Sitting in a church worship service as a guest, I was not surprised at the prayers being lifted up. In all honesty, the same prayers were being lifted in churches all across our nation. Being blessed to be a guest in several different churches each year, I hear the same prayers are voiced in most every evangelical church each week. I am talking about denominations that do not have liturgical prayers quoted in each service. At these churches, at the time of receiving the offering, whoever is praying is likely going to voice, “Bless the gift and the giver…” At the close of the service you will hear, “Put a hedge of protection around us.” Or “Keep us until we meet again…”

Not that any of these are bad or unbiblical prayers. They are rote. Most of our prayers are rote, even in church services. We are praying what we have heard others pray for years. I was at lunch one Sunday after visiting a church, with a man, his wife and college age son. The father asked his son to bless the food. After some awkward hesitation, the son voiced this prayer; “God is good, God is great, thank you for our food. Amen.” Had this been a four-year-old child, I would have been impressed. But this was a 21–22-year-old college student. Though apparently raised in church no one had taught him to pray beyond a preschool prayer.

I know, it is easy to fall into this trap praying rote prayers that we hear and voice on a regular schedule. We are praying from the head when God’s desire is for us to speak from the heart. We have become experts at praying from the head and not from a heart seeking God’s face. Jesus gave us what is referred to as the sample prayer, The Lord’s Prayer. I believe we should pray the Lord’s Prayer, among others. I also believe Jesus was trying to teach us to pray from the heart, not memorization.

Study the prayers of men and women in the Bible. They are rich and flowing with heartfelt passion. They are speaking to God with a passion or a burden as if kneeling before his very feet, pleading for life. Our prayers should be the same. Yet, we default to some prayer ritual we have heard or have been taught as liturgy. I seldom hear great emotion or passion in prayers, even in church services. Whether it is prayers before meals, at bedtime, in worship services, or other times, many of our prayers are vain attempts at empty rituals as if it were a duty to be filled.

Praying from the heart is simply crying out to God with a deep-seated passion that emanates from deep within your soul. When you long for something so bad that you will do almost anything for it, your passion index has raised almost to the level about which I am speaking. A heart-felt prayer is a yearning so strong that you cannot hesitate in crying out to God.

Will you set aside the regular run of the mill, rote prayers to attempt today to voice your prayer from a pure God-seeking heart? Try to use words and sentences that you have never used in prayer before as you thank, request, and intercede to God.

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.

Recently I received a preliminary copy of a press release about me coming to work with a particular organization. In it was recorded, “We welcome Dr. George Yates…” I see or hear this several times each year. When I share that I do not hold a Doctorate degree, I get differing responses (none condescending). Some of the major reasons I hear are, “You’ve written several books.” Or “I’ve heard you speak on several occasions and…” or “I’ve read and heard of your experiences. You must have…” My favorite response and I’ve received it more than once, “Well, You’re Dr. Yates to me.” That one is always a welcome affirmation of God’s working through my feeble self.

Our society has equated formal education with success and recognition. Formal education does bring knowledge. Yet knowledge alone does not breed success. It is my belief that the gaining of knowledge is a great thing and necessary in life.

Education is a must for growth and effectiveness in life. To be effective, you must be a life-long continual learner. I am constantly attempting to learn. Reading, listening, viewing videos, and observing others to learn all that I can, a life-long learner. I also try to learn from my mistakes and shortcomings. First, I must recognize and acknowledge those shortcomings. Then, I oftentimes consider my mentors and contemplate, “How would he have handled that differently? How should I have …?

Understanding how to apply knowledge is wisdom and wisdom is where the effective use of knowledge is applied.” Speaking of our society, Bob Biehl, in his book on Mentoring states, “The criteria for the judgment of people usually rests upon knowledge rather than wisdom, achievement rather than character, profit rather than creativity.”

Knowledge is great, get all you can. But do not stop at acquiring knowledge. Knowledge builds great trivia buffs and may help you if you are ever a contestant on Jeopardy. Yet knowledge without application will never breed effectiveness or success in your ventures. Application requires wisdom and will always breed deeper levels of wisdom.

Some men and women that I have learned from over the years have had several diplomas on their walls. Others had not one. Each one of those men and women has been used by God to equip, encourage, and inspire me to be better, to gain more knowledge and wisdom, to reach for God’s best for me.

Be a life-long learner in every experience of every day. Get all the education you can. If you are a classroom learner, take classes to grow you into God’s best. Even if you are not a classroom learner, read, study books, videos, and most of all study the actions of other people – especially those you look up to and respect. Find others to mentor you.

