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 i...
My friend, Pastor Leanne Weber, (who serves as an A/G children's pastor in Wisconsin) has an excellent and thought provoking post today about why people call evangelists (whether famous or not) "pastor" when they refer to them from the pulpit or as they address them in person or whatever. (And how much it irritates her!) I agreed completely with her. The person that God has ordained to set the pace for the church are the senior pastors, and that's that -not anyone else, and certainly not somebody on TV.
I know it has really irritated me when I advise someone in the church and they ignore my counsel and tell me they heard this or that on Joyce Meyer and this is the direction they are heading. (Joyce is a great example because, I'm 100% crazy about her. She's honestly never said something I've ever disagreed with, yet. I believe she's an incredibly wise and anointed woman.) But the reality of it is, she's not the pastor of our church - my husband and I fulfill that role and when we speak into someone's life, we do so knowing them personally and the background of their situation.
One time a woman in the church came to me for advice and knowing her situation fully, I spoke into her life and gave her biblical guidance. According to scripture and what was going on in her household, she definitely SHOULD NOT have done the thing she wanted to do. Well, a few days later she was watching Joyce Meyer and I don't know what Joyce was talking about but she pointed to the camera and said, "someone out there needs to hear this...go forth and take a step and do that which you are feeling led to do..." and this woman in my church took that as "a word" or a confirmation for them. Of course Joyce Meyer never intended that, and had absolutely nothing to do with the woman's situation. But it really irritated me so I told the woman, "the next time you have a problem...give Joyce a call." It will be interesting to see just how soon Joyce Meyer returns her call. Of course she won't because she knows her calling well - she's an evangelist and not a pastor nor does she refer to herself as one.
Whether people refer to what TD Jakes said, (crazy about him too!), Joyce Meyer, or some visiting local speaker said, and decide to poo-poo or disrespect my exhortation to them in favor of going with what they read in some book or saw on TV, it's just inappropriate and disrespectful. Read Leanne's post here. Good word. It was so thought provoking to me I decided to share it with all of you who read my blog.
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