Bringing Scripture to Life

Five Dysfunctions of a Team  was written by leadership expert, Patrick Lencioni of the Table Group. "Since its publication in 2002,  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team  has become the world's most definitive source of practical information for building teams. The universal model outlined in the book has been embraced by virtually all types of organizations from multinational corporations, to small businesses, to professional sports, to education, to churches, non-profits and more." The Five Dysfunctions of a Team  is brought to life through a leadership fable about a company called "Decision Tech", whose resources should make them the leader in their area of business; but instead, they are hindered by their team of all-star executives inability to function as a team.  In this fable, Decision Tech hires a new CEO, whose mission is to turn this highly unhealthy, and dysfunctional  team around before it is too late. When it seems as if there is no hope l...

In his book  Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and it's Cure , D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones talks about the importance of not listening to yourself ever. But instead we are called to speak truth into our lives, by reminding ourselves of how God views us, and our situation. Pastor and Author, Joe Thorn, also communicates this important truth in his book,  Note to Self: The ​Discipline of Preaching to Yourself.  In this book, Thorn communicates the importance of something that every Christian leader ​must become a master of, and that is the discipline of preaching to ourselves! The reason we want to effectively preach to ourselves the truths of God's Word for our lives is be cause the alternative is talking to and listening to ourselves. We live in a fallen world, and part of the effect that our fallenness has upon our lives is that we are constantly being influenced by negative self-talk, which in most cases causes us to begin believing the negative in...

WHAT THE TELEPHONE COMPANY TAUGHT ME I actually came to know Jesus while working at Pacific Bell Telephone company back in the 90's. One of the things that I learned at Pacific Bell Telephone Company that is a very helpful tool for doing the work of an evangelist, is scripts. I stopped working at the phone company back in 2002, and I still remember the script they had me read from. Whenever I received an incoming phone call I would say, "Thank you for calling Pacific Bell. My name is Jason. How can I provide you with excellent customer service?" I can say it today with just as much oomph as I did way back when I worked there. Why? Because I memorized it, and it became a part of who I was, and now it is permanently inscribed on my heart. This idea of scripting is not some robotic reciting of certain words and phrases. It is a time-tested proven method for memorizing key words and phrases of any given subject, in order to help us become familiar with, a...

The reason it is important to grow in our effectiveness as communicators is so that we will not be as intimidated in sharing our faith with others. Knowing what we are talking about, and having confidence in how we are communicating that message is a huge benefit for us when dialoguing with others about Jesus. Charles Spurgeon said, “We must school and train ourselves to deal personally with the unconverted. We must not excuse ourselves, but force ourselves to the irksome task until it becomes easy.” The reason we are to not excuse ourselves from training ourselves to communicate with the unconverted is because once we put in the time to train ourselves, it will become easy for us!  In addition to this, another reason we should strive to be effective in our communication, is so that those we do share the gospel with will want to listen to what we have to say; and in turn they will in most cases take us more seriously. This is something I have personally experi...