Think on this: Most all of the learning of God’s servants and servant-leaders in the Bible gained their learning by means other than in a classroom. There is no greater learning experience than through mentoring. Be a mentor to others and no matter your age, always be on the look out for those who can mentor you. Who can you learn from and grow because of the time you spend with him/her?

I’d like to think some refer to me as Dr. Yates, not because of my knowledge or achievement, but because of God’s gifting and His wisdom demonstrated – His character depicted – and His creativity displayed. I live to learn to be used by God, not for personal recognition, but to bring Him glory and exaltation.

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.

Mentorship is not a lifelong commitment. Certainly, it can be, but not necessarily. You, like me, have likely had several mentors throughout your life. Though not always in a formal mentoring relationship, various men have come into my life if only for a season. I must admit, I have very seldom used the term mentor or mentorship in my life. The fact is, I have never entered into a “formal” mentorship agreement either as the mentee or mentor. Yet, I have been blessed with mentors throughout my life.

Until recent generations, mentoring historically was as commonplace in life as daily eating. For centuries the greatest education came through mentoring relationship. Mentoring was a way of life between generations. It is how things were passed down, generation to generation; skills, trades, parenting, cooking, you name it, mentoring made it happen.

Mentoring in its absolute rawness is developing another person. Think back on your life, even as a child. Who in your life were those people – other than parents – that you looked up to, whom you respected, who you learned from. For many people an aunt or an uncle was an early life mentor. Some of my uncles were. Others could have been Bible study teachers, choir leaders, sports coaches, even school teachers. A mentor can be any person who takes a personal interest in you with a desire to see you succeed.

As you entered your adult life, who were the people or person who you looked up to and respected, a person who knew you by name and perhaps took you under her/his wing without wanting anything in return? They may have been in the same profession, or not. Their objective – whether stated or not – was to help you succeed.

Can you name three of those informal mentors who have been in your adult life? Why not write their names down and this week send each one a note of thanks for being one of those informal mentors in your life?

Now let’s turn the wheel around full circle. Perhaps one of the main reasons we have a separation of generations today is because we have allowed the art of mentorship to slowly die away. Mentoring as a lifestyle- as practiced since the first two generations of humans has all but disappeared in our lifetime. You and I have the power to stop the disappearance of mentoring. It is time to think of the young people in your life. Will you list the names of three younger adults, in their twenties whom you know by name? Young adults whom you have a desire to see succeed. How could you pour into each one as a mentor beginning this week?

Let’s close the separation of generations by engaging in mentoring relationships this week.

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.

“We’ve seen phenomenal growth; great spiritual growth, individual growth of team members…and how that spiritual growth spilled over to the church…” Jeff Perkins, Pastor, Mansfield Baptist Church, GA.

Perhaps today, greater than any time in modern history, utilizing teams in any organization is being realized as producing more effective results and forward progress. The collaborative effort of teamwork will propel any organization forward. The combined knowledge and varied experience of team members propels the team and organization toward preset goals, potentially reaching beyond expectations. However, not utilizing team traits effectively can lead to less than stellar results. (see previous post)

Let’s identify three organizational benefits of utilizing teams properly. First, the collaborative effort blends complementary energies and influences. Rather than one personality controlling the conversation and direction of a team, a collaborative effort combines every team member’s experience and wisdom. This creates a positive energy that incorporates everyone. In addition to the experiences and wisdom of combined energies, created also is a corporate influence among the team members which can overflow throughout the organization.

The second organizational benefit of properly utilizing teams is it fosters creativity. As discussions ensue, the brains higher level thought processes kick into gear and creativity begins to flow. One person may make a suggestion or ask a question. A second person adds a possible ingredient. Then a third person chimes in with a component that will be conducive to the workforce and a fourth person may bring to light some resource already within the organization. All these together form the basis of the right path to follow.

Organizational seldom comes from one person. A team of five to seven will prove to be an optimal source of creativity time in and time out. When teams get too large decision making becomes hampered and input from all team members is weakened. Keep teams at seven or less for your greatest productivity and results. Leaders should interject questions that encourage and promote creative thinking.

The third organizational benefit of utilizing teams is teams supports proprietorship. It is not that team members will be taking ownership of the organization. But they will take ownership of moving the organization forward. It no longer is about a job or self-interests. The team project is about results, moving the organization forward.

When teams are properly utilized, when the purpose is clear, goals and objectives are established from the beginning, open communication prevails and achievements are celebrated, people move to a higher level of achievement. Individuals begin to take responsibility in ownership of the success of the team’s objectives and the organizations progress.

What will you do this week to improve the organizational benefits of your teams – those you serve on and the teams throughout your organization?

To see a 4 minute video of Jeff Perkins and 2 church members testimony click here .

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.

Not only in sports, teams have become commonplace in the business world, private sector and in the spiritual community. While the team concept has been around for ages, it has certainly increased in the past few decades. In the past decade and a half, I cannot remember how many times pastors have stated to me, “We’ve moved from committees to teams.” I actually believe this is a good move, if the move is truly to a team concept. Unfortunately, in many churches, the “teams” still serve as committees only with a new moniker.

A team is a small group of people serving with a specific purpose and working in coordination to accomplish stated tasks and goals. You do not go to a football stadium and expect to see some players using an American football, others a European football, and still others swinging a golf club or tennis racket. There would not be much of a team in that atmosphere.

Let’s briefly look at four characteristics of highly effective teams.

1. The purpose of a team is clear to everyone on the team and those looking in from outside the team. If a team is put together to seek and clarify the future vision for the organization, then their tasks should be driven by the aspects of seeking said vision. If on the other hand a team is put together to “rubber stamp” the leader’s desire, then a better name for the team would be “The Yes man and woman team” (sarcasm).

Whatever the purpose of a team is it should be succinctly stated from the very beginning and clear to all inside the team and those outside looking in.

2. Goals and expectations should be set at the implementation of the team. The first meeting of any team should be orientation of the purpose (see #1) and establishing goals and expectations. Without these being set at the start, will lead the team to floundering, chaos and a breakdown of the team’s drive.
3. Open, continual communication between team members is a must. While teams may not meet together in person, regular, open communication channels should be set during the expectations meeting and a follow through pattern established at the start. With today’s multi-instant communication methods continual or regular communication between team members is 100 times better than getting together for regular scheduled meetings. And in many cases, it’s all in writing!
4. Celebrating team achievements is more crucial to effective teams than most people would give credit. When your team, a portion of your team, or an individual on your team reaches a goal or achievement or brings to the team a key in effectively moving forward, that individual, portion and entire team should be recognized within the larger organization. You want people at all levels to know achievements are recognized and celebrated within your organization.

No matter what field you are in, your organizations effective forward movement depends on proper establishing and empowerment of teams within the organization. One of the most important obligations you have as a leader (organization or team) is to ensure your teams are established with a clear purpose, with properly aligned goals and objectives, a communication process, and a celebratory mindset.

What should your first step be in realizing effective team strategies within 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.

As a child one of my earliest Christmas shopping memories was a particular shopping trip with my Dad & brothers. Our goal was to each pick out a gift for Mom. Dad would purchase the gifts, take them home, wrap them, and place them under the tree until Christmas morning.

As we walked through the perfume section of the store, I saw what I thought looked like a stage coach with perfume bottles in it. I grew up in an era where westerns were king and every boy wanted to be a cowboy. Intrigued by the “stagecoach”, I spoke up and told Dad that’s what I wanted for Mom.

To my surprise, Dad reached up and picked only one piece of the stage coach. Instead of a stage coach, what I had chosen looked more like a canoe with a bottle of perfume. My disappointment quickly faded as Dad handed it to me to place in the shopping cart. I was thrilled, looking at this small boat-like canister white and dazzling with glitter. I was extremely excited to buying (with Dad’s money) a gift so shiny and sparkling for my Mother.

In fact, as soon as I got back to my Mother, with extreme excitement in my voice I said, “Mom, let me tell you what I got you.” Dad interrupted me right away to explain that it would not be a surprise Christmas morning if I told Mom what I bought her. From that moment until Christmas morning, I could hardly contain myself. I so wanted to let it out. I was ready to burst with excited emotion, desiring to tell my Mother of this special gift.

Those are great memories of childhood Christmases. As I reflect on memories like this one, I also think of the Christ of Christmas. The reason we celebrate Christmas. If an inexpensive, plastic, canoe shaped perfume container could evoke that much excitement and exuberance, how much more deserving is the one who came to earth as a child to offer me a home in heaven? Is my excitement for Him paled in comparison to the excitement I displayed as a child over this one small gift?

Where is your excitement this Christmas season? Was it displayed at the opening of presents? The sharing of fond memories with family? How much excitement will be displayed through your words and actions this Christmas season and into the New Year for the one who provides so much in your life, including an opportunity to spend eternity in a place called heaven?

Enjoy this Christmas season recalling the Christ of Christmas and all He has brought you through.

• This is an updated post from a Christmas past.

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.

The world offers many shiny, glittering, eye-catching “gifts” that look so good and enticing. Too often, when we accept what the world offers and tear away the pretty wrappings, our excited expectations are replaced by feelings of emptiness and sometimes even guilt. All these empty emphases will not bring the joy or the peace of the season, or good will toward others. Joy, peace and good will only come from placing our eyes on the greatest gift of all time –Jesus!

Presents are like that – material things cannot satisfy the longing in our heart for something spiritual, for purpose in life, for focus, or contentment in life.

Jesus – on the other hand, unlike material gifts, is the greatest gift you could give to someone else. His gift of life is not empty- not hollow, but it is exhilarating –it is life giving. It won’t break, rot, rust, or wear out. It will never lose its power. It is a gift that will last for eternity.

Actually, you cannot give it. The only thing you can do is offer this greatest gift of all. Some people have bought into the idea that all I have to do is live my life and that will be enough.

But that is not what God’s Word tells us. Trying to live a good life and go to church is not enough. When Christ is truly Lord and Savior of a person’s life, he/she will want to share and live doing the things that God desires – things that may otherwise seem uncomfortable.

It is ours to be obedient and share what God has given us – the greatest gift of all, Jesus. Let’s look at three important principles of any gift from the recipient’s perspective.

First, you must accept the gift. It is not your gift if you do not accept it. Once you accept a gift you must unwrap and open it, correct? If you do not open it, you have not fully accepted the gift. Perhaps you have accepted the offer, but not the gift. True acceptance comes only after you unwrap the gift.

Jesus is the greatest gift of all. What have you done to unwrap God’s greatest gift to you?

Second, you must believe in the gift. When you unwrap the gift you want to believe it is what it says. If it is a sweater, you want to believe it will keep you warm. Unfortunately, many people never do anything with this greatest gift of all. Therefore, we must ask, have I truly accepted God’s greatest gift, Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior? How is He Lord and Savior of my life?

The third step is to put the gift to proper use and enjoy the benefits of the gift. When anyone gives you a gift, you put it to use. You wear a sweater so everyone can see it. You not only wear it. You make sure all your friends see it and you share with others of the one who gave you the gift.

Accepting God’s free and greatest gift is truly greater than any gift you will receive this Christmas. Do you wear it like a diamond ring? Do you tell everyone you meet about it, praising the one who gave it to you – the God of all creation? Let’s put into practice this greatest gift God has offered to each one.

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.

I looked for years attempting to discover a job where you went in, had your orientation training, went to work and never had any further training. Not looking for myself, I was naive enough to believe there had to be some job, somewhere, in some field with these qualities. I was seeking help from people from all aspects of the corporate world and from volunteer organizations. There is not one – anywhere. With every job there are update trainings for safety, new paperwork, updated software, improved techniques, new products, and more. Continued training is part of every job.

Oddly enough, it is in the church where I find the strongest resistance to training. I have even heard people say things as, “I’ve been doing this for twenty years. I don’t need more training.” This type attitude saddens me and here’s why. All jobs in the corporate world deal with the temporal – temporary things of this life. In the church, we deal with the eternal. How much greater is our need for ongoing, updated training?

When your employees or volunteers attend training what is the follow up process. Both in the corporate world and the volunteer/church sectors every organization should build in some type of follow up for training. This is a great place for coaching leadership, whether hiring an outside coach or training all persons in supervisory positions in coaching leadership skills. Unfortunately, in many organizations the only follow up is found in one question, “How was it?” That’s it. Nothing else is seldom said to insure there is some progress being made in regard to information learned at the training.

Even leaders, CEOs, pastors and others should have some structure in place to debrief the material covered and a structured follow up configuration for the individual and the organization. If we are attending or sending personnel to training events without structured follow up to put the gained knowledge and resources into practice to move either the individual or organization forward, are we not wasting resources. After all, training should not be to add another notch in our attendance belt or to check one more conference off our list. Every training event attended should benefit the individual or organization for years ahead.

Training should enhance skillset development, leadership ability, organizational processes, communication, and any number of other forward moving attributes. If our learning is not improving our doing, then we must question whether our time, finances, and other resources are being used fruitfully.

Coaching to support learning is highly successful when implemented immediately following a training event and carried out over an appropriate period of months. In other words, the greatest benefits to the individual and organization is when follow up coaching is implemented for the next weeks and months. Each coaching session advancing the individual and organization forward.

With each coaching session the individuals of the organization more consistently apply the new material/approaches in their work and life. Coaching sessions should not be too closely scheduled nor should there be too much lag time between sessions. To begin follow up coaching, every two weeks should be adequate in most scenarios. Depending on the advancement these could later be moved to monthly until the new processes, new material is absorbed into the fabric of operations. Always end a coaching session with an action step to be implemented by the coachee(s) before the next scheduled session.

