Thoughts from the weekend

thoughts from the weekend:

Busy weekend, what with Alton Garrison with us Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening and both services Sunday.

We were privileged to have the Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God with us the entire weekend - his subject - change and transition.

Great stuff. Profitable for where we are at right now as a church family.

Let me summarize some of his teachings:

Friday evening he taught on the subject of, "Leading Relationally - increasing your likeability factor."

His opening statement, "When people don't like you, they try to hurt you. If they can't hurt you, they won't help you. If they have to help you, they won't hope you succeed. When they hope you don't succeed, life's victories feel hollow."

Here are some bullet points from this teaching:

Building relationships requires intentionality.

Share stories. Pray for people. Give compliments. Do acts of kindness. Show empathy. Share your dreams.

Work on yourself before you try to change others.

Pastor Garrison then gave a great quote: "the real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

If you want to improve your "likeability factor," ask yourself these questions:

Do I value people? Do I understand people? Do I get along with people? Do I influence people? Do I lead people?

His second session with us (on Saturday morning) dealt with leading change.

He writes, "it takes change to have growth! But not all change results in growth."

Why do people resist change?

Loss of security. Threatened personal status or position. Implied criticism of the past or present. Additional work. Seems unnecessary or unhelpful.

How do we respond to resisters of change?

Pastor Garrison shared with us that we must not abdicate or feel the opposition is a personal threat and resign with hurt.

We must not control and manipulate by forcibly imposing the change in spite of resistance.

Here's what we must do - we must keep our response to resistance positive and provide leadership.

Excellent principles....