Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived. One of Jesus' techniques was to relate spiritual ideas to common everyday life. Pensamientos (afterthought) is an attempt to follow Jesus' method of teaching. Its title is in Spanish because we recognize the importance of multi-culturalism. We hope to translate some of these messages into Spanish soon.

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Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

Focus on the Positive

I have often been surprised to hear some people complain at the end of a particularly successful ministry project. I guess its just human nature to see the negative, to find fault, and to complain. I know that in my own life I sometimes focus on the negative rather than the positive. A negative view, however, is not helpful. Parents who focus on their children's faults rather than on their accomplishments are hurting not helping their children. The same is true in the local church. Fault finding is not helpful. A negative spirit is contagious. Negativism breeds negativism. On the other hand, optimism can foster further optimism. The choice is obvious. We need to try our best to look on the bright side and focus on accomplishments. In stead of tearing down, we should build up; rather than complain about problems, we need to celebrate success.

When I first began my ministry and encountered people with negative attitude I usually tried to defend the ministry by addressing each complaint. This approach did not win many converts. No one wants to hear excuses or explanations for what is perceived as failure. Today my approach is to acknowledge the complaint, thank the person for his or her suggestions, and then politely point out the positive accomplishments. I try to shift attention away from the perceived failure and help the person to see the successes.

Church growth experts have long recognized that churches will be more successful if they focus on their strengths. We need to recognize weakness and not ignore them, but more important than focusing on failure is to celebrate success. This brings us to an important question. What are the strengths of your church? What do you do well? Where do you see the greatest accomplishments? What generates the most excitement and positive feelings? I believe that God wants us to direct the majority of our limited resources, i.e.: our time, money, talent, and abilities to those ministries which offer the most likely route to success. May God help us to look to him with eyes of faith. May God help us to believe the Bible where God tells us that: "with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)."¹

Keeping it Positive,

Pastor Steve

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Footnotes

¹ Matthew 19:26, NASB (New American Standard Bible). Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

January 26, 2007

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Find more afterthoughts at Mas Pensamientos
(more afterthoughts)

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