Dr. Earl Creps is author of Off Road Discipline: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders and Reverse Mentoring: How Young Leaders Can Transform the Church and Why We Should Let Them, both in the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series.

Leading Ideas Stock photo of a latte in which the foam art is a question mark

As I sat tapping on my computer keyboard in a Midwestern Starbucks, an unexpected event unfolded nearby. A manager sporting a green apron sat down…