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Teaching and Training

By June 9, 2013August 30th, 2022Lost in Translation

I dropped Janet off at the Indianapolis airport this morning and continued on down the road, heading to Knoxville – continuing the trend I started earlier this year of training a number of teams from across the United States for a well known national company. This will be the 7th region that I have worked with and right now, I am in the process of discussing another round of trips to continue the work that has already been accomplished.

The training and teaching that I have been providing is “sanitized” for the corporate world, but I am sure that you realize that the foundational material is straight from the Bible. The Bible is the greatest training manual ever created and it can be used to teach people on a variety of topics – from love and marriage to teams and interpersonal skills. Project management gurus will tell you that up to 20% of effective project management includes using the correct tools for the application, up to 30% has to do with the processes you choose to implement – and fully 50% or more of the entire success of the project hangs on the social interactions that are learned as a result of training and working together. That’s a fairly impressive statistic.

Because it tells you that at least half of everything that is positive on a project comes from strong people interactions – and that’s what I do – teach teams to work together for better outcomes. I didn’t always do this. For years, I ran a company that specialized in staffing and then, as you know, I left the corporate world and attended seminary for a number of years. I really thought that my life in the corporate world was over and that God would just provide me a church – and that would be the end of it.

However, as I have found out over the years, God seems to have a sense of humor and rather than allow me to shepherd a group of people as a pastor, God apparently decided that I should serve where I have spent most of my career – in corporate America. I really wasn’t up for the job – I was tired of the politics and the poor relationships I observed in most of the companies that I helped staff. A church would have been fine with me – at least at the time.

But the more I engage the corporate world, the more I see how my seminary training can really help to drive organizational change. People seem to fundamentally want to work together and if everyone can leave their weapons at the door and engage in honest, open, authentic dialogue, great things can happen. On a personal basis, each of us is wired, by God, with a specific style, passion and gifting that is unique in all creation. That means that there is something that you were designed to do, at this time and place, that God has for you to accomplish. And if you can find out what it is, you will be able to accomplish the task better than anyone in eternity past could have or anyone in eternity future will be able to do. That’s a terrific responsibility.

I feel honored to have been called by God to help people find their sweet spot – the intersection of style, passion and gifting. And while I thought for years that it would be in the church community, I have come to appreciate where I have been “planted”. And I really like to incorporate a God centered message at the heart of what I do. Last week, after finishing up an afternoon of work, I actually decided to stay and offer a biblical workshop on marriage and helping one another in the business world.

As much as I enjoy training teams, it was evident to a number of people that my real passion is teaching the word of God. They were correct. The verse for tonight reflects God’s desire to let us know that teaching His word is a noble profession. From Galatians 6:6, “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.” This is one of the foundational verses that I remember whenever I think of the men who trained me. They continue to pour their lives into me even today and I visit them at seminary every chance that I get. Their teaching always guides me closer to the Lord and I also feel more settled and calm when I am around them.My encouragement tonight is that you will continue to receive the work of God from people who have the gift of teaching and that you will be drawn closer to God in the process. My prayer is that God will put people in your path who have the passion and training to to impact your life in a positive way as you grow closer to the Creator of the universe. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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