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Category Archives: Communication

Communication Revolution by Terry Storch

Terry Storch gave a talk at MinistryCOM 2007 entitled “Communication Revolution.” In this talk he highlights how our culture is slamming into the traditional ideas of the way churches operate. He list the top five impact points as:

1) One Way Communication vs. Participatory Conversation – No longer is the expectation that you will tell me what I need to know. I want to be part of discovering what I need to know.

2) Service Times vs. On-Demand Content – Our world will not wait for us. They want the content when they want it. We need to provide access so that can interact with content at point-of-need.

3) Walls vs. People – We have tended to think about church inside the building. We need to move the practice of church out into the community.

4) Going to Communities vs.Being in Communities – The way we think about missions and outreach needs change. We need to change from going to communities to becoming involved in the communities we want to reach with the Gospel.

5) Asking People to Just Invite One vs. The Power of One Inviting Everyone – Addition through just bringing one friend is not overcoming the attrition churches are experiencing. We live in age when one person can invite so many more to experience Christ. We need to find and equip those people.

 
 

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A Better Reason to Share With Those In Need

Often books and speakers tell Christians that they should help the needy because they have so much. That is, of course, quite true. Common sense tells us that, if human beings are to live together on the planet, there should be a constant sharing of resources.

But this approach is very limited in its motivating power. Ultimately it produces guilt….Soon, with an anxious weariness, we turn away from books or speakers who simply make us feel guilty about the needy.

The Bible does not use the guilt-producing motivation, yet it powerfully argues for the ministry of mercy….Mercy is spontaneous, superabounding love which comes from an experience of the grace of God. The deeper the experience of the free grace of God, the more generous we must become. This is why Robert Murray M’Cheyne could say: “There are many hearing me now know well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart.”

Gospel in Life by Timothy Keller

 

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The Grace of Listening

Yesterday was a crazy day. It was one of those days where I needed to be in 10 places all at the same time. I am trying to be more aware when I feel this way so that I can slow down and not rush. Because I had slowed down, I got into a conversation. Actually it was not a conversation but just me listening. When I could tell that this was the route the interaction was going to take my first desire was to disengage as quickly as possible. After all there were things that needed to be done.

Thankfully God did not let that happen. I continued to listen and I could see a change come over the other person even though I didn’t say anything or offer any help. The longer they talked the more life came into their eyes and their countenance seemed to lift. As I saw this happen, I began to focus more on the person. I asked a couple of small questions to allow the conversation to continue but they were merely moments of permission for the other person to continue to share what they wanted to share.

The conversation ended naturally. As I left, I felt energized. I saw how grace can be extended through listening. I was also convicted about how much I listen not to extend grace but to prove a point, steer a person in a direction I want them to go, or to highlight something I did. Most of my listening is self-centered. Yesterday reminded me that there is a ministry of grace called listening. God models it well and expects us to also.

 

Why Words Fail Us

The complaint was the answer. To have heard myself make it was to be answered. Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, “Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or nothing less or other than what you really mean; that’s the whole are and joy of words.” A glib saying. When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods to not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis

The reworking of the classical myth of Cupid and Pshche

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2011 in Communication, Lewis, Myth, Words

 

The Power of the Blog

Great comments from Seth Godin on the power of blogging.

 

>Temptation Avoidance

>I was reading a blog in response to the pastor who told his church to delete their Facebook accounts to avoid affairs only to then be found having had an affair. One line in the blog caught my attention, “Couples should take steps to build trust and eliminate unnecessary temptations, while still recognizing the individuality of the two people involved.” The quote is true but it also highlights faulty thinking about sanctification. We tend to think about sanctification only in terms of temptation avoidance.

While avoidance of temptation is part of the sanctification process, I think we tend to focus too much on the wrong thing with that perspective. It seems the goal of sanctification in our walks with God is to be moving toward something better. If our focus is always “avoiding the trouble spots” we will find, and often fall, into trouble spots. However if our focus is to deepen our passions for Christ and the things that are closer to God’s heart, our taste and desire for this world will change. While there will still be temptation, it will not be as appealing.

Our hearts follow what we treasure. I think this is why Christ was always challenging his followers in regards to their heart. If our hearts are pursuing Christ, we will still sin but we will be moving in a much better direction than if we are just avoiding temptations.

 

>The Divine Commodity

>Skye Jethani, in The Divine Commodity, does a great job of critically looking at the way churches behave in our consumerist culture and how it impacts the faith of those in our churches. This is worth reading no matter your church size. While critical, it is not discouraging.

 

>How Great Leaders Lead

>http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

 
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Posted by on May 20, 2010 in Communication, Leadership, Motivation

 

>Are you communicating are just talking?

>While I was enjoying breakfast this morning with my wife at a restaurant, I noticed two men with Bibles open who appeared to be having a Bible study. One of them was talking fairly loud and seemed to be in control of the conversation. The longer I watched the table the more I noticed the other gentleman’s attention drifting.

I wonder how many times I have been mentoring/leading a study and felt like it went great. Only to have the other person disengage. The priority is not just getting words out but in communicating with the other person. Sometimes that is done best by just listening.

 
 
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