ThinkingInColor

You Do Have to Please Somebody

Learn implementation.

You can’t please everybody. That’s the conventional wisdom, not to mention common sense. Principled leaders whose reputations fuel the history books supposedly have always followed this sage advice. We assume they did the right thing because it was right, regardless of who was for or against it. Before you grab this and run, however, understand that, while you might not be able to please everybody, you’ll never get anywhere without pleasing certain people. You sure don’t want to dis-please everybody. In fact, the cost of displeasing even a few certain individuals may be suicidal. Sound complicated? It might be, but implementing a brilliant plan can be more critical to the ultimate success than conceiving the plan in the first place.

Here is the scenario. You have a vision that promises to revolutionize the world—at least your world. Your eyes light up and you get animated with excitement as you begin talking about it. Then, responses start trickling in and to your surprise, you look into expressionless faces, raised eyebrows and even a few sneers. The slow burn begins. In your gut, you know you’re right, but the opposition seems too formidable to be overcome. Time for a decision. Do you railroad the idea through because you know it’s the best thing to do, or do you step back and figure out if, when and how it can be done? Forcing a good plan into becoming a reality before factoring in all the caveats can be tragic. Even the greatest ideas in the world have to be sold.

For example, who would dispute the basic concept that national security is a great idea? President George W. Bush and his administration discovered, however, that hammering the idea into a workable, acceptable plan posed insurmountable problems. Do we profile terrorists? Should we spy on American citizens? Are we right to deny due process to American citizens whom we have arrested as enemy combatants and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay ? Implementation challenges like these underscore the difficulty of making an idea—even a noble one—translate into a practical reality.

Implementing a plan comes down to “political calculus,” a term politicians and government types use to chart the path of an idea from inception to the done deal. “Government acts only when key individuals within that government find their political arithmetic works.” www.affordablehousinginstitute.org The following questions are critical to the process: Do you have enough influence to make it happen? Will you have to do trade-offs? What will it cost you to win? What will it cost you to lose? Can you persuade people to commit to the idea? What will be the benefit of the plan?

Machiavellian overtones aside, wise strategists cannot afford to spurn the implementation process. Sources for financial backing, moral support, good will and enthusiastic commitment have names and faces. They have feelings, leanings, ambitions and convictions. They have reputations and families. Righteous causes poorly managed can turn into colossal failures.

Pleasing the right people cannot and must not mean sacrificing your convictions. It does mean that no leader operates in a vacuum or that people are immaterial to the cause. You must work with people, through people and for people (and, yes, around some people) to achieve your ultimate objective of helping people.

Eschew Arrogance

Learn objectivity.

“I think you ought to know something about me. I can dish it out, but I can’t take it!” This attempt at a joke by a friend of mine is actually way too true for a lot of people. Sharp tongues always seem to go with touchy feelings. The ability to take criticism, however, serves as a hallmark for learning. If the criticism hits the mark, be thankful because you have learned something. If it is off target, you can at least be glad for passing the test with flying colors. Why, then, do most people jump on the defensive when they hear criticism? Because they cannot personally disengage themselves from the process long enough to achieve objectivity. Subjectivity may affirm your feelings, but objectivity leads to substantive improvement.

Take it from me, a reluctant critic who has too often been coerced into the position. My life in ministry has thrown me into the unenviable roles of a critic, a judge, a mentor and confidant. I’ve had to reprimand church members for a wide range of misbehaviors, I’ve had to criticize spouses on the job they were doing as a husband or wife, I’ve had to score tests and grade essays as a teacher in our Christian Academy, I’ve had to critique sermons for prospective ministers and I’ve had to deal with licensed ministers who suffered a lapse in their professional conduct. As unpleasant as the job is, I can tell you that my goal has always been to repair, restore, edify and to add ultimate value to the subject of my disapproval. Furthermore, I save my most passionate criticisms for those whom I believe have the most to gain. I want them to do well because they have great potential for success. On the other hand, if I feel that an individual will pay scant attention to my words, I am likely to save my breath.

