It is February. Some consider it the Love month. If February is the love month, what do you do with your spouse the other eleven? Do we really need a special month acknowledging Love? I do not believe we need one. But then my wife and I do not celebrate Valentines, Day, Sweetest Day or any other Hallmark holiday. (I realize Hallmark did not create the holiday.) Isn’t love a year round 24/7 concept and practice?

In these United States we use the same word to show our enjoyment of a steak dinner as we use for our commitment to our spouse. We love good food, on a hot day we love a glass of cold lemonade or iced tea, we love our spouse, we love our cat, we love…it is the same word and often the same expression for all of the above. Have you considered whom you love deeply?

In the gospel of Mark, chapter two begins with a story of four men carrying their paralytic friend to Jesus. The house was so crowded they could not get in carrying their friend to see Jesus. But these men loved their friend so deeply, they climbed the stairs carrying him to the roof of the home and cut a hole in the roof large enough to lower their friend on his mat so that he would end up right in front of Jesus. Jesus did indeed heal the man.

Whom do you love enough to carry to Jesus? For whom would you go to such extremes to bring people to the Savior? Does your heart beat for those outside the family of God?

You can give chocolate candy, flowers, and Valentine’s Day cards if you so choose, but do you love deeply enough to share Jesus with those same people? What are you doing to aid in his/her spiritual walk?

The house that night was full to overflowing. Some were there out of curiosity, some were wanting to see a miracle. Others were hoping to prove Jesus was a phony. Out of that large crowd, at least four men got it. They understood who Jesus was and what He was capable of. Four men loved deeply enough to go to extremes to bring their friend, their loved one to the Savior. What would God have you do to bring your loved ones to the Savior? Whom to you love deeply enough…?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

It is common knowledge that in ministry we are to be Kingdom Focused. That kingdom being God’s Kingdom. Indeed, we study and preach the Bible. We attempt to live as the Bible teaches us, and as Christ demonstrated. That is Kingdom focused, right?

I would say, that depends. Do you consider the churches around you, even your own denomination, to be your allies or your competition? Do the members and leaders of your church see the successes (fruitfulness) of other churches as a victory for the Kingdom or as a threat to your church’s survival. When you hear of another church in your town having a great number of baptisms, do you rejoice with them, or do you think and perhaps verbally share, they must be preaching a “feel good gospel”?

I understand there are times when that may be true. Yet, I believe they are more rare than we expound. It is easier to downplay and even scorn the actions of others when they exceed those of our own church.

When you ride past another church that you know is only surviving with fewer people than your church, are your thoughts similar to, “I’m glad we’re not like them.” or “I’m glad we’re not that small.”? If so, have you not checked your kingdom focus at the door?

When we consider other churches as “the competition” or we piously hold our church as higher than another, we are indeed being something other than Kingdom focused. Should we not fear that God would remove our lampstand for such worldly thinking?  Being Kingdom focused is being totally concerned about His Kingdom not my kingdom. It is all about Jesus, not how big we can grow.

Jesus Himself in Luke 11:17 said, “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.” It is enough that the world and worldly culture is against the Kingdom of God, we are to be unified for Christ and the Kingdom of God.

Four things you can do to be more Kingdom focused:

Ask God to remove any competitive Spirit that would keep you (your church) from being completely Kingdom focused.

Pray asking God to mold you and the leaders of your church to be more focused on what God is doing everywhere rather than in your own church.

Ask for God’s forgiveness for all times you may have allowed your kingdom to displace God’s Kingdom focus.

Pray for other churches in your area. As you pray for others, God will open your eyes to opportunities in serving Him. Your church will be blessed.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

This past Sunday (Jan. 21) we recognized Sanctity of Life Sunday. The phrase “sanctity of life” reflects the conviction that because people are made in God’s image, human life has an essential sacred attribute that should be protected and respected at all times. The very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible states in Genesis 1:26,

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26

The sanctity of human life is not due to the fact that we are such wonderful and good beings. The only reason the sanctity of life applies to humanity is the fact that God created us in His image and set us apart from all other forms of life.

