Episode #171 Add Another Chair
If every encounter with another human being is sacred, why don’t we create opportunities for more of those encounters to take place? This week, Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Tyler Schwanz consider how to invite and include the stranger, acquaintance, and friend-of-a-friend.
Show Notes
When I say "family dinners," more often than not, there are people who are not my blood relatives that are there.Dr. Tyler Schwanz
Three Problems
- We can’t expand our influence if we fail to expand our circle of friends.
- Sometimes family dinners, activities, and vacations are so exclusive that we miss out on opportunities to bring together our closest friends.
- Insecurity breeds exclusivity, and a cloistered community is often not as close as we would like to believe.
Five Principles
- Every one of our best friends was once a stranger.
- We feel most fully alive when we are meaningfully connected to the people around us.
- The bigger our table, the more nuanced our perspectives.
- Adding another chair deepens our connections with those who are present.
- We are not wired to have a few close relationships but rather a community of friends.
Three Practices
- Take steps to ensure that your guest room, kitchen pantry, and dining room table are always prepared to accommodate an unexpected guest.
- Consider, “Who is one acquaintance or coworker I could invite into my circle of friends?”
- Ask each of your closest friends, “Do you have any best friends who I haven’t met?”
Related Dimensions
Related Episodes
Show Up Uninvited
Friendship requires intentionality, and sometimes intentionality can feel awkward. This week, Dr. Michael Brown and his daughter Lauren Thompson suggest a countercultural method to developing community and deepening connection.
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LT
Initiate With Strangers
All of the closest friends in our lives were once strangers. This week, Dr. Michael Brown chats with Casey Greenawalt about how we can take those first steps to developing new and exciting relationships with strangers.
Foster A Child
Most of us spend our lives running away from hard things. But what if we intentionally turned around to run toward something that is equal parts difficult and worthwhile? This week, Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Beau Johnson reflect on their journeys as foster parents of a collective twenty-eight children over the past twenty years.
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BJ