Go Outside with Alton Lee Webb

In spite of not knowing exactly what’s coming in our next season of life, let’s center ourselves in the security of who Jesus is and what He has done. Let's join Him where the action is.

Episode Highlights

0:00 Have you noticed curiosity and times of transition tend to go hand-in-hand? I share a passage of Scripture we can cling to in times of new growth and change

1:16 How curiosity is leading to a change in Rachel’s and my life right now

1:54 “I wasn’t trained in it, and I didn’t see it on my horizon.” What I remember most about making the decision to plant Christ Community Church in Shelbyville ten years ago

3:38 What happened when Going Outside seeped into my family life and my career

4:27 “It was self-therapy.” How a “horrible manuscript” exploring the Go Outside lifestyle became a published book and podcast series

5:38 What do we believe about Jesus again? How Jesus’ actions on earth author and sustain our next steps

6:44 So where are we, and what’s next? I share my gratitude and hopes for this podcast and the Go Outside journey

Are you curious about discovering how to use your unique gifts to share Christ with your local community but struggling with the fear of leaving the safety of the sidelines?

Welcome to Curious, a five-part series of conversations inviting all tired Christians to rediscover and reclaim their God-given gift of curiosity.

In this episode, Rob Perez, owner of DV8 Kitchen and Saul Good restaurants, shares why he’s glad they didn’t wait until they had it all figured out before Going Outside and starting their social enterprise. Now with over 20 employees in early stages of drug and alcohol recovery, Rob gets real about the hard balance of loving people and making a profit in business -- and what makes the risk so worth it.

Episode Highlights

0:00 How curiosity led Rob Perez to start a business designed to “invest in recovery”

0:18 “It’s been bad on the pocketbook but the most rewarding experience my wife and I have ever had.” Rob shares how the mission behind DV8 Kitchen first came about

2:42 “I didn’t bring Christ to work with me at all.” Where Rob was spiritually when his wife suggested they take on this social enterprise

3:45 Can we love people and be profitable? Lee and Rob get practical about how to balance and sustain a social enterprise

6:31 The three “bottom line” questions Rob’s team asks themselves every week to keep them focused on what matters most

7:33 What Rob realized was wrong about their financial model when he first “put his hands in the dough”

10:14 Rob and Lee call out a faulty philosophy: you don’t have to have all the details figured out before you Go Outside!

12:29 “I’m not positive I’m doing the right thing.” Rob gets real about the paychecks, tough choices, and hard conversations necessary to keep DV8 going

16:07 Rob’s encouragement to anyone who feels a tug to Go Outside but doesn’t know where to start

18:23 Calling all cinnamon roll lovers… What DV8 Kitchen has in the works for starting a new bakery

Episode Resources

DV8 Kitchen - https://dv8kitchen.com/

Saul Good Restaurant & Pub - http://saulgoodpub.com/

On giving people a second chance - https://www.thefix.com/restaurant-gives-second-chances-people-recovery-gets-rave-reviews

When was the last time you asked someone more experienced, “What advice would you give me?”

Welcome to Curious, a five-part series that invites all tired Christians to rediscover and reclaim their God-given gift of curiosity.

In this episode, I share something inspired by a conversation I had with several college students, hungry to learn more. Tune in to hear the top 20 lessons I’ve cultivated after 20 years in business. You’ll leave challenged to ask others what God has taught them through their work -- and to share your own experience with others as well.

Episode Highlights

0:00 The question I was asked by curious college students that inspired this episode: what advice do you have after being in business for 20 years?

1:33 One opportunity you have once everyday

1:58 Be distinct (and how it’s paid off for me)

2:42 Be fluid (and some Scripture to help you stay open to the unexpected)

2:48 It’s not all about us looking good.

4:34 “Owner absenteeism doesn’t work, but persistence does.”

4:52 Develop a system (and what my workflow looks like)

5:33 I share the friend who inspired #9: Drive a different way home

6:13 “Almost everything can wait one night.”

7:25 One way you can help people decide if they want to join in on your vision

7:44 Big opportunities are the same as small opportunities.

8:49 “When the time comes to take a big risk, you’ll be ready.” Why it’s best to stay low

9:20 Are you using your gifts to help others?

9:38 What I do every day before leaving the office

What if I told you that reading well could actually help make you a better steward of language on Twitter?

Welcome to Curious, a five-part series of conversations inviting all tired Christians to rediscover and reclaim their God-given gift of curiosity.

In this continuation of Episode 1, I’m joined by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well, to talk about how being curious in reading literature is necessary preparation for navigating our culture of polarized thinking. Dr. Prior reminds us that Christians are “people of the Word” and that as Outsiders, we have the responsibility to own and steward the language we speak, type, and interpret every day.

