Skip to main content

What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve

Can we please talk about what we're FOR, not what we're AGAINST?



I have developed a habit of listening to preaching podcasts while I’m getting ready in the mornings. Every day I listen to a sermon on line. I listen to people preach who are famous, some not so famous, some who are personal friends. Some challenge me, some bring change to my life, some refresh me, and some flat out irritate me. Although I like to look at the positive, today I do want to mention what irritates me. Because truly, it’s the fact that some preachers do not focus on the positive! Negativity is my complaint.

Lately I’ve been listening to a preacher-acquaintance who has planted a church. He’s a great preacher and I enjoy listening to what he has to say, except for one thing. Each time he preaches, he casts a little vision for the church in each sermon. Now, I think that’s great. But the problem is the way in which he does that. Instead of talking about the positives of his church, he bashes everyone else “in comparison” to his new church. This is typically a paragraph out of every sermon he has preached for the past ten weeks. For anonymity’s sake, we will call his church “Northgate church” of Brooklyn, New York.

“Friends, when you come to Northgate church, you won’t find us serving up latte like some other churches. You’ll find us serving up the Holy Ghost! In fact, you won’t find a dead dried up atmosphere like the other churches in town. What you’ll find here at Northgate are people who are excited about Jesus! When people go to the other churches in Brooklyn, they’ll find people who don’t believe in healing anymore. But when you come to Northgate, you’ll find we aren’t like that. No, no! At Northgate, we’re not catering to people who just want to have a 20 minute sermon and run out the doors. Instead, we are committed to bring you the full counsel of God’s Word! You won’t just take your coffee and run like they do at the community church across town. We are committed to being different than all those other churches!”

I have listened to about ten of this pastor's recent sermons, and you probably wonder, “why?" Well the reason is, the pastor of this church IS a great preacher. Everything else he says minus the above paraphrased paragraph is mind-blowingly anointed. But each week you have to endure the negative paragraph about all these other churches. My thought is this…why couldn’t he just say:

“Friends, when you come to Northgate church, you’re going to experience the power of God! You’re going to find people who are excited about Jesus! You are going to find, there’s healing in the house! You’re going to hear God’s powerful, life changing Word! We are absolutely committed to you understanding God's Word and experiencing Him to the fullest!!!”

There…now isn’t that better? Same vision casting, minus the church bashing. My question is, why do people have to bash others in order to cast their vision? Simply state what you are FOR, not what you are AGAINST.

Incidentally, my own church, Northside, is remarkably what he describes his own church being. Although we do serve coffee, we also believe in healing, aren’t dead and dried up, bring the full counsel of God’s Word, and we certainly expect the Holy Ghost to show up. But I don’t need to bash somebody else for all that to happen. Just let the ministry speak for itself.

Why don’t I call this preacher and tell him this? Because it’s not my place to…he’s only a far away acquaintance (we’ve just met and shook hands a few times, we’re not really on a personal level where I would talk to him about something like that) but I hope God speaks to him about it. Because he’s one of the most dynamic preachers I’ve ever heard, and I would hate for something like this to turn anyone off from listening to him who doesn’t have the tenacity like I do to “take the meat – chuck the bone” and listen for his good points like I do.

Comments

Rich Tatum said…
Deanna, insightful comments.

I once attended a church in Texas during my college days where the pastor, in nearly every message, demonstrated how we, the church, did not measure up to the standard of the Word.

For the first several months, this "in-house" bashing was just below the threshold of my notice. But over time, I began to realize that while this pastor's messages were all brilliantly sound exegetically and theologically, they were all downers. I consistently left church feeling guilty, beat-down, and like a failure.

I thought I was alone in this impression until I asked one of my professors, who attended the church, his impression of this style of preaching, and he confirmed my view. Like you demonstrated with your excerpt above, he showed me how he "re-edits" the sermon in his head so it isn't so negative.

My impression is that the negative sermon is, by far, the easiest sermon for Bible college graduates and young preachers to deliver. When you see yourself as a hammer, everything — and everybody — is a nail-head waiting to be pounded.

For those who are mature, I believe, they grow past that and try to find ways to challenge the church through encouragement and gentleness, using the rod when necessary, but relying on the staff more.

I know that with my own children, the easiest thing to do is yell at them for their failures. If I want my kids to flourish, I have to go beyond that and praise them for their success and give them a vision for doing better, not fill their heads with nightmares of doing poorly.

It's a lesson more preachers could learn, too.

Rich
BlogRodent
Thank you Rich...appreciate you reading and taking time to comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Some people will never understand this...

And that's okay. Just let us be as we lavish love upon the fur-kids of the world. It doesn't mean we don't care about people. We do care. In fact most of the people I know who are great pet lovers are also the greatest philanthropists. If you're not a dog lover, you might not understand the overwhelming intensity that many of us felt about Tank's reunion this past week. You might think we've lost our marbles. That's okay, we think you've lost your heart. ;)  Before I go on with this post, let me say that we were delighted that CBS 10 posted the video and article about Tank and his Celebration Church reunion yesterday. Click here to watch it. (But then come back!) If you haven't realized it, there is a revolution in America about dogs. Dogs have always been loved and known as the most loyal companions ~ "man's best friend". But things have gone way beyond this. Dogs aren't just dogs or friends anymore. They are family me

Fifty Shades of No Way

This weekend, the Fifty Shades of Grey movie will be released and millions of women are expected to flock to the theat er s.  I will not be one of those women.   As a leader of women , some have asked me about this movie. The following is my thoughtful response. Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world. The book series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, and been translated into 52 languages. It set the record as the fastest-selling paperback of all time.   Is Fifty Shades of Grey just a harmless book or movie? Although n o one seems to be debating this fact, let’s first establish that it’s pornography.  And not just porn, but a genre that is even more dangerous for women. The book glorifies a female character that is controlled and abused by her partner.   Who is excited about this book and mov ie? Hmmmm….you might be surprised. Many women and girls in our churches have read it. Sadly, I am even aware of

Relevant Church doing something...

incredibly RELEVANT!

I just heard some news today that really inspired me. A church here in Tampa, Relevant Church is doing a new thing this month called the "30 Days Sex Challenge." (I've never visited the church but Pastor Trinity - our children's pastor - has visited or has met some people from this church and he was very impressed.) Realizing that this is a major element missing from some marriages (the frequency factor) their lead pastor, Paul Wirth, has issued a challenge for all the married couples to have sex for 30 days in a row. At the same time he has issued a challenge for all unmarrieds to completely abstain from sex. Of course we know the Bible says that those who are unmarried should not have sex in the first place but the point is, a lot of unmarried's aren't obeying the Lord's command to abstain and this is just one pastor's way of trying to get them to see that indeed, there is a better way! (God's way!) At the same time, many married couples are not