It Is Your Responsibility!!!

I've been in ministry for a long time now... some 13 years. I have a great passion for quotes and I've picked up a few beauties along the way. One of my favourites says this, "It is a sin to make the God of the Bible boring!"

With this in mind I have a great extract to share with you out of Seth Godin's latest book called 'Tribes':
"If you hear my idea but don't believe it, it's not your fault; its mine.
If you see my new product but don't buy it, thats my failure not yours.
If you attend my presentation and you're bored, that is my fault too.
If I fail to persuade you to implement a policy that supports my tribe, thats due to my lack of passion or skill, not your shortsightedness.
If you are a student in my class and you don't learn what I'm teaching, I've let you down.
It's really easy to insist that people read the manual. It's really easy to blame the user/student/prospect/customer for not trying hard, for being too stupid to get it, or for not caring enough to pay attention. It might even be tempting to blame those in your tribe who aren't working as hard at following as you are at leading. But none of this is helpful.

What's helpful is to realize that you have a choice to make when you communicate. You can design your products to be easy to use. you can write so your audience hears you. You can present in a place and in a way that gaurantees that the people you want to listen will hear you. Most of all, you will choose who will understand (and who won't)."


How do you see this extract pertaining to your ministry that God has called you to steward?
I would love to hear some of your thoughts through commenting on this post.

Makes You Think!

Rico asked me a couple of questions from his yesterdays blog on sin...
I began typing out all the answers... and then I stopped in my tracks thinking, 'what am I doing?!'

You say, what could possibly be wrong with answering a question asked of you...
but I began thinking about Jesus, and the way He ministered.

Jesus was asked 100's of questions... do you know how many He actually answered? (you'll be absolutely amazed by this answer!)
In fact, Jesus was really great at teaching with parables... parables that left his audience really stumped alot of the time! In fact... even His disciples often didn't get it. Jesus had to explain these parables to them after He had taught them to the crowds!
Check out these verses:

Mat 13:3, 9-11 ESV
(3) And he told them many things in parables, saying: ...
(9) He who has ears, let him hear."
(10) Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"
(11) And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

Why do you think that I haven't shown you the full scripture?
Why do you think that Jesus taught like this?
Should this still be a valid way 'teaching'?
Why do you think that we always feel like we need to give 'answers'?


I look forward to hearing your thoughts (& questions) : )