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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

How my day went yesterday


I was too exhausted to blog last night so here I am this morning. (You know I was really tired if I'm too tired to blog!) I went to sleep early.


Yesterday (Sunday) morning I preached my "Ornament" message. It went well, I believe. The best thing that happened for me was this...after service I was greeting visitors in the hospitality room. Marcus Danielson came in and gave me a hug. This is standard for him - as he always finds me after church to hug me. But today his eyes were damp from crying and he was still sniffling a little bit. I thought perhaps this was because he had a rough morning in Sunday School, thus the reason he was sitting with his mother in the morning worship service instead of being in children's church. But such was not the case. His Mom, Michele, (pictured with him, below) told me that all during my closing prayer at the end of the message (when I was praying for the congregation to be the kind of "ornament" that God has called them to be) he was crying. She asked him if he was okay. He said, "Yes, I just feel Jesus. I just want to be with Jesus." You know what they say..."and a child shall lead them..." Oh if everyone were just like children in this regard...had the heart of a child. How long has it been since you wept as your pastor closed the service in prayer, just because you felt the spirit of the Lord and wanted so much to "be with Jesus?"


We went to the Rivera's yesterday after church for lunch. It was so yummy. They are wonderful hosts. I was so exhausted, however, that I fell asleep after lunch. Candy just covered me with a blanket and let me sleep. :-) Thank the Lord for understanding parishoners! I woke up and Candy had made brownies and hot tea. What a perfect afternoon (SMILE) Everyone was watching a Christian comedian, I believe his name was Steve Harvey. He was SO funny. I must get this DVD. I only heard about 10 minutes of it before we had to leave for church but it was so good.


I know I fell asleep at the drop of a hat yesterday because I really haven't gotten a real break for a while - even my days off lately have had elements of working as I've had special events to prepare for, cook for, etc. and also dealing with the Christmas frenzy, plus having some additional work on me as I've mentioned in some of my posts. No, I'm not whining here, just stating facts. There are some friends of mine going through the same thing right now and my heart is especially attuned to pray for them right now because I feel like I understand and can uplift them with a heart of understanding the place in which they are walking right now.


Last night was also our children's Christmas concert at the church. The kids were cute - did a good job. Savanna is growing so much. She's the tallest one in the children's church. Last night Pastor T had all the kids share what their favorite thing of Christmas is. When it was Savanna's turn to come to the microphone and share hers, she said, "My favorite thing about Christmas is that my Mom makes sweet rolls on Christmas morning." (SMILE)


We stayed for reception afterwards at the church - cookies and punch reception - and then came home and had the Currie's over for a while. They enjoyed my cream of crab soup that I had left from the life coaching lunch. We had good conversation as usual. Thank you Lord, for friends...friends who understand. This is one of God's greatest gifts, along with children who, when their pastor prays, cry because the "feel Jesus and just want to be with Him."

Moments like this make pastoring worth it all.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You'll get no arguments there from the children's pastor :o). That's awesome!!!
Tara Sloan said…
How about sharing that sweet roll recipe!? :)
Steve Harvey is hillarious. Glad you enjoyed him. He does a bit called "Bringing out Jesus" it is awesome. I think you can catch on You Tube. I know his recent stuff is very clean.
Tara, I did a post with the sweet roll recipe a while back. You can find it at http://lifetimeintimateportraitds.blogspot.com/2006/11/sweet-breakfast-rolls.html.

Enjoy! Love you

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