September 21, 2018, was the Choose Life Alabama Annual Conference where Jenny Waltman, a Grace Klein Community member, was invited as a facilitator for one of the morning symposium breakout sessions. The time was sweet as leaders came together for support and encouragement to not lose heart and remember the call on their lives.
The topic discussion assigned to Jenny was “Public Relations” and below are all notes relative to the discussion.
What is the Secret Ingredient to Public Relations?
Public Relations: the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a company or other organization or other famous person
Money can bring unnecessary pressure into our ministries creating a distraction from our highest calling. We all need money, but not at any and all cost.
We cannot lose focus on the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Serving every day of our lives can be an exhausting and demanding struggle that has potential for burnout, irritation, frustration and discouragement. Our greatest risk is operating from our own strength.
How do we engage as a people to consistently align with our Father’s heart for our callings, focusing intentionally on lives of surrender, learning the treasure of living hidden behind Christ AND raise money? All of this seems to be a complicated and non-compatible marriage.
As the Bible reminds us…
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and Love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
What is the secret ingredient for healthy Public Relations for your organization?
JESUS
He must never lose the top spot in our privilege and responsibility to serve as ministers of the Gospel. For Jesus to be the highlight of our organizations, He must hold the number one place in our own hearts. And the number one place in all the hearts of our leaders.
Matthew 6:23 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”
Proverbs 4:18 “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
How do we keep lifting the name of Jesus higher and higher?
- Wake up and pray. Pray before you get out of bed. Give the day to Jesus. Pray protection from evil. Pray the acceptance of the interruptions that God will allow to your day. Pray scripture.
Am I letting my brain immediately take me to tasks and responsibilities or am I pausing and remembering I’m going to live this day because of Jesus, with Jesus and as worship (a holy sacred offering) to Jesus.
Don’t look at your phone and let your mind start racing. Take the morning pause – a HOLY pause.
- Consider the interruptions of your day through the filter of Jesus. Does this time use potentially impact the Kingdom of God? Say no to time wasters. What a learning curve this journey can be and we all make mistakes here. We forget to pray and we say yes to things that we find ourselves stuck in and we can repent to that time waste and learn from those mistakes.
Have we left margin?
Often interruptions are the true purposes of our days so we have the privilege to delight in them rather than be irritated by them.
What is the purpose of my life? How does this activity or opportunity align with my purpose? Does God want me to say yes or no? Have I considered Jesus?
Ask hard questions. How am I using my downtime? How much time am I on my phone, watching tv, texting, using GIFs???
- Relationships are valuable and must take precedence over our tasks or fundraising efforts. First being our relationship with Jesus, then our spouse/family, and then the people who God has alongside us to serve through our calling.
A quick way to access relationships – look in your phone. Who am I texting and about what??
“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.” – Acts 4:32
Am I feeding my heart, mind and soul with Jesus? Is my time with Jesus a priority and am I including Him in my daily activities and every facet of my life? Am I praying and asking him for help on which bills to pay, which appt to make, which church or business to approach?
Am I opening up my home to friends? Am I listening to the hearts of people? Am I saying I will pray for you or am I praying? Am I living a life of open handedness or am I stuck in a philosophy of “what’s mine is yours” and NOT a genuine lifestyle of “what’s mine is yours” Am I bringing conversation to heart level matters or speaking about frivolous things?
It is hard to have a relationship with everyone, so ask God to pick the people HE wants us to spend time with and invest in.
- Resources are necessary for operations, but can often be acquired outside of money. We have access to the Kingdom of God.
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.” – Isaiah 48:17
Am I considering the entirety of God’s creative ways of provision? What is available that could help us move forward? Am I remembering other ministries as my partner in the Gospel and not my competition? Am I praying for what I need? Am I asking if God impresses my heart to ask?
Go around the room – what do you need??
- Jesus reminds us to think of others before myself. We must live an others first lifestyle. We have the privilege to share – which is giving and taking.
How can I help you? What do you need?? I am choosing to love openhanded.
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” – Matthew 7:12
God met our need this week. Give examples.
What am I doing to consider others in front of myself? How can I love and care for others? What do I have access to that could help care for others? Am I offering my overage resources to impact and equip others? How am I sharing?
Who did God allow us to see this week and how did we help them?
Give examples.
Allow me to share this quote I read recently from Charlotte Gambill…
“If I give you something it’s now yours. If I share with you, now that something is ours. Giving is essential in leading but so is sharing.
Sometimes we give things away, at others times we say let’s do this