Tweet Lord, teach us to pray… (Luke 11:1) I don’t know about you, but I often feel like the disciples. I am still learning to pray. The fact is I…
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Tweet I am a runner. When my knees are good I have been known to run as many as 6 days a week. When I run I am serious about…
Tweet Are you struggling with a “word from God”? Do you feel there is something you need to do, but you aren’t quite certain about it yet? Do you wish…
Tweet Whenever I talk about firing people in ministry I create a great deal of interest. Some feel it makes the church seem too much like a business. I get…
Tweet This is a difficult post – about a difficult issue. It is one we don’t necessarily like to talk about in the church, but sometimes we must. I came…
Tweet Shortly after I arrived at our established church I began saying frequently, “I want to be a Kingdom-minded pastor”. The phrase seemed to catch some by surprise. They had…
Whatever you are holding on to tighter than your faith, I believe Jesus would say, “Pick up your mat and walk!” Trust Him with that in which you currently trust the most. Permit Him to see you through the difficult days of life. Allow Him to carry your burdens, strengthen your walk and brighten your hope for the future. He is still the Miracle Maker, and He can still heal a broken heart.
When I was in school I had a love-hate relationship with math. I loved doing math, working to find an answer to a problem, but I hated having to solve it with the teacher’s methods. On tests I would do poorly if the teacher made us “show our work”. I could get the right answers, but using my own systems. I realize the teacher’s need to make sure I wasn’t cheating and that I knew how to think through a process but I wanted to invent my own process. The years I was on the math team and did best were when I had teachers who allowed me the freedom to do it my way.
Successful leaders understand this principle as it relates to organizational success.
Tweet I have a heart for hurting pastors. Several years ago I bought the domain name HurtingPastors.com, but have yet to do anything with it. My schedule hasn’t allowed the…
In my job I hear far more junk than I care to hear. The larger our church gets, the more mess we encounter among the people to whom we minister. We have designed our church to reach hurting people, so we are simply reaching our target audience, but some days it is more difficult than others to hear such sad stories.
One part of the drama of messiness that always frustrates me is how gossip begins about other people’s problems. As if dealing with the consequences of sin is not enough, many times some of the hardest repercussion is the gossip that occurs about the people involved and the situation that occurred. I have never found gossip to be helpful to the people involved or to the Kingdom of God. I have literally become a hater of gossip because I have seen it destroy so many people! Gossip hurts innocent people who are caught in the middle, it exaggerates the situation, and it keeps the one who did wrong loaded with guilt and frustration, and from experiencing the fullness of God’s grace.
With that in mind,here are 7 suggestions for how to stop the spread of gossip.