Many people know that Jesus had a close relationship with his disciple, Simon Peter, but Bible scholars know that Jesus reserved his most scathing reproof for this same disciple. It came on the heels of Peter’s confession that Jesus was indeed the Christ. Jesus then went on to break the news that he would be crucified, prompting a vehement protest from Peter. Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew 16:23. In a few short moments, Peter fell from a divine commendation to a stinging rebuke. Jesus took this liberty to chastise Peter so strongly because he knew what lie ahead and that Peter would be major player in the establishment of the primitive church. Indeed, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter became the spokesman for the disciples and led the church through its instantaneous growth, its first persecution, its initial organizational form and he broke down the racial barrier that kept the Gentiles from joining the church.

Contrast this with Jesus’ interaction with Judas. Aside from one veiled reference to Judas as a traitor (Matthew 6:71), Jesus issued no rebuke to him. Even on the night of the Passover supper, Jesus gave Judas a morsel of bread to Judas and bade him to do his deed quickly. The other disciples had no idea what this all meant. Jesus, however, knew that Judas had already committed himself to betrayal. Constructive criticism would have been a lost cause.

Arrogant rejection of criticism means a lost learning experience. Welcome it. Don’t permit defensiveness, insecurity or subjectivity to classify criticism as an attack. It is far better to be humbled and corrected like Simon Peter than to evade your critics and continue down the pathway of failure.

Control Your Own Spirit

Learn yourself.

A well-know rule of the legal profession states that a lawyer should never ask a witness a question without already knowing the answer. An overconfident attorney who presumes to know more than the facts permit may ask a careless question and risk getting an unanticipated response that can blow a case to smithereens. In ministry, it is extremely dangerous for a leader to breeze into a situation without understanding how he or she may react to a given problem. Hidden agendas, surprise attacks and irrational outbursts can come out of nowhere to stun an unwitting leader. Unknown factors always have the potential to touch a nerve and elicit inappropriate responses from people, including the leader.

Several years ago, the matriarch of a large family in the church I pastor went into emergency surgery with the assurance of success. Something went wrong on the operating table, however, and she did not survive. When I arrived at the scene, over forty of her distraught children, grandchildren, siblings and other relatives had flooded the waiting room, and the place was in an uproar. Some were screaming, some were crying, some were praying in a shrill voice, and others were shouting angrily at the health care personnel. The doctor stood silently, his eyes darting around the room and his lips bluing with a twinge of fear. He couldn’t have been happier to see me. My long association with the family gave me the ability to quell the uprising and when they quieted down, the doctor gave his report and quickly vanished. I stayed and dealt with each of the emotions and reactions until the group dispersed. Had I encountered this problem early on in my ministerial career, I may not have succeeded. But, my ministry style developed over a forty year span of experience prepared me for situations like this, in part because I knew how I would react.

Merely being a leader does not exempt you from negative emotions like anger, touchiness, bad temper, mood swings, impatience or prejudicial feelings. Raw, human passion comprises the personality of a leader as much as any other person. If anything, these traits can become amplified in leaders. This is a critical observation because ministry leaders get pulled into a cross section of volatile situations that can push all of their buttons at once. Disasters are likely to happen when leaders do not take the time to recognize their human weaknesses and examine their own reactionary tendencies. For example, if you go berserk when you catch someone in a lie, or if you lose it when someone shouts an obscenity at you, or if you become disgusted with a drug addict who has ignored your counsel for the twentieth time, then you are destroying your own ability to help. When you face the worst in human behavior, you must respond with your best in leadership.

The key to knowing yourself is found in the title to the chapter: control. Envision a steering wheel fastened to each problem you encounter. Reach out and take hold of it. When you grab it, you will have a sense of control that will make the matter manageable. Self-knowledge or knowledge of the circumstances are helpful only to the extent that you can take control over the wheel.

Do you know what the following numbers represent?

