Monthly Archives: January 2015

Main, Mission, Strategy, Work

The Difference IS One

1 Comment

The Difference IS One—A strategy developed by Joe Thomas for the corporate world, but applicable to the church.

Mathematical equation—the answer to subtraction is the DIFFERENCE.

Not, “The difference OF one,” which is a slogan for benevolent/philanthropic organizations but “IS one.” I didn’t choose the “power of one” because it may detract from the dynamic of a team.

Two choices, one difference—In the world of customer service, there is a lot of competition. A customer’s choice between two difference suppliers can be determined by many things including price, warranty, convenience, and satisfaction. For most if not all people, their choice boils down to a selection of TWO. By eliminating the competition, you can stand out as the difference and answer to the customer’s needs.

What does the ONE difference mean? It means repeat business and the integrity of all the legs of the proverbial “three-legged stool.” The first leg is the benefit to the customer. The second leg is the benefit to the company. The third leg is the benefit to the employee. If I could add a fourth leg, it would be the benefit of the community by maintaining a retail business with all the benefits that add to the local economy.

A reputation is valuable. If person leaves a place of business with a bad experience he will tell another person when the subject of choice is discussed. The person with the bad experience will likely persuade the other to make a purchase elsewhere. Two people have decided not to patronize your store based on one experience. How can this be changed? Your strategy is to cancel out the one bad experience by producing a positive one.

As I said before, I deliberately chose to use the difference IS one and not the phrase “the power OF one.” A TEAM with common interests as in the above three-legged stool will also be the ONE difference. You can easily find other various differences that conflict and cause a team to be divided. Teams may be divided by a few things, but mostly by policy and management. Payroll, practices, wages, hours, etc., all fall under the umbrella of policy and management. The best resolve to bringing about a positive solution is being the ONE difference. Addressing the situation, finding the source of the conflict and determining the solution will bring unity back. If it’s a policy conflict, the organization must come to an agreement that it rarely, if at all, can change and finding a way to comply, without complaint, is the best solution.

As far as the church is concerned, the basic need of people is the same. Whether or not the expectations are correct, visitors still have expectations of why they came to church. Facilities, teaching, accountability, fellowship, challenge, and direction are but a few examples that most people have. Of course, doctrine is built into all these things and will be understood of all the above expectations are translated properly through the dynamics of a functional church. The worst thing that can happen is for a church to be doctrinally sound with no conviction found. Yes, conviction is probably the highest expectation a visitor has when coming to a church. A reputation is built on the integrity of it’s team. Men of God, integrity IS the ONE DIFFERENCE. It is all you have left after everything else is taken away, as in the story of Job. Consistency with God’s Word is a reasonable expectation. When your life and His Truth are resonating at the same frequency, then the world will know the cost, the worth, the satisfaction, reliability, benefit of godliness and like the pearl merchant of Matthew 13, seek its purchase and own it.

Please feel free to add your thoughts to this strategy.

Main, Marriage

A. Barrister’s Classic Discussion on Divorce

1 Comment

It takes him until page 23 to reach the point at which he is trying to get. It is sad that today we are not as immersed in the study of classics as our predecessors. Barrister convincingly argues the case for the parenthetical use of the so-called “exception clause” in Matthew as no exception at all, except to understand that the case of adultery is understood as being treated separately and remarriage after divorce would place the guilty party under the penalty of the established law. Have fun.

Barrister’s “Considerations on Divorce”

Main, Mission, Work

Don’t Be Distracted

1 Comment

John 10:27

Do we even know the voice of the Lord anymore? “MY sheep will KNOW my voice,” says Jesus in the Gospel of John. The commands of Christ are as unfamiliar as a foreign language. We have tuned out the fluency of Christ’s Word and exchanged it for a babbling of the barbarian. God’s Word will not return void.

Sinners will continue to fight for acceptance of their lifestyle, yet will still find the personal hatred of themselves to never cease. Acceptance and involvement in sin by the individual or the masses still leaves the one with a feeling of personal void and depravity. A homosexual will try to take the language and the living away from the heterosexual, but still be burdened with the individual feeling of guilt and conviction brought on by their debauchery. Mob mentality has always moved the masses to great acts of destruction. There is no greater evidence of sheep who know not their master’s voice, the one inherently calling them to virtue. More sermons on intolerance of sin and the pursuit of the virtuous life need preached and less of sin’s acceptance and further more, its embrace. Sermons are too commonly preached that embrace the sin of remarriage after divorce, and other morally abhorrent sinful practices designated by God as abominable but are not preached to prevent such occurrences from happening through the exercise of godliness.

Secret sin is a public sin because the public is moved by its industry therefore it is a public shame, or have we forgotten how to blush? Whatever the habit is—alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography—it is not a secret sin that one can commit without the support of the masses who have industrialized and sanctified its consumption. Like open sin, it’s sanction is sought for the promulgation of the lifestyle and by the futile thought that acceptance will make one virtuous. Popularity is to virtue as ignorance is to the philosopher.

2 Peter 1:3 bring the relationship of virtue and knowledge together under God. Ignorance is not bliss.  Virtue comes with knowledge and knowledge by moral instruction.  Let God’s Word be to us what it is meant to be, “Living and active . . . penetrating to the joints and marrow (Hebrews 4:12) . . . given for instruction in the ways of righteousness, reproof and correction (2 Timothy 3:16).