Episode Highlights

0:00 Reading as a virtue? I set us up for Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Karen Prior

0:25 My reactions to what The Great Gatsby teaches on the virtue of temperance, as discussed in On Reading Well

1:57 “On Twitter, you have become a target for extremists on both sides.” Dr. Prior explains why studying virtue through literature equips her for navigating our polarized culture

3:31 “When we try to avoid one error that we should avoid, we swing to the opposite side and commit another error.” Dr. Prior on what she’s observed from extreme stance-taking in both the classroom and the church

5:54 What allegory and Pilgrim’s Progress has to teach us about the language we use (and interpret) on social media

9:36 Why I believe Dr. Prior’s theory on virtue in literature is a framework for faith leaders everywhere

10:40 You could call us modern-day monks. Why Dr. Prior says it’s the responsibility of Christians, the people of the Word, to preserve literacy in our decaying world

13:15 Where you can find Dr. Prior and how you can contribute to the Reading Well movement

14:30 Now it’s Dr. Prior’s turn: her question for me about reading and writing

Episode Resources

Part One of this episode

On Reading Well

Dr. Prior’s Twitter

Dr. Prior’s Speaking Engagement Schedule

The Great Gatsby

A Tale of Two Cities

Pilgrim’s Progress

The Outsiders

What if I told you that you could live counter-culturally today just by reading extra slowly?

We’ve all heard that leaders are readers, but nobody actually enjoys plunging through a long checklist of titles as fast as they can.

Outsiders, we need a new approach. It’s time to slow down and be curious again.

Welcome to Curiosity, a series of five conversations that explore the recovery and rediscovery of our curiosity, the God-given fuel behind Go Outside. In Part 1 of this first episode, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, the author of one of my favorite books, On Reading Well, is here to help us rethink how and why we read. Together, Karen and I explain how reading well is a straight-out rebellion against our fast-paced culture but also a deeply rewarding virtue that slows us down, opens us up to notice, and makes us powerful stewards of language.

Episode Highlights

0:00 Would you call yourself curious? Why curiosity is foundational for Go Outside

0:40 Any bookworms tuning in? I share my latest curiosity: literature (and introduce a guest who’s got quite the appetite for reading herself!)

1:10 “I don’t think most people dare to go that far.” Dr. Prior’s response after I asks about the most important thing we have in common

3:25 A week-in-the-life: Dr. Prior talks her chaotic schedule of traveling, teaching, and living in rural Virginia

5:50 The story behind how Dr. Prior’s book ended up in my hands

9:21 Do you also struggle to enjoy reading in our fast-paced world? Dr. Prior talks about the time, patience, and attention it takes to read well

11:10 “Reading good literature is a radical, rebellious act against our culture.” What Dr. Prior says a counter-cultural mindset towards reading should look like and feel like

13:31 Reading is a virtue? Dr. Prior gives us a refresher on what it means to live in tension between having too much and not enough

17:00 Karen Prior shares her 4 favorite virtues (as of today, at least)

18:55 The young adult novel that inspired both me and Dr. Prior

20:45 Christians should read more than self-help books? Dr. Prior explains why she chose the books she did for her top 100 reading list

Resources

- On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior

- Karen Swallow Prior on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ksprior

- Her website: www.karenswallowprior.com

- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

- The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

To find people who are well-acquainted with operating in life’s messy gray-area, we need to look no further than the dedicated men and women of our educational system. In this episode of Operating in the Gray, I invite Kentucky educators Tina Tipton and Artavia Acklin to share their experience in navigating how to be God’s light in the classroom. Whether you’re an educator yourself or not, every Outsider will benefit from hearing how these two women came to recognize teaching as a ministry and how we too can live out God’s love, even when we’re operating in the gray.

Episode Highlights

0:08 - How do we operate in the gray in the classroom? Welcome educators Tina Tipton and Mrs. Artavia Acklin

1:40 - Impact over income: why Mrs. Acklin chose to come back and teach in her small hometown

3:49 - Flashback to 1968! What 50 years has taught Tipton about teaching as a passion (and how its ministry goes hand-in-hand with Going Outside)

5:08 - “I just want the babies at school and to know that they’re safe.” How God called Mrs. Acklin and her staff to step out and extend love to immigrant families

8:40 - From tradition to technology: the one thing that Tipton says hasn’t changed in education since the sixties

10:50 - What inspired Lee the most about his conversation with Tipton

11:39 - Want some wisdom? What Mrs. Acklin and Tipton want to tell you about operating in the gray

Every couple of months a group of Christian businessmen and leaders get together for something called “The Lunch.”

