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By Dr. Christopher Bell Jr.
February 15, 2009
Mary and Gary, how are your
ministries growing with your family, your friends, your neighbors
and you, all lined up in a row. Church, you may think of this
subject as an unusual subject compared to the many other subjects a
speaker might use for a Sunday morning sermon in the month of
February 2009.
However, I choose this subject, because I thought it is timely and
will allow me to share several clues with you that might assist you
in maintaining and building the spiritual energy you need in serving
your various ministries and thus to lead you to a greater degree of
personal happiness.
As you know, each of us presently cares for one, two, or three or
more ministries of some kind. To minister to something means to aid,
to serve, and to care for. For most of us our ministries may be:
1. Our home ministries, the obligations of caring and cooperating
with family members for the benefit of securing or preserving the
family unit.
2. Our friends and neighbors, our volunteer organizations (clubs,
church, etc.). All of these establishments require our
cooperativeness, respectfulness, and work and energy;
3. Our Employer also requires our time and skills
Each of these areas may be viewed as our ministries because we tend
to give our energy and time and thoughts to improving or maintaining
the vitality of these activities and to receive a satisfying psychic
reward in doing so.
This morning, my question to you is "how are you doing in your
ministries," and my unasked question is, "and do you feel good about
the results you are achieving versus the energy you are expending?"
Supplementary questions come to the surface such as, "Is there a
better way to do what I am doing?" "Is there a way to lower my
anxieties or to improve my outcomes, and am I enhancing my spiritual
growth?"
This morning we're going to talk about three tested principles for
successful ministering. These principles are referred to as Laws
because they are at work continuously wherever healthy, mature human
beings attempt to work together in both small and large groups.
According to the wise men of old, these Laws are as true for the
dynamics between human beings as the Law of gravity and the Law of
buoyancy are true in the world of the dynamics of the physical
sciences.
We are here to speak to you about ministering effectively or
successfully by consciously using several Universal Laws of Human
Behavior that lead to success and inner confidence and maximizes
your psychic return for the efforts and energies you send out to the
world around you.
We shall briefly discuss with you one set of the A, B, and C laws of
human behavior that will help lead you to success in working with
others. These laws are:
A: The Human Behavioral Law of Attraction;
B: The Human Behavioral Law of Belief;
C: The Human Behavioral Law of Correspondence.
You may already know about these laws and may be mindful of them as
you go about your normal activities. And yet some of us may not be
aware of these operational laws of human behavior and might profit
by our message this morning.
Law of Attraction
The Human Behavioral Law of Attraction tells us that we inevitably
attract people, events, and circumstances into our lives that
harmonize with our dominant thoughts.
Mary and Gary, what does this law mean to you?
This law means that you are a living electro-magnet as well as a
living projectile and so is everyone to whom you minister. And,
since this is the case you must be aware:
That you project a picture to others all day long that reflects your
attitude and your personality, and you are likely to attract to
yourself others who project the sameness as you.
So, how do you see yourself projecting? Are you projecting boredom,
happiness, success, failure, suspicion, separateness, friendliness,
inclusiveness? How are you projecting?
How do you use this law to your benefit and advantage: Wise men over
the ages suggest that you should try:
1. Project an attitude of gratitude. The person who projects a
spirit of gratitude radiates goodwill and cheers to the world and
will attract the gratitude of others. When you project an attitude
of gratitude you become irresistible. You'll attract babies, dogs,
rich and poor people, sad people, and happy people. Your gratitude
and gratefulness attracts warmth and friendship.
2. Project a willingness to Go the extra mile in working with others
within your ministry, and thank them for allowing you to go that
extra mile. You can tell what you are projecting all you have to do
is look at what you are receiving from others in the way of their
attitude toward you. Church, how do you project?
3. Project a positive, bright side of things outlook and remain
teachable. Keep a positive attitude about your world and your
ministry and never display arrogance or a know-it-all attitude.
4. Remember the Power of a Smile? Yes the smile, the unaffected,
unplanned, natural connection between people. You have to consider
that underneath all the layers we construct to protect ourselves,
our dignity, our titles, our degrees, our status and our need to be
seen in certain ways, underneath all that, remains the authentic,
essential self that tends to bubble out of us when we smile.
5. Remember the Power of Attentive Listening. Remember everybody
bears a burden and it is therapeutic sometimes if they are allowed
to vent and share their burdens, and you should have the disposition
of listen attentively. Some day you may want to share in the same
way.
