The Power of Finding and Connecting Marketplace “Smiling Icons”
Watching God Resurrect an Empty Business Center Into an Award-Winning Community Connection Center
Could it happen in Cincinnati as well?
I was on the shores of Malta with the apostle Paul (Acts 28). That is, metaphorically.
A lifelong ministry effort had taken a sudden turn I didn’t expect. It had made shipwreck. Like Paul, I found myself on the shore of Malta picking up sticks, waiting for God to show me my next steps.[1]
I found myself in a lawyer’s office wrangling out some legal issues that had arisen. While there, I got an unexpected phone call.
“Pastor Jim,” a rather heartfelt charismatic Christian acquaintance said, “The Holy Spirit told me to call you. He told me to tell you you’re supposed to call this lady about a building she owns that you’re supposed to go see.”
That week was so crazy. I figured anything that came up like this was a direction from God.
“Ok,” I said. “I’ll call her.”
That very moment, I did. A friendly professional voice answered. We set up a time for an appointment for the very next evening. Less than twenty-four hours later, the owner was giving me a tour of the 44,000-square-foot facility surrounded by 10 beautifully landscaped acres. By the time this visit was over, she and I had knelt and prayed together. A new relationship emerged between me and this wonderful sister in Christ.
Without realizing it at the time, two “Smiling Icons” had met and connected.
An award-winning community connecting center was born---with the Trinitarian life of God as its very heartbeat.
The Tipp Center – “Connecting Business, Community and Entrepreneurs”
The building is called the Tipp Center. Its slogan is “connecting business, community, and entrepreneurs.”* This owner not only leases business space for non-profits and for-profits but also graciously shares the facility as a “connection center” of sorts for a variety of community initiatives. It’s become a regional civic and cultural center. And was just awarded the Small Business of the Year by the Tipp City Chamber of Commerce. Here’s what Tipp City Chamber Executive Director says about it:
“I've attended many events she has hosted in my almost two years in Tipp City. She has made it clear through her advertising that she wants to promote this community. Her generosity reaches local organizations such as Veteran events and Tipp City Community Band, to name a few . . .in an effort to benefit the community.
Her vision to bring business to Tipp City has been in my opinion her priority. If the city thrives, then so do the businesses. She managed to make it through the closure of Covid and reinvent her space not for just events but with permanent and temporary fully equipped office space. . .
Her foresight, business expertise, and promotion of Tipp City make her a strong candidate for Small Business of the Year.”
The T.I.P.P Center – The Trinitarian Incarnation Practice and Proclamation Center
Owner Sheila Ingram takes no credit for the impact of the Center. She gives all the credit to the Lord. She has come to embody what I call the “Smiling Icon” approach to Marketplace Ministry.[2]
In a few words, this is the approach.
1. All are created to be “icons” (Greek “eikon”) images of God (Genesis 1:26).
2. “Free God WIFI” (the Holy Spirit) has now because of Christ fallen upon all flesh (Acts 2:16).
3. When two or more “Smiling Icons” --- image bearers that have not only received the Spirit but live more often than not full of the Spirit---come together, the sphere around them becomes blessed in an outflow of the Spirit that emanates from them.
4. Building owners and staff who are full of the Holy Spirit can become “Holy Spirit Hot Spots.”
5. The secular water of the very money-oriented commercial world becomes the “wine” of God’s Spirit---and spreads the Kingdom of God shoulder to shoulder in the Marketplace.
How did God enable all this to come to be, and how can we spread this Marketplace “Smiling Icon” success elsewhere?
This year, we’re going to put on our God-fingerprint sighting eyeglasses. We’re going look back a bit so we can see how all this came together and led to where we are today. Hopefully, we’ll learn how to spread more Smiling Icons and more Smiling Icon success stories in the Marketplace elsewhere.
Joseph was one. Daniel was one. Sheila Ingram is one.
I bet you can be too, if you’re willing to become an “in-focus” Smiling Icon, become a marketplace shepherd, and spread the lifestyle to others as well.
What had been a dead, empty building has experienced a resurrection of sorts. It’s become a thriving place of conneXion and convergence and of sharing the Trinitarian life of God in the marketplace.
Some say the incarnation of Christ was not meant to be a one time event, but He was to incarnate in many faces and many places over and over again until His Kingdom comes.
Maybe that’s true of the resurrection as well! Maybe AWOP “Smiling Icons” can resurrect old dead buildings and bring them to life as connection centers for the Kingdom of God.
After all, in Him, all things are possible.
And it is almost Easter!
See more at smilingicon.com
[1] You can see the fuller story about this in my book, The Christian in the Cult: And How I Discovered Humanity in Christ