Although that image has indeed been marred by sin, His image is still present in humanity. We are like God, and that likeness means that human life is always to be treated with highest dignity and respect – from the moment of conception to the last breath on earth.

The sanctity of life should motivate us to combat all forms of evil and injustice that are perpetuated against human life. Abortion, violence, abuse, bullying, oppression, human trafficking, self-infliction, & many other evils are all violations of the sanctity of life.

On one social media platform I recently copied and posted a meme that read, “Satan’s strategy is simple…make sin look normal and make righteousness seem strange. Do not be deceived. Every single one of us is being transformed either into the image of Jesus or into the image of this world.”

One person took odds against that first statement and contested that sin is normal. I disagree. Sin is only normal to the unrepentant sinner. Sin is common, not normal. To believe that sin is normal is to say God is a sinner. I am created, WE are created in God’s image. God cannot sin. Therefore, since we are created in God’s image, sin cannot be normal. Sin is only common.

We are all sinners, as the person contesting the above statement also asserted. We live in a fallen world; therefore we are born of a fleshly body and we are all sinners. On that we agree. Yet, we do not need to stay there.

Satan is the one who makes sin look normal and wants you to believe it is. Yet, the Bible speaks clearly, the opposite. If one does not believe the Bible, even morality speaks against sin, because it hurts not only the sinner but others as well and causes others to fall believing “sin is normal”. Satan laughs and some will call it normal.

As another person commented on the same post, “Jesus welcomed all sinners. So, He could point out their sin and implore them to go and sin no more. He accepts sinners, but not sin. Sin is never justified by the fact that we all sin.” May we recognize and observe sanctity of life and not the sanctity of sin. God never sanctifies sin.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

A few years back while serving on staff at a church, we had a young lady visit. Her clothes were not like what most of our congregation wore. She wore blue jeans and a top. They were not the nicest, newest of clothing, but they were not dirty. Maybe not dry cleaner pressed, but her clothes were clean and decent.

I got to know a little about her background. It was not the prettiest of stories. She’d had a rough few years. Life was not kind to her, she was downtrodden. She had tried many avenues; life had gotten to a very low point for her. She did not know where to turn. She had heard of the church but in her thirty some years had never attended church.

She was welcomed into our church, though some were reluctant to give a genuine warm welcome. After three weeks, this young lady did not show up for Sunday services or Bible study. As was our custom, myself and someone else went to visit (to show we care). Our church logo was, “The Caring Place”. I still believe in visiting. A personal visit makes a greater impact than any other communication.

When we arrived, she met us outside her house. The reason she had not attended the previous Sunday was that one of our nice, friendly women had told this soul-searching young lady that she should wear a dress to church and “Blue jeans are not fitting for Sunday mornings.” She exclaimed to us, “I do not own a dress.”

I was not only embarrassed, my face likely turned flush red, as I was furious. Part of me wanted to find out who said this mean and ugly statement to this woman trying to find her way in a world that kept knocking her down. We tried to convince the young lady that her clothing was not an issue in our church and we would certainly address the real issue within the congregation. She would not commit to return. I had a couple of ladies in the church to reach out to her, to no avail. I pray she found a church home, a church that loved her and showed true compassion.

We were a church of several hundred loving, caring believers. Yet, one careless, misplaced comment sent this lost soul back into the darkness of the world.

Many of our churches are filled with loving, compassionate people, at least to one another and perhaps to those guests who look and dress like us. Oftentimes our love stops there.

I get to speak in a lot of friendly churches, and I sometimes ask who is the friendliest church in town. Of course, every church says, “We are!” I follow up with, “If I go to the church down the street and ask them the same question, they will tell me that you are the friendliest church?” It is easy to get caught in the trap of believing our church is the friendliest church in town. After all, we are extremely friendly to one another.

Jesus came to reach the outsiders. He established His New Testament church to do the same. One main goal for every church member should always be to “show that you care”. And you do show how much you care by the way you treat the stranger among you.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

One last article on processes for your church or organization. With questions coming in about processes I thought I’d finish this series up with some examples of effective processes. I use the term processes, some use the word systems for the same “how” structure within an organization. A reminder, when I use the term processes I am speaking of; Processes are those repetitive actions you use to accomplish your goals and advance the mission or purpose of your organization.