2,207,520,000  (Seconds in a 70 year old lifetime.)
31,536,000  (Seconds in one year.)
86,400  (Seconds in a day.)
3600  (Seconds in an hour.)
60  (Seconds in a minute.)

The following definition follows U.S. usage in which a billion is a thousand million and a trillion is a 1 followed by 12 zeros.

• A nanosecond (ns or nsec) is one billionth (10^-9) of a second and is a common measurement of read or write access time to random access memory (RAM). Admiral Grace Hopper famously handed out foot-long lengths of wire to students to illustrate how far an electrical signal can travel in a nanosecond.
• For comparison, a millisecond (ms or msec) is one thousandth of a second and is commonly used in measuring the time to read to or write from a hard disk or a CD-ROM player or to measure packet travel time on the Internet.
• A microsecond (us or Greek letter mu plus s) is one millionth (10^-6) of a second.
• A picosecond is one trillionth (10^-12) of a second, or one millionth of a microsecond.
• A femtosecond is one millionth of a nanosecond or 10^-15 of a second and is a measurement sometimes used in laser technology.
• An attosecond is one quintillionth (10^-18) of a second and is a term used in photon research.

Observations and Questions about time: 

• Can you stretch a second or a minute into a longer period of time?
• How much time do you have in comparison to your neighbor?
• Can you recall and relive one single second?
• Why do some people seem to have more time than others?
• What do we mean by “saving time?”
• Why does time sometimes “fly?” and other times drag by?
• Why do some people seem to get more done in their lives than others?
• What is “quality time?”

I Don’t Have Time

Busy, important people never have time. Admit it and be done with it. If you had the time to walk, you’d be out making another million, right? Who wants to be a pedestrian , anyway? (Ordinary, unimaginative, uninspired). Nope, you don’t have time. Speed by Olander and glance sideways at them wasting precious hours drifting in sailboats, or getting hooks wet, or endlessly circling a lake while spewing meaningless drivel to similarly unoccupied drones. Not you. It’s productivity all the way. Make every minute count. Save time. You know, like the slogan, “Get in, get out, get going!” And, all the time you save by not walking, you’re putting into a time bank, right? Good. Just cash it in when you get ready. Precisely what an unnamed friend of mine did…or planned to do. It was really sad, though, because three very short years away from the first withdrawal, his bank closed down. Yeah. I heard the assets were non-transferable, too. Oh well, if the kids can’t have your remaining time, they can probably get that unspent million.

There are four categories of time usage:

Sustenance (No choice)

• Eating
• Sleeping
• Personal maintenance (hygiene, grooming, etc.)

Productivity (Initial choice, then little or no choice)

• Job, Career, Vocation
• Travel
• Personal economy (house, yard, vehicle, shopping)

Social Obligations (Range between no choice and complete choice)

• Relationships (talking, emailing, visiting)
• Duties (funerals, weddings, parties, etc.)

Discretionary (Complete choice)

• Recreation
• Hobbies
• Entertainment
• Management of thoughts, emotions, interaction, etc.

Dysfunctional people do not balance their use of time.

• Addicts, alcoholics, workaholics, fanatics
• Narcissistic, egoistic, paranoid

The more you focus on one area of time, the more dysfunctional you are.

Not all time is equal, that’s why it must be managed. (Preparation, planning, planting, building, developing, learning, growing, etc.)

How sacred do you consider your time to be? Is time as sacred as life?

• What are the most important ways we could and should use our limited time?
• What are the least important ways we could and should use our limited time?
• Why is there a conflict between the two usages?
• What are our greatest time wasters?

Common statements about time:

• When I get time…
• I never have enough time…
• I ran out of time…
• I didn’t do it in time…
• Time flies when you’re having fun.
• There’s no time like the present.
• This will save us time.
• Time waits for no man.

