You were bought at a price. 1 Corinthians 7.23 What is the value of the difficult people in your life? You might say, they have no value, they’re a liability. While they might feel like a liability, they definitely have value. Maybe its not value you have placed on them, but they have […]
Category: Communication
Dealing with difficult people is a critical consideration throughout life, from nursery school to the nursing home. But it doesn’t seem to get that much attention and often we just find ourselves in the middle of a difficult situation unprepared to deal with it effectively. I know from my own experience, that being Pastor […]
Difficult people are all around you. They’re all around me too. And we know them in the very many ways they present themselves to us. the self-centered, self promoting, self aggrandizing narcissist who needs it to be all about him every singe time the sour and stern critic, whose only contribution to any situation or […]
All this weekend I hung out in the Cafe, since I wasn’t preaching. I especially enjoyed meeting new members and new comers and hearing about how they came to us. Over and over again, the number one reason I hear is “the message.” I spoke to two different families this morning who drive a considerable […]
I was thinking today about how healthy and mature our congregation is becoming. I know, I know, that sounds self-congratulatory and prideful. But I think on Father’s Day its OK to be a little proud of the family. No kidding, this is the most mature and healthy Church community I have ever been part of […]
Today we come to the end of our current message series, which is also the final series of our 2009-2010 season. It was a great year of learning and growth for me and hopefully for the church as well. Drive was the perfect kick off to the year, because it provided a clear, simple […]
This past week our staff went to the beach (Avalon) for our annual planning retreat. We made great progress in defining some of what next year (September 2010-May 2011) is going to look like: message series, children’s and student programs, major events, etc. We also discussed new structures for our work together. Until recently we […]
Here’s the rest of my list: Mistake #6: Trying to Fix Problems…rather than Process. Unfortunately, there have been too many times when I have found myself reacting to a problem rather than addressing the process that led to the situation in the first place. It takes a lot of discipline to rise above the […]
Yesterday morning we meet with our Strategic Planning Leadership Team. Each of these team members in turn lead a team of people looking at campus and buildings, finances, human resources, technology and a category we’ve been calling “teaching church.” As I learned in the course of the meeting, these teams are doing a […]
Most of my experience of church growing up was boring. I realize that some of that was due to my spiritual immaturity, but the experiences were still boring: not aggressively bad, but hardly good, hardly ever well done, rarely joyous or challenging, just boring. Unfortunately, my experience is in no way exceptional. Church should not […]