First, I’ll share of two processes we led a church in Ohio to implement. While serving as Minister of Education one of the first processes we implemented was a monthly training meeting for all Sunday School leaders. I let the leaders choose the day and time to meet and I led the meetings. Each meeting was about strengthening the Sunday School; fruitful teaching, care structure, class structure, community involvement, prayer ministry within the class, evangelism among others. Prior to this, the church had not any structured training to equip their Bible study leaders.

In the same church we moved away from the fill an empty slot with a warm body mentality. The pastor asked when we were going to fill a particular teaching position. My reply, “I’m not. I’m not going to fill the spot with the first person who will say yes.” Let’s face it this is our recruiting method in many churches. Instead we changed our processes to locate the person most gifted by God to fill positions. We looked for people with passion for the task at hand. People will serve out of their passion.

That church grew by an average of ten percent each year while I was there and continued for several years afterward. Why? It was not about me. The church grew because we implemented simple processes that everyone could grasp. Processes that allowed people to grow instead of forcing certain ideas.

Years later, in another state, another group, regional training was lacking. Some churches had not experienced any training for more than twenty years. God gave me an idea to create a training event. I set out to create a one day event that would encompass training for various areas of church life.

The state convention got on board but cautioned that they had never (in twenty years) held or seen any event in that region of the state to have more than 250 participants. We were praying for 400. On the inaugural day we had 520 in attendance. Why? Not because of me. We instituted a process for promoting and recruiting that far exceeded anything the churches in that region had previously witnessed. That event grew from the 520.

In each of the processes shared above two more components that made these successful were prayer (bathed in prayer) and the personal touch. The more personal between the leaders and congregation/constituents the greater success of your process. Your people do not need to hear you telling them what they need to do while you sit in your “ivory tower” as they see it.

It’s not your people, take a look first at your processes and work toward implementing new, effective processes that lead to fruitfulness. Read the other 3 articles on processes. Let me know how I can assist.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Last month I wrote a couple of articles on organizational processes. The first, “It’s Not your People” described that while the first accusations are usually “Our people”, people are rarely the issue. It is most aways something in your processes. The second article, “Help with Processes,” attempted to help you understand processes using real life examples.

Processes are those repetitive actions you use to accomplish your goals and advance the mission or purpose of your organization. The church’s God-given purpose is to fulfill The Great Commission. Therefore, the processes your church uses are the repetitive actions and practices to supposedly bring people to know Christ, follow in baptism, and grow into mature disciples who are growing others into mature disciples.

On the basis of that last paragraph, more than 80% of U.S. churches are failing in their processes. How can we say we have healthy processes when even our attendance numbers have been greatly shrinking over the last 30 years? Attendance is only a brief indicator. Attendance does not reveal discipleship. It does show we are not multiplying disciples. We need better processes.

Books can be written on good or best practices as long as they stop short of saying you must do it “our way.” Each church must spend quality time in prayer – at a deeper level than normal and each step of their process must also be bathed in prayer. Your first step may be to designate a special prayer team of your most dedicated prayer warriors. This team will not only pray but lead the church in seasons of prayer as your leadership works to develop and implement new/renewed processes for the church.

In the article, It’s Not your People, I gave five questions to ask. This is a good place for your leadership/Process team to begin. The following are suggestions for furthering the process renewal. Please, do not undermine the power of prayer throughout the design and develop process.

1, Identify your what, your purpose. In this phase you may want identify one expectation that your entire church should desire. Or you could identify up to three, how to lead people to know Christ, baptism, and growing current and future members into mature disciples making disciples.

2, Identify behavior patterns within the church that are not accomplishing your answer to number 1. Behavior Patterns are those repetitive actions or practices of your congregation as a whole and as individuals. Our churches are dotted with poor behavior patterns. Your processes determine what behavior patterns are accepted within your organization.

3, Design a process that will introduce new productive behavior patterns, replacing the unproductive ones. Without new/changed behavior patterns, new processes will never take hold. People are not the issue, but what is allowed and encouraged by your processes.

