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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 i...
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How these people act says a lot about YOU!

Jacinda* was a woman we pastored years ago who decided to start a home group, without our blessing.  It was only without our blessing because of her character.  There were several other church sponsored home groups going that were quite successful, led by Godly leaders.  I won't go into all of Jacinda's issues - it would take an entire blog series so we'll just leave it that she had serious issues.

Jacinda claimed to be an intercessor.  She would talk about how close she was to the Lord, and said that God had called her to mentor the women of the church.

So if this was the case, why did the women she took under her wing seem to get worse?
  • After beginning to attend her group they would come to church less, not more.
  • When they did come to church their attitudes were not the same!
  • The more they went to her home, the more they pulled away from the pastors - becoming distant, and awkward in conversation when they would see them.
  • The longer they hung out with Jacinda, there was less and less of the fruit of the spirit in their lives.
  • They started to move away from the basics of our faith, almost thinking them to be irrelevant, while they focused on extra-biblical (flaky) things.
  • Rather than getting behind the pastor's vision for the church, they seemed to gravitate to whatever Jacinda had in mind

If you are a believer and you lead a group that you say is designed to grow others in Christ or help them in some way, keep in mind it should only:
  • Increase Godly attitudes 
  • Produce more fruit of the spirit 
  • Increase wisdom in people, not flakiness
  • Result in the people you lead coming to church more, not less
  • Encourage them in having greater respect for their pastors, not less
If these things aren't happening, examine closely what you are doing, for you may not be led of God at all and could be leading people to destruction and not Godly destiny.

We're quite a number of years removed from that pastorate now but as I look back on the fruit of Jacinda's efforts, it's sad.  Most of the women she invested in aren't serving God now.

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