It’s an informal gathering where someone shares about the ups and downs of operating in the business world, and how they navigate the gray areas. From real failures, like bankruptcy and family problems, to successes, like acquisitions and IPOs, the lunch is a safe place for these men to come together and talk about real life.

Find out how it got started, why you can start something similar where you live, and what makes this different from any other “networking” event you’ve ever been to.

0:11 - What happens at the informal meeting called “The Lunch”

0:40 - How “The Lunch” started, and why

1:39 - The 3 key elements that make this gathering different from other networking groups

3:41 - How the term “netweaving” is different from “networking”

5:53 - The connection between generations that is hard to find somewhere else

8:04 - The mindset that allowed the lunch to flourish with a “hands-off” approach from the leaders

9:23 - Why Lee keeps coming to the lunch, even though it’s 45 minutes away

11:10 - The scripture that motivates Ryan Hilliard to connect people to each other

12:20 - The plan Jesus modeled regarding mentoring and leadership

The older I get, the more I realize that for some of the big questions in life there’s not always a clear right or wrong answer. There are degrees to each answer, so much so that the answer looks gray, instead of a simple black or white.

For this 6-part series, called Operating in the Gray, you’ll hear from leaders in all different kinds of occupations, from education and non-profit, to business and entertainment. The guests share how they’ve responded in situations that don’t have clear-cut, black and white answers, when the answer is found somewhere in the middle of right and wrong.

When have you found yourself in a situation that didn’t have an easy answer? How did you respond?

You’ll be encouraged as you walk through those questions and listen to others who are doing it alongside you.

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Episode Highlights

0:11 - When small business owners get stuck; what difference-makers ask themselves when things don’t go as planned

1:07 - How do we keep moving forward as God’s light in a chaotic world? (and who he’s inviting to help tackle that question)

2:08 - Why you should tune into Operating in the Gray (and how it will help you apply the Gospel into your life)

What does it take to leave a lucrative career and start loving people in a completely foreign world? How does a willingness to follow God lead us outside of conventions, so much so that strip club owners become friends?

In this interview, my wife, Rachel, sits down to answer those questions with Rachelle Starr, the founder of Scarlet’s Hope and Scarlet’s Bakery. Over the past ten years, Rachelle has followed God outside the gates to love those who society says are unlovable and to give a sense of worth to those who society says are worthless.

Listen to this inspiring story of what happens when we abandon what we want and pursue what God wants.

Episode Highlights

00:51 - How Rachelle learned to love people different from her

3:06 - The moment Rachelle was called to work with women in the sex industry (and her husband’s response)

4:23 - When churches didn’t step up, God stepped in

5:10 - What God told Rachelle that pushed her out of her comfort zone and into His will

7:02 - A woman’s response to Rachelle’s offer of a home-cooked meal

10:54 - The factors that contribute to women entering the sex industry

12:47 - What led to Rachelle quitting her successful career in marketing and starting Scarlet’s Hope

19:45 - How the bakery (Scarlet’s Bakery) serves the women of Scarlet’s Hope

23:20 - The one habit that helps transition the women from working in the club at night to working in the bakery during the day

25:36 - Teams in over 120 cities have been trained to reach women in the sex industry

25:01 - How you can get involved with Scarlet’s Hope

27:36 - The truth about why the sex industry exists

29:38 - The woman from the club who inspired the name “Scarlet’s Hope”

The performing arts world is known for being difficult to live in as a follower of Christ. From deciding what shows to audition for to interacting with your co-workers to balancing family, there are plenty of situations that don’t have a clear black and white answer.

That’s where Darian Sanders comes in. He’s a husband, father, cabaret performer, pastor and worship leader. With all of those responsibilities, he is constantly operating in the gray and has come on the show to share how he lives in all of those tensions.

Episode Highlights

1:15 - What song Darian has performed the most (and who he performed in front of)

3:19 - How Darian become involved in singing (even though he played the trumpet)

6:21 - How Darian balances working on staff as a church with a calling to Go Outside

7:47 - The musical theater’s response to Darian having a family and being a minister

9:40 - Peanut butter, the University of Kentucky, and the Gospel

10:54 - What led Darian to give up a full-ride scholarship to the University of Kentucky

17:52 - What a woman said to Darian after his performance that provided much-needed confirmation

20:05 - Darian’s encouragement for you: “It’s not arrogant, but it’s authorized.”

25:20 - About Darian’s family and how he and his wife have decided to live their life