4, Design new expectations that will be set as the standard. This will be the normal anticipated accountability for leadership and congregation. Please use friendly accountability, not forceful culpability. Friendly accountability is helpful, assisting one another as Hur and Aaron holding up the arms of Moses.

This is the How of your organization. How you will accomplish your purpose. Include the expected steps and who will be accountable for each step and part of the process. Be careful to not just throw in what you’ve always been doing.

5, Simplify your new processes and preach, teach them in every setting from the pulpit and Sunday School class, to every committee meeting and each conversation.

I am out of space for this article. Contact me or your denomination staff for more information and assistance on creating productive processes for your church or organization.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Christmas has come and gone. Another year is nearing its end. It is time to reflect on your life in 2023. I recently wrote a letter to the church I am currently serving about this topic. I am not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, but I do believe it is a good time to reflect on the previous year and to make plans for improvement for the coming year. After all, there is always room for improvement. That statement is never truer than in our spiritual walk.

Consider the following three ways to strengthen your spiritual walk in 2024.

1, Spend more time with God throughout the week. Whether it is more time reading, contemplating, and praying scripture, or finding new ways to serve Him in your community. What will you challenge yourself to do to spend more time with God in 2024?

2, Commit to be more faithful in attendance to your church and true worship to God Almighty. Faithful worship and Bible study attendance will honor God and draw you closer to Him and His will for your life. Did you know that by your attendance at worship services and other events at church, you encourage others and help them to worship?

3, Invite others to join you in worship and service at and through your church. More than 85% of people surveyed say they began attending church because a friend invited them. Ask God for a renewed enthusiasm in your life about worship and you will find yourself inviting others.

In Ephesians 1:4-5 the Apostle Paul writes, “for He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for himself, according to his favor and will,”

Will you join me in praying scripture as we reflect on our spiritual walk? “Thank you God Almighty, for you chose me before you formed the world. You chose me to be holy and blameless in Your sight. I cannot be either of those without you. In Love, you made a plan for me to be adopted through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, according to your favor and will. Thank you for choosing me. May I serve earnestly in 2024, drawing nearer to you, growing stronger in you. In your precious Son’s name, Amen.”

May your reflections on 2023 strengthen your resolve for greater service to God in 2024.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

It’s less than a week away. Have you finished all your shopping? Is everything wrapped and ready? If not, fear not. Let me help. Keep reading as I will reveal what the people on your list want and desire this Christmas. I have heard on several occasions this month of how hectic and stressful it seems to be this year. Don’t stress over the events and business of the season.

Brand new to starting a family, Mary and Joseph, a young couple were required by the government to take a trip they had not planned, to a city they had no intention of going to, and they had no funding to make this trip. It was a four day journey on foot, and Mary was nine months pregnant. But they had each other and a promise from God.

Though all of that was stressful enough, when they arrived at the government’s imposed destination, there was no hotel rooms to be found. No boarding houses, no Air BnB, not a room available anywhere. Yet, they had each other and a promise from God. Joseph and Mary learned that when the world says, “No Room,” God says, “No Problem!”

We would do well to take a lesson from Joseph and Mary. When there is no room at the inn this Christmas season, think of Mary and Joseph and say, “No room, No Problem!” When the world says No room, we can say we serve a God who says, “No Problem!”

When you are stressed from the hustle and bustle of the season and the world says there is no room for rest and peace, simply say, No room, No Problem! When in a difficult situation and there seems to be no room for a solution, remember, “No room, No Problem!” When in pain and hardship, when there seems to be no room for comfort, why not say, “No room, No problem!” The people on your list simply want a little time with you.

Keep your focus on Christ this Christmas. Enjoy Christ this Christmas. Keep Christ in your Christmas. Mary and Joseph had each other and a promise from God. You can have that same promise.

And remember…Like Mary and Joseph you may not find room at the inn, but there is always room at the foot of the cross.

Merry Christmas

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

In February 2022 I awoke one morning feeling like I had just got out of the dentist chair, the right side of my face was somewhat numb. Thinking I might be having an allergic reaction to some cough syrup, I continued as usual. Later that day, realizing this was more than an allergic reaction, I headed home, a seven-hour drive. Once in the car I realized my right eye was not closing, blinking, or refreshing itself. Seven hours of manually closing/opening the eye for relief and lubrication, in addition to the increased numbness in the face.

The next day it was diagnosed as Bells Palsy. What we did not realize at the time was along with the muscle dilapidation, I had also experienced severe nerve damage in the right side of my face. Without the nerves, I could lose the use of my eye, the right portion of my mouth and all the muscles surrounding them.

I began Physical Therapy. The first two to three weeks the therapists tried massaging, exercising, and torquing the muscles attempting to bring new life back into them. With no improvement the therapists came up with a different process for treatment, one that included multiple needles and electric currents pulsing through my head – one that had never been tried to this extent before. Today I am at least 99.7% recovered from what appeared nearly impossible.

I share this to help you understand processes. The first process was a standard process for Bells Palsy patients. When that process was delivering no results, the therapists came up with a new process that brought results.

In the church, the way your worship service flows is a process. Your Sunday School or small group Bible studies follow a process. If these are not delivering fruitful results, extending God’s Kingdom, it is likely due to defective processes. Yet, we often criticize the people in our pews or classes – or we blame the leadership. Seldom do we look at the processes. It is, after all, much easier to lay blame elsewhere.

The extent of your community outreach is a result of your process for fulfilling The Great Commission. Many churches have no designed processes for fulfilling The Great Commission. It is a “whatever happens happens“ and we applaud whatever happens.

Processes are the repetitive actions, procedures, and methods you use to reach your goals and advance the mission of your organization. Walk into any Chick-fil-A restaurant and you will be greeted by every employee you come in close contact with. Each employee who serves you throughout your visit, if you thank them, will respond with, “My Pleasure!” emphatically stated with a smile. These are manifestations of well thought out and implemented processes.

Like the Physical Therapists, when your current processes are not accomplishing fruitful results, develop new ones that will. In a later article (January 2, 2024), we will address evaluating, tweaking, and building new processes. With the new year coming quickly, perhaps it is time for some new fruitful processes in your organization.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

When an organization is not functioning properly, the first factor criticized is often the people within the organization. Reality is, People rarely are the main issue or cause. Robert Watts Jr. wrote a book titled, “People Are Never the Problem.” His book deals with a different topic than this article and I deal in opportunities, not problems. Yet, I like the title and it is appropriate.

When an organization is not functioning effectively or properly, it is rarely a people issue. The issue normally lies with the processes set within the organization. That’s right. Your “problems” if you deal with problems are not the people within the organization. Rather they are likely indeed with the processes.

Why was Southwest by far the most successful airline for its first twenty-five years in business? Because it had fruitful processes, effective systems in place. How did Chick-fil-A from 2011 to 2018 increase its revenue annually by 15 percent when the market average was less than 3.5 percent? Because Chick-fil-A builds the same fruitful processes within each employee in every store.

What I refer to as processes, Craig Groeschel, in Lead Like It Matters, refers to as systems. Processes/systems are those repetitive actions you use to accomplish your goals and advance the mission of your organization. Groeschel says systems are how you accomplish your what.

Every organization has systems/processes for doing. Some processes are intentional, others are not. The processes used regularly in your organization are either moving your organization forward toward your goals and fulfilling your mission, or they are holding you back. The results you are getting right now are the precise results your processes are designed to deliver. Check your processes. It’s not your people.

When was the last time your organization’s leadership examined your processes for accomplishing your goals and your mission? If you’re not completely satisfied with the fruitfulness of your organization, before criticizing your people, begin with these questions;

1, What processes/systems are being practiced that need to be overhauled or buried?

2, What new processes need to be put in place?

3, What will the results of this new process look like?

4, What needs to happen by whom to achieve fruitful results?

5, How can we encourage and exhort the expected behaviors from members of our organization?

There were many airlines flying during Southwest’s first twenty-five years. There are many fast-food restaurants in business today. Why did these two excel far above the others? It’s Not your people.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.