Annie Dillard: How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
B. Franklin: Dost thou love life? Do not squander time, for that the stuff life is made of.
Brian Tracy: There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.
Will Rogers: Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

• Habits, addictions, compulsions, worries…all steal time from us.
• Haste, impatience, brashness, stubbornness…all grant false gifts of time to us.
• Procrastination, fear, indecision, lack of planning…all waste time for us.
• Bitterness, hatred, anger, envy, jealousy…all turn time against us.

What does the Bible say about our use of time?

The most important appointment you have is salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

The most important discretionary time is your walk with God. Romans 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. ¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. ¹³ Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. ¹⁴ But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

The most important concept of time is timing. Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. 1 Cor. 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

The most important attitude toward time is accountability. 1 Peter 4:1-3 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; ² That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. ³ For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

The most important comparison to time is eternity. 2 Cor. 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Keep Your Vision Alive

Learn vision-casting.

Does staphylococci, antibiotic resistance or penicillin mean anything to you? It should, but not in the way you might think. Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist accidentally discovered penicillin as an anti-bacterial agent in September of 1928. His finding forever changed the world of modern medicine, and saved the lives of millions of people. The truth is that, even though Fleming didn’t specifically search for this product of a mould, he had long before dedicated himself to finding a cure for dread diseases like scarlet fever and pneumonia. The vision consumed him. The day he found that an invasive fungus would not grow on the mould from the penicillium genus may have seemed like an accident, but his observation was preceded by casting his vision in the field of antibiotics. The actual discovery of penicillin may have been a surprise, but the vision that led to it was far from accidental.

Nearly every great event in history has come about by vision-casting. From landing a man on the moon to the fall of the Iron Curtain, from the invention of the incandescent light bulb to the development of the airplane, great people with great visions have amazed the world. But it is a mistake to believe that the high quality of the vision itself transformed it into a reality. No. Brilliance that gives up on itself wilts in the shadows of despair and then dies a mediocre death. The drive, the dedication and the persistence of a leader to keep casting the vision to a company, to associates and to oneself forms the other half of the success equation.

Since few visions become wildly successful overnight, the only answer to winning is the dogged determination to stay with vision until it turns into reality. When you find something that you know is your calling, when you identify so strongly with an idea that it captivates your imagination, your soul and your very being, then you have your vision. Now, you must cast that vision—spell it out, articulate it, push it, preach it, plan it, talk it, dream it, live it—until spreads into the warp and woof of your ministry.

Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. The Apostle Paul gave his ministry to reaching and discipling the Gentiles. Pentecostal giants like Howard Goss and W. T. Witherspoon focused their lives on the birthing of a oneness, Pentecostal fellowship. Missionaries like E. L. and Nona Freeman were more zealous for reaching the continent of Africa for Jesus than any other pursuit in life. Crusade evangelist Billy Cole gave himself to helping people receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. As a result, he has seen hundreds of thousands receive the experience.

Keep preaching your theme. If you get weary with it and switch off to something else that does not fit with your pastoral or leadership vision, you lose your cutting edge. Nothing will ever evoke as much passion and sincerity in you as your own vision. It will provide you with your greatest effectiveness and your cleanest cut. Along with this, maintain a tight rein on your hobbies, pastimes and sports. When you become too engrossed in a personal pursuit, your vision for your church and ministry languishes. Don’t confuse what you enjoy doing with what you are called to do. Enjoyments provide a needed break from a heavy schedule, but they will not give you the joy that the pursuit of your vision will yield. Let the footnotes to your life indicate your pastimes. Make sure the headlines are about fulfilling your vision.

Elevate Your Spirituality

Learn spirituality.

In the high, dry desert climate of southwestern Wyoming , the thin air lacks the oxygen levels that people grow accustomed to in lower altitudes. On a recent trip there, I saw a sign for a business on a strip mall building that said, ALTITUDE ANALYSIS. It’s a computer business that offers software support for altimeters and other instruments for airplanes. Immediately, I was struck with the application to the spiritual life. We cannot go higher without changing the way we live. Higher spiritual altitudes force us to adapt to a different atmosphere that starves our carnal appetite. Without change, we gradually retreat back to lower levels.

