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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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Pastors are not omnipresent...

But it sure would be nice if we were at times like this. Yesterday Larry and I went out of town to do the wedding of Nick and Normandy, a very special couple from Celebration .   Last evening was the rehearsal and dinner, (at the Palm Tree Grille -- which was lovely!) and today is the wedding. Late last evening we got a call that Donna, one of our church members at Celebration, was hit by a car.   She was walking across a busy street and was hit at full impact and has sustained very serious injuries.  Doctors had not given a good report AT ALL and it was touch and go.  We activated the prayer chain and facebook messages last night and we received reports through the night.  As of 4 am this morning, we have found out that she has received blood transfusions for the loss of blood she sustained, has a "nick" on her kidney and liver, multiple severe bruises and lacerations.  And...SHE'S ALIVE AND ON THE MEND AND IN ICU!!!...
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Front row seat

Yesterday I did a live radio interview with  WSRX 89.5 Praise FM , in Naples. ( I'm going to speak there in Naples next week at Parkway Life Church for Motivated by Love Ministr ies and they were doing a promotional interview for that.)  During the interview the host, Sheila Zellers, asked me about my role as co-pastor.   I answered that I consider myself so honored to be the Momma of Celebration Church and what a blessing it is to have a front row seat in people’s lives! Larry and I see ourselves more than just full time pastors who are doing a “job” – we are spiritual parents to a family of amazing people.  One of the joys in pastoring is having the front row seat with people on the special occasions in their lives like their wedding day and baby dedications.  (Hopefully in that order...ha ha!)  Right after the radio interview yesterday I had the privilege of planning a baby dedication with one o...
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Things I'm wondering

1)  Why doesn't someone on the AI staff get ahold of Crystal Bowersox and give her a hair makeover?  I am crazy about her voice, but the hair...I'm just sayin'. 2)  Is anyone really surprised about who was voted off last night?   (I won't print the name here in case any of you AI fans have it tivo'd  and didn't watch yet.) 3)  Why can't chocolate be less calories than lettuce? 4)  Why did anyone in Tampa complain about the cold weather this past year?  After my clothes sticking to me several times yesterday and fanning myself in church, I was totally ready to go back to wearing my thick socks and sweatshirts and sitting on the patio in front of the fireplace. 5)  Why can't more places be dog-friendly?  I was wondering exactly where they can go and found this great site.  Would you believe it lists scores of restaurants where you can take your dogs?  Amazing!  We take Max and Maddie to Bru...
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The lie of sticks and stones

"I see absolutely nothing good in you!  There's NOTHING good about you AT ALL!!!"   This was said angrily through gritted teeth by one of my children's teachers at a former church when they were about seven or eight years old.  My child came out of their classroom crying that Wednesday night and told my husband and I what had happened.  Although I could sense that the sobs and anguish were not fake, I determined to investigate before passing judgment.  After all, sometimes kids can come home from school or church bearing tales and they aren't exactly always what they seem.  I very calmly went to ask the teacher about what had taken place, and get their version of the story.  Immediately before I even told them what my child had said, they were very upset and apologized profusely saying, "Pastor Deanna, I'm so sorry.  I did a terrible thing.  Please forgive me.  I was overcome with anger and frustration in the...
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Afraid to purge...

"God will use everything to remove anything that will keep the prophetic word given to us from coming to pass ... This is called purging." - John Paul Jackson I remember when I was a child and I would vomit, it scared me to death. I had a fear of throwing up because it was not only gross , it was so uncomfortable . When I would get sick I always cried at the same time that I was throwing up, and I would yell for my parents to come help me because I was so afraid. As a grown up, I still get afraid, but not of physical purging (although I avoid it!).  Now I fear life and ministry purges. It's not so bad after an adequate amount of adjustment time goes by.  It's usually only when I'm in the midst of it that it is painful.  Once the change has been made and everything settles, I'm not only perfectly fine but I think to myself, "There's no way I could be accomplishing this right now had that change not been made!  What was I thinking when I got myself ...
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Details of the amazingness that was yesterday!!!

What a phenomenal day we had yesterday!!!  I was pumped up and prepared for God to show up and do something great in the service.  The Lord led me to bring an illustrated message geared specifically for the ladies & girls...it was called, "Live Together Die Alone" and it contained a lot of media illustrations that we had prepared.  True to what God promised me, HE showed up!     Here is one photo as I had called ladies to the altar and was praying... During the message we showed a powerful video clip of my last preaching trip to Africa when, during an altar call, I had the African women march in unison and we prayed... (kind of hard to explain the power of that clip unless you've actually seen it).  Imagine my surprise at the conclusion when Candy came to the pulpit and asked ladies to surround me personally and stand and believe with me for my upcoming trip to Africa and for God to protect, bless and anoint my life and ministry in general......
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The hardest job you'll ever love!

There's nothing like being a Mom.  It doesn't matter how well you prepare for it -- you'll never really understand it until it happens to you.  And when it does, you know what it's like to have your heart walking around outside your body for the rest of your life.  Unsuccessfully you try again and again to not be "overly concerned"  when you have a sense that something may not be quite right with your child, or go off the deep end when you know for a fact they are in a dangerous situation.   There's nothing like how a mom reacts when something is threatening one of her kids.  I call it the "she-bear anointing."  :)   At times when I've been scolded about worrying, I retort, "Oh, I'm not worried, I'm just a concerned mother..."  But the truth is, I do worry sometimes. Twenty years ago I had no children and all the answers.  Today I have three children on earth, one in heaven, and very few if any of the answers.  All ...
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