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

Lessons from Kathryn:
Knock "should" out of your vocabulary

How do you know what anyone should or shouldn't do?  The answer is, with the exception of few things, you don't.

I have written a series here on the blog, "Lessons from Kathryn".  She's the person who has served as my manager at NextJob for most of my employment there, and that recently changed within the last few weeks.  She is still at the company however she has been promoted to a  new position.  While she is no longer my day to day manager, we still talk on a constant basis.  Her value in my life is not limited to positional authority and I am still in close relationship and learning from her whether she is overseeing me or not.  I think we've actually talked more since she's not my manager than we did before!  Incidentally, I am also in very good relationship with my new manager, Tina, who was responsible for bringing me to the company in the first place and is a great manager and leader to learn from as well.

There's something Kathryn taught me a long time ago that I'm just starting to realize the full value in now.  We haven't even talked about this in months but our prior conversation is now bubbling to the surface and I'm applying it to my life.

Kathryn told me that should is the weakest motivational word ever and needs to be avoided whenever possible.  For instance, think about this...if you say, "I should do the dishes..." how powerful is that?  Not very.  Many times when I say that I don't end up doing them!  Now think about this -- if you say, "I will do the dishes" or "I am doing the dishes"...how powerful is that?  Incredibly.  You'll more than likely get them done. Self talk is very powerful and just a slight change in wording makes all the difference.

There are also shoulds that can be very judgmental.  Due to my core values and belief system based upon the Bible, I believe  a few shoulds are approriate but incredibly limited.  The shoulds in my life are limited to what Jesus actually told me to do.  This is where Kathryn and I part ways in thinking on this, I'm sure, as we are different in some of our faith beliefs.  I believe commands in the scripture are the appropriate "shoulds". Things Jesus commanded me to do (like love or pursuing holiness or purity) are not maybe's, or up for discussion.  However, anything else varies from person to person and needs to be between them and God.  I've had to make some changes in this regard in the way I judge others and I have to let others judgment of me roll off. What do I mean by this?  Well, here are some examples:

"You should keep a clean house.  Cleanliness is next to godliness."  (You don't find that in the scriptures, it's just old wives tale wisdom, but anyway...)  It is a good thing to keep a clean house?  Sure.  But Everyone can't to the same level of ability and people have different struggles and needs.  This is an example of  inappropriate and unrealistic "should".   Right now certain things in my house are an absolute mess but my physical and emotional needs are more important than taking care of those issues.

"You should answer all of your personal e-mails within 24 hours."  This is a lofty goal but some days it has almost emotionally and physically killed me.  I get about 300 emails a day between all of my jobs.  I try my best but sometimes I just don't them all turned around in 24 hours.  It's a nice goal but I don't put answering my e-mail up there with not committing adultery.

"You should go to people's special events when invited, to show your support."  This is also a nice goal but when you pastor a church of several hundred people you also get invited to an amazing array of birthday parties, anniversaries, baby showers, wedding showers, etc.  If I did all of these I would never get a free moment to breathe.  Jesus did tell me to love my neighbor but he didn't say, "this mean you go to 100 birthday parties a year."

"Shoulds" when placed in inappropriate places and sentences bring undue stress, and even judgment.  I believe in my personal case, I've even experienced physical sickness because I focused on "should's".  It would be helpful to decrease the shoulds from our vocabularies.  While Kathryn has taken it entirely out of hers, I still can't manage to go that far as a believer but other than the shoulds that Jesus placed in my life I'm working on living a relatively should-free life. 

Thanks Kathryn, for another great lesson.  I'll always be learning from you.

Comments

Ha! I just blogged about a should! I should blog everyday but that's not going to happen! I explain why in the blog! Great post and quite reaffirming! Thanks PD!
Thank you so much Pastor Lisa! I didn't realize you had blogged about this today too...honestly! Great minds think alike. I am moving slow today due to several issues and have just been laying here on the bed with Max. I will go read your post now. Love you

Popular posts from this blog

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

What Verbal Abuse is Really Like, and Why We Must Care
Guest Post: Terri von Wood

In my speaking travels, I meet the most amazing people. Some are connections that go beyond just a night or a weekend of preac hing. One day on my journey, I met Terri von Wood, and we immediately clicked and have been friends ever since.  Just a reminder that all of our guest bloggers this week are available to chat with you in the comment section here on the blog or on my facebook page where the blog is also published.   *** People who have never suffered through or witnessed abuse (including pastors) often don't know how to help women in abusive situations. Knowledge is power and it is my belief that if the church understood the prevalence of abuse, help would be made available.  First, we must acknowledge that the divorce rate is the same  in the church as in the world.  Second, we must understand that the 50% divorce rate does not include all the women who are abused but stay because they do not know what else to do or do not have anyone to turn to.  If those women we

Excellent teaching on Criticism

My friend Pastor Leanne posted this today on her Myspace blog and I thought it was excellent and so timely. It's a blog post from Pastor Perry Noble , about criticism. I think it's perfect for the pastors at Relevant Church right now, as well as any other person going through this. I would like to note that when he says, "when God begins to move" it wouldn't necessarily just pertain to your church but to your life, your family, your marriage, anything that concerns you. I have found that the greater God does things in my life and the more He blessed me the more I should expect it. This teaching is good, so good I was almost wavin' a hanky in my office. Okay, here we go... You Will Be Criticized When God Begins To Move–Expect It And Get Over It. (Pastor Perry Noble at http://www.perrynoble.com/ ) I've never met a devil worshiper–to my knowledge that is. When I first became a Christian I was convinced that I needed to do all that I could to be ready to comba