It’s never been harder to be spiritual. Contemporary pastors and church leaders work in the most complex environment ever faced by religious organizations. Technology, demographics, market demands, a radically-shifting social structure—you name it—all impinge upon leadership to keep up the ever-increasing pace. These factors place an enormous pressure plus a seductive pull upon church leaders to stray from their element of spirituality and suit up in the latest techie development or fashionable idea. Much of it is fun. A lot of it is interesting. All of it can be deadly. Leaders who abandon the highway of spirituality to seek out popular trends follow a glitzy path to apostasy and ruin.

Elevation of spirituality cannot be accomplished by just stepping up prayer activity or added emphasis on reading the Bible. There must be an accompanying attitude fostered by leadership that teaches people to actually seek God for personal and congregational direction. Often, churches enter into programs or series of studies in an attempt to “try this for awhile,” or “let’s see if this works.” After the final seminar session, people stop doing what they really didn’t want to do in the first place and go back to the way they were. Cultivation of true spiritual growth involves weaving in a constant reliance upon the presence of God in a person’s life.

Researcher Adair T. Lummis of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research studied an intriguing question about pastors, “What do Lay People Want in Pastors.” He found that people want a pastor with a sense of humor and an ability to laugh. But Lummis concluded that the most important trait people look for in a pastor is an authentic religious life. He said, “Most lay people define that as a person whose faith combines both head and heart; a person whose lifestyle is spiritually inspiring to others.” www.hartsem.edu/research. Wise pastors understand that people come to church for spiritual reasons. The church must be seen as a spiritual oasis in a high, dry desert.

Leaders and pastors who try to be everything to everybody will end up being nothing to everyone or everything to no one. People do not want legal, medical or financial expertise from their pastor. They do not want psychological, construction, computer-geek advice. They don’t want decorating, fashion-statement or sports advice. All these things may be interesting and entertaining, but they can get these from real experts in the community. More than anything else, they want spiritual help from their spiritual leaders. Pastors who become bored with living a spiritual life and dispensing spiritual advice cut their own throat. It is paramount that they have a ready scripture, an instant prayer, a spiritual insight, a Word from the Lord and an uplifting comment for people. Keep the church looking upward before you have it looking outward. Never allow any aspect of the church to overshadow its spiritual mission.

Grow Leaders

Learn inspiration.

Their names were Peter, James, John, Matthew, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, James (son of Alpheus ), Thomas, Thaddeus and Judas. Unremarkable and typical, they probably would not have achieved much notoriety in life. Some were rough, some were refined, some were gullible, some were skeptical, some had a servant’s heart and at least one was greedy. All of them were common novices, with issues and baggage, desperately in need of teaching. Jesus chose them to follow him. He could have had better, at least by the world’s standards. But the Master refused to cherry-pick sophisticated, learned achievers to make his job easier. He bypassed the choice men and chose humble men who were teachable and capable of submitting to leadership.

Contemplating the mission of Jesus staggers me. He came to save an entire world from eternal darkness. He came to fulfill ancient prophecies, to engage the religious hierarchy in substantive dialogue, to perform signs, wonders and miracles, to teach thousands true doctrine, to offer himself as a spotless sacrifice and to be a light for dying humanity. The enormity of these tasks would seem to have left little time for mingling and fussing with people, but Jesus carved out large chunks of time to develop and train leaders. In fact, deliberate discipling occupied center stage in the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles of the church. Their insistence on growing leaders preempted all other items on the divine agenda.

Despite his or her show of humility, a loathing to develop leaders reveals a leader’s inverted arrogance. Some can’t bear to see anyone else in positions of influence and prestige but themselves. When they do judge someone capable of leading, they nitpick their foibles or sometimes deliberately poison the waters so that the up and coming leader will fail. Jesus, the one individual who could have monopolized all the leadership positions in the fledgling church knew that his soon departure from the world demanded that he organize, equip and train leaders to evangelize the world. His model was then used by the apostles and later church leaders. True leaders grow leaders. Leaders who fail to grow leaders fail at leadership. It’s that simple.

