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What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
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True Church Stories -#22

Years ago when we first started pastoring we had a banquet one night and my husband asked me to open up with the song, "Come on and Give the Lord the Highest Praise".  He said, "you open with that song, and then I'm going to come to the microphone and welcome everybody and open in prayer and then we'll have dinner."  This was our agreement beforehand and I assembled the worship team and started leading the song and the first time or two I didn't see my husband.  He never came to the platform, but that is  not altogether strange.  Sometimes he might come to the platform after a verse or two of the opening song.  So we sang the song again, and still, no Larry.  Now the only issue is, this is a short song and you can only sing it maybe four or five times tops without it sounding ridiculously redundant unless the Holy Ghost just really hits the place.  And quite honestly the Holy Ghost was not hitting the place right then since people smelled a bunch of roast beef and ham they were wanting to eat.  Just keepin' it real...

So I went on to sing it a fourth time...and a fifth time...and a sixth time, and a seventh time...and...friends, I am not kidding you in the least we ended up singing the dad blasted song at least twenty five to thirty times!!  By the seventh or eighth time, I was so angry thinking, "Larry Shrodes, where are you??!!"  If I had it to do over again I would have just seated the people and welcomed them and prayed over the meal and found out where he was later.  Hindsight is a beautiful thing, and I've learned so much in these 23 years.  People were looking at me as if to say, "why are we continuing to sing this song?"  I think they thought I'd lost my mind.  If you've never heard it, all there is to this song is:

Come on and give the Lord the highest praise, halleluiah, halleluiah
Come on and give the Lord the highest praise, halleluiah, halleluiah
Come on and give the Lord the highest praise, halleluiah, halleluiah
Praise His Holy name

After about thirty times some people were laughing at the worship team.  They were no longer giving the Lord high praise, low praise or any praise. They just wanted to stop singing the same song, and sit down to eat their ham and roast beef.   Finally my husband came sprinting through the back doors and up on the platform and all out of breath he welcomed the crowd and prayed over the food.  Then I took him aside and said, "What in the world just happened?  Why did you tell me to do that song and then leave me there for thirty times of doing it?" 

He explained that as the worship team was going to the platform he suddenly got sick to his stomach and ended up in the men's room...but he never told anybody where he was going.  He didn't realize how long he was going to be in there.  Well I can tell you exactly how long he was in there.  Just sing "Come on and Give the Lord the Highest Praise" 30 times and you will know how long we waited.

I never did that song again, because that night we did it so many times it made ME sick.

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Comments

Ryan said…
This IS a song that is great for about 2 minutes, and quickly transforms into fingernails on a mental chalkboard. I laughed so hard at this.
2:28 AM
Dr. Deanna DossShrodes said…
You are SO right!

I used to only do that song for 2-3 times tops and then transition into another praise song with the same beat that it would go well with.

Glad this gave you a laugh.
12:19 PM
Melissa said…
I have never heard of this song...maybe now I know why :)
9:56 PM
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