Law of Belief:
The Human Behavior Law of Belief forecast that whatever you
believe becomes your reality.
First, let me say that I'm not talking about your belief in
religious dogma, or the rules or rituals that are called for in your
religious worship. When I speak here of belief, I'm talking about
the unshakable feeling you have about what counts and what is
meaningful in your ministry and about the world and people that
surround you. What you believe about life and about your own powers
over what happens to you will shape how happy we will allow
ourselves to be. Most rational people have developed opinions and
beliefs about themselves, and for good or ill, you are as you define
yourself to be.
Beliefs are tricky because Beliefs can help us and Beliefs can hurt
us. The problem that arises when we discuss the subject of beliefs
is that we must have rational empowering self-definitions in order
to work well with the people within our ministries
So Mary and Gary, here's what the wise men of the ages have
suggested that you do regarding your belief system in order to gain
a psychic joy from working within your ministries.
1. Believe that if you start out thinking positive, loving,
uplifting thoughts you can create and maintain your own happiness in
spite of what is happening around you.
2. Believe that your passion and belief in what you are doing will
help those in your ministry to think positive, loving thoughts and
gather a passion for doing that which is good and nourishing for
themselves and their ministries.
3. Believe that beliefs can be magical, and that you can free
yourself of old, outdated, hand-me-down beliefs that are holding you
back or causing you to maintain your bad habits and your addictions.
Many of us are carrying old beliefs now that are no longer valid
guides for our future actions. We all must look deep inside
ourselves and discard those outdated beliefs and put them in the
"ONCE UPON A TIME THOUGHT TO BE TRUE" files.
Law of Correspondence
The Human Behavioral Law of Correspondence: This law tells us
that as we are on the inside, so are we on the outside. This law
says that your outer life will tend to be a mirror-image of your
thinking (inner life), and that your sense of self-esteem, how you
feel about yourself, will be reflected in your behavior to yourself
and how you treat others.
Now Mary and Gary, what does this law mean to you?
It means that whatever your attitude is, people will reflect it back
to you. It means that your relationships will mirror your attitude
and personality traits.
1.Remember to keep your sense of balance. And what do I mean by
that? I mean don't be limited by what happened to you in the past.
See today as an opportunity to grow. Don't close yourself off from
those of your ministry because something happened to you in the past
and your feelings were hurt. Learn to accept "give and take" in your
various ministries
2.Remember the Power of a "Kind Word." This means friendly
conversation, especially the "getting to know you" type of
conversations can be a gateway to discovering things about others
and about yourself. Be mindful that a simple act of paying a
compliment or an expression of concern, or of seeking advice or
direction may be openings to avenues of deeper understandings
between people.
3. Remember that how you do what you do is just as important as what
you do!
This means that your body language and the space-distance you
maintain from others are reflections of your attitude and other
people will take their positions to repel or divert the psychic
energy you are sending their way. And so within your ministry, you
must learn to avoid acting out
With anger or frustrations, and try never to use ill-tempered words.
4. Remember that you must learn to relax, especially when problems
seem to be coming from all directions. Learn to Relax! Learn to
relax and not to become emotionally upset. You must do this because
"acting out" may deprive you of the wisdom that flows from
thoughtfully interacting with others of your ministries.
5. Remember to work with passion and confidence. Work at what you're
doing with a passion to do the task as well as you can
Summary:
Remember the Law of Attraction suggests that: We show gratitude,
which is a simple thankfulness for life and an opportunity to serve.
Remember that the Law of Belief can motivate you or throw you off
track, but you should start out believing positively about yourself,
the people with whom you work, and the future outcome of your work.
Remember that the Law of Correspondence tells us that we must be
careful to send out only positive vibes and strive to show good will
and mutual acceptance of others.
And finally! Remember to ask yourself the question, "What kind of
ministry would my church ministry be, if all the people in it were
just like me?" To answer this question you must go inside yourself
and deal with the A's and B's and C's we've talked about this
morning. Let us learn these A's, and B's, and C's, and manifest them
in our behavior and thinking as we attend to our various ministries,
and remember that this church is also one of our ministries!
Conclusion: We all are people who need people in order to be our
better selves. If we want our ministries to flourish and grow, we
will have to know and use the set of A,B,C's that we spoke about
this morning. We may look different on the outside, however our
inner spirits are very much alike. Our inner spirits ache to share
with others, because we all seek a peace and comfort that only other
people who need people can share.
Let's relearn and return to our simple set of A,B,Cs, and watch
ourselves and our ministries grow.
Amen
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