Do not confuse developing leaders with delegation. Delegation involves assigning a task to subordinates who remain accountable to their supervisors. Growing leaders involves replacing yourself with another person, or permitting someone to do the same thing you do, perhaps in another place or another business. Growing leaders requires a commitment to the future, a specific plan and the willingness to let others get some of the credit. Leaders who claim they are too busy to grow leaders sabotage their own success.

This is where the Apostle Paul excelled. He knew how to choose leaders. He knew how to train leaders. He knew how to inspire leaders to give their best.  And he knew how to commission leaders to take over the work.

“And so this is good-bye. You’re not going to see me again, nor I you, you whom I have gone among for so long proclaiming the news of God’s inaugurated kingdom. I’ve done my best for you, given you my all, held back nothing of God’s will for you. Now it’s up to you. Be on your toes—both for yourselves and your congregation of sheep. The Holy Spirit has put you in charge of these people—God’s people they are—to guard and protect them. God himself thought they were worth dying for.” [1]

Fear of letting go must be overcome by faith in the process. Ultimately, each of us will answer to God for our own work. We may not be able to control the future, or even the way future leaders will respond to their own challenges. We must, however, let them have their day.

^[1] Peterson, E. H. (2002). The Message : The Bible in contemporary language (Ac 20:25). Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress.

The Basic Mission Comes First

Learn focus.

“He is a jack of all trades, but master of none.” This time-worn aphorism may describe how people got by in the world of the last century, but we now live in the day of specialization and focus. From cardiologists to neurologists, from tax attorneys to corporate lawyers, from rough framers to finish carpenters, we all know the importance of knowledge or skill concentrated in a single individual. Those who know a little about a lot may make interesting conversationalists, but when it comes to contracting a critical job, we‘re more apt to hire the guy who knows a lot about a little.

The minutia of peripheral activities that surround today’s average task continues to grow exponentially. An example that comes immediately to mind is technology in the modern office. Regardless of the nature of the revenue-producing business, office managers can quickly get so bogged down in hardware, software, bugs and crashes, internet access, spyware and malware, networking and desktop publishing, plus hundreds of other computer related activities, that they have difficulty finding the time to do the job that they are supposed to do. In the church arena, huge problems often erupt over building plans, site locations, expenditures of money, music styles, ministry appointees, service times, choir robes, choice of carpet and serving of coffee, causing people to lose the real purpose for belonging to the church in the first place.

But it doesn’t take a crisis to throw a church off track. Successful ventures into para-church activities can have the same effect. A joking comment circulated among churches several years ago that “we ought to change our name to the “United Peanut Brittle Church.” A fabulous music ministry, breathtaking décor, a phenomenal fundraising program, a cutting-edge multi-media operation or an outstanding catering service, all ministries that can benefit the congregation, at the same time can overshadow the core purpose of preaching the gospel and reaching the lost. Too much time spent on the extras leaves too little time for the primary task.

Churches and leaders should never become so enthusiastic over a fundraising project or some other side-issue that it swallows up their calendar and consumes them. I am personally aware of a number of churches that lost their focus because they got so wrapped up in making money though pyramid schemes or tiered sales organizations that they forgot what they were all about. One church tried to infringe on the buying habits of its members, forcing them to shop for their personal and household needs in a room in the church basement. It was soon seen as a misguided attempt to exploit people and eventually factored into the demise of a once thriving congregation.

Derailing the basic mission of the church often comes down to degree, not substance. Indulge in the peripherals only as much as is necessary, and only to the point that it actually serves the ministries of the church. Be skeptical of anything that threatens to evolve into a time and energy eating monster. When any extra-curricular venture absorbs the core energy of the church, it will most certainly throw the mission out of focus and negate its purpose. The preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified must be the constant and dominant theme of every message and ministry. Our mission is still the great commission!