There always is a sticky side to transparency

I sat in an amazing session last week led by Alex Hamilton (The Redeemer Church) at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. He told us he would be talking about one of the most important issues facing the church – when leaders fall and how you handle it. Well, being a crisis communication executive, my ears certainly perked up.   Kudos to Pastor Hamilton – he did lead one of the most important seminars of the conference and what he had to say about how to handle it was spot on – he took a risk and was transparent with his congregation when his church was faced with such a problem.

Pastor Hamilton had to deal with two of his pastors who were in an affair together.  He wanted to tell his church about it and trust them to not gossip nor stone the victims. So he sent a letter to congregation stating the fact that two pastors have professed to the affair and that they were now going through a process and may or may not return.  He told the congregation that he would talk about it further on Sunday. That next Sunday, the church was packed to hear about how Pastor Hamilton was going to address the sin.

How did he handle it?  He hit it head on and asked his congregation to drop it and let the guilty parties go through the steps of healing. He said that he received numerous letters from people who thought he handled this brilliantly while others said he should have hid it from its members. Transparency is always the best way to deal with crisis.  It nips any further speculation, gossip, lies or rumors from spreading. It’s also the fastest way for a situation to blow over.  This was handled beautifully. Very impressive.

The old ways of cover-ups never really work. Eventually, as more and more lies are told to cover up the initial sin, the truth will come out. Leaks do happen.  Just read the papers every day.  Also, in this day in age of social media, it’s harder than ever to keep things under the wraps. Every one with a smart phone now has a recording device with them.

Transparency is key in every situation as a Christian, not just for church leaders.  God calls us to be transparent with Him. No matter how much we try and hide our sins and try and cover them up – He’s all knowing.  The best way out is the honest way out.  Tell God everything that hurts you and where you need forgiveness and grace.  The burdens will immediately fall off your shoulders and the baggage will be left behind.   Transparency is the key to the other “t” transformation.  Always remember the importance of crossing your “t’s” in prayer.

Thank you Pastor Hamilton for being so transparent with us.

Also, as a sidebar to this discussion, Pastor Hamilton left us with some practical steps on how to avoid temptation.

5 R’s of Resisting Temptation

• Remember who you are – a follower of Jesus Christ – A child of the king!
• Recognize the consequences of your actions – will I feel better or worse after I’ve done this. Will I be proud or ashamed? Who will be hurt by it?
• Rededicate yourself to God – stop, drop and pray
• Reveal your struggle to a trusted friend.
• Remove yourself from the situation.

Simplistic Beauty

Read this today and thought you might find this inspirational as well.

Zephaniah 3:17 (New International Version)

¹⁷ The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Sometimes its so simple. If we can keep our mind on those thoughts all pain, confusion and struggles will do away.  You are Loved and He’s there singing about you right now!

What song do you think he’s singing about you? I hope mine is Happy Day.

Amen,

Cindy

God Always Provides Warm Embraces

Why does it take one cruddy day to ruin what I have been working on for a lifetime?  It seems because I’m struggling a bit more than usual that I forget that God loves me through and through.  I forgot that today.   And He had to do something remarkable to remind me He still cares.  What an awesome God we have.

Today I was feeling pretty alone in the world – like everything rests on my shoulders and it’s overwhelming.  I thought that this pain would over take me and that God was no where near.  And then I got one of those cheesy chain letters in my email.  And its sentiment hit me at the right spot.  Here’s what it said.

I never put any belief or energy into these things, but today I sent it to some friends for it touched me.  And you know what….a miracle happened.  When I went to my mailbox this evening I got a letter that I wrote to myself at a church retreat last September.  The Pastor of the conference told us to write a note to ourselves from God – I had totally forgotten that I had ever written that letter. But, it arrived on the perfect day. And here’s how it started out.

From the moment you arrived at the Retreat I gave you love and sent you messages to show you how much I loved you and love you.  I want you to start to feel my love  deep, deep, deep into your soul.  Never forget how much I love you every day and that I am always near.

Lord, I pray, that you help me never forget how much you do love me.  I repent of my doubt and open my arms to receive your mercy and grace – me this woman of little faith.

Things Just Seem to Pile Up

Life can get messy at times. The mess can come all at once like a ransacked house or in drips and drabs as things pile one on top of the other. Either way, they are no fun. They are hard to navigate around, they make you clumsy and are emotionally overwhelming.  A mess makes you feel uncomfortable and you just want them to go away. And more importantly, they always catch up with you if not dealt with and they won’t ever go away until something is done about them. Ugh.

I must admit I’ve caused a few messes myself in life…and not one was fun.  They did cause me to grow in character, but ouch.  Stuff was thrown all around and other people caught got up in my mess too. It wasn’t pretty.  But, thankfully, messes don’t have to last. They can become part of our past, if we bring God into the situation.

Thank goodness God is there for us when we call on Him to be our mess picker upper.  To me, He’s like that Brawny Paper Towel guy.  When I pray and ask Him to handle my mess, He swoops right in with His big hands and heart and wipes away the clutter – sometimes it just take one full swoop.  Other times, He has to come back and scrub and bit more and then a bit more until the mess is completely gone.  When the mess is cleaned up by God you can’t help but notice.  You are at peace.  You are no longer clumsy. You are not overwhelmed by the mess, but full of mercy.  It’s freedom and how God intended life with Him to be.

God's Paper Towels are Always There to Clean Any Mess

Yup, that’s my God.  Smiling down on me with the beauty of the evergreens at this back.  He’s ready at a moment’s notice to clean up any one of my spills, no matter the stench, severity, dirt, grime and size.  He’s never afraid to get His hands dirty or become involved.  He’s never too busy and he’s never in a hurry.  He is thorough and the only person who is perfect.  He is amazing.

Do you know that God?  Has He helped clean up one of your messes?  If not, He’s there for you.  All you have to do is knock.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.  (Matt: 7:7-8)

I know the drill.  He’s there. So then why am I so fearful that this one time he won’t come through?  Oh me of little faith!

Talk about crazy. John Hulber of the Netherlands actually built a replica.

I am reading through the bible again this year and as such, I’m now in Genesis and so I am reading about the ark.  Man, God laid everything out for Noah from size, weight, materials and content.  He gave him the exact blueprints on how to build it.  He even gave him the vision for it. All Noah had to do was believe it and follow it.  Trust him. Be obedient.  And I know that’s what God want each of us to do too.  Trust his blueprints in our life.

Take Noah for example, he had no idea, if the world would think he was a crazy, but he didn’t care about the outcome. He did not doubt – but he followed God’s word.

¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress  wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  ¹⁶ Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches  of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Gen. 6:12-22

I’m in the same exact position right now. God is laying out for me a path for my life which is contrary to the world’s.  It’s unconventional and so that makes it a bit scary for me at the moment. But, he knows what my blueprint is and to him it’s not scary…it’s beautiful.  It’s what I was made for.  I just need to build his vision and believe.  If I follow his way, even when the floods come, I’ll be sailing above the water not under it.  And there’s no place else I’d rather be.

If this is your prayer too, I will stand with you.  Let’s follow God’s path and share in this adventure that He has created for each one of us.

Is there any barrier we can’t overcome?