What is your first step to building a training follow up structure in your life and any organizations you are involved with?

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.

Pastor Shawn returned from a training conference convinced he had found what the church he pastored  needed to pull out of the ten year slump they were experiencing. He called a meeting with his leadership team for Sunday afternoon. Shawn entered the meeting charged up and excited about the new possibilities. His excitement dropped when he walked into the room to find less than half of the church leadership team present. “How could they not show up for such an all-important meeting,” he thought.

Not wanting his excited spirit to be totally crushed, he jumped right into his subject matter, “I’m so excited to tell you what I learned at the conference I attended this past week… I believe God showed me what we need to make the needed return in our church.” Within a couple of sentences, it was obvious. The face of every person in the room shared the same discontented expression as if to say, “Not again. We’ve been here before – over and over.”

The truth was they had been “here” before, every time Pastor Shawn returned from a conference. Shawn had attended a conference every four to six months, each time convinced he had the key to bringing new people in. Following each conference, he worked with his leadership team to begin developing a new structure for the members in the church to “change” their approach. The issue was each time Shawn returned from a conference he wanted to stop what they had been working on and begin developing some new plan. Not one new structure had been implemented before Pastor Shawn returned and stopped all progress to develop the latest, greatest he had heard about in his latest conference.

Within weeks of this latest endeavor, Pastor Shawn found himself out of the pastorate. Flexibility is one thing, but an unstable, unfocused mind is not a good leadership trait.

A lot of good can come out of conferences and other training events. I lead many myself, desiring to lead individuals, churches, and organizations to better fulfill God’s purpose for life. Yet, we all must use discernment about what is right for our church. And that which is right is that which God has gifted and impassioned the people of any given church to carry out. People will serve out of their passion and giftedness, not out of pie in the sky dreams that we’ve learned about at a conference.

One of my big principles to live by and teach is, “Don’t copy models, capture principles.” Instead of trying to copy what someone else is doing, find out what passions and giftings God has instilled in the members of your church. Every true born-again believer has been gifted and impassioned to serve God in particular areas. There are numerous surveys and assessments available to assist you in leading your people in this discovery. The second step then is to help people connect passion to ministry – serving God.

So impassioned am I about this that I will speak in an advisory role, to any pastor or church leadership team – at no cost to you – in this discovery and implementation process. Simply contact me or your denominational leaders for assistance. Begin today in your life and leading others in unearthing God’s purpose and desires for living the abundant life. What steps will take in this arena to becoming focused and stable for 2022?

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.

Trust is a key component to any relationship, church, business, or organization. Therefore, it should be understood that a leader’s ability to build trust is key to any organization. People will not stay at an organization where trust is absent or lacking. Fifty-nine percent of respondents to one study stated they had left at least one organization due to trust issues. Those negative numbers are growing.

A more recent study showed only seven percent of respondents trust their supervisors/organizations were looking out for the individual’s best interest. This could be one’s perspective of individual desires or it could be leaders placing organizations goals above employee safety, health, and welfare. Whatever the reason, a lack of trust is growing in volunteer as well as employment organizations.

One of the major reasons for lack of trust is always communication. Lack of healthy communication will always breed distrust. Where there is a lack of trust there will also be discontentment, low morale as well as high turnover. Untrustworthy leaders always rob an organization (church, business, team) of its best people.

You, like me, have likely served in an organization where people were put in positions of leadership without the needed skills to effectively lead a team to produce desired results. Usually when this happens and morale begins to wane, levels of bureaucracy are initiated. With each new level of bureaucracy more people exit the organization. Knowledge can be passed on, trust can be built, but without the development of skills on the part of leadership, the first two will fall flat for the organization.

What does trust building (and maintaining) require? As stated above, open honest communication is high on the list. Consistency in organizational structure and operations is perhaps a close second. Are operational procedures carried out equally across all levels of employment?

The story is told of IBM’s CEO walking from one building to another with a group of his executives being denied entrance because he did not have his security name badge. All the other executives had theirs, but the security person at the gate refused to let the unbadged man in. The executives immediately came to his defense, even sharing with the security guard, “He’s the CEO, he can fire you on the spot.”

It was the CEO that stopped their defense saying, “No, he’s right. That is the policy.” The entire arty of executives waited outside the gate until someone retrieved the CEO’s name badge from his office. The CEO commended the Security officer for doing his job well. This is building trust throughout all levels of an organization.

Trust is the foundation of all nourishing and wholesome relationships. At home, work and every team on which you serve, how well are you doing at building healthy trust within your circles of influence?

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.