming sized truth about how you look at OTHER PEOPLE. Visit our website and tune into our podcast.
THIS SUNDAY
What are you turning your stuff into, what will matter most over time and what is the 76 year old you saying...
AGAIN, A NOTE OF THANKS
Part of the message prep involved a look back over the last year and it left me wanting to say thanks. Every single thing you do - even the samllest things - even just showig up - all go into the mix to make our beginning possible.
I ran across a quote I found particularly striking: "Sin is dysfunction. It is an unfulfilled promise birthed in the blinding heat of some initial flush of feeling, but then you wake up old and used and forgotten and useless. Sin is the pleasant tickle in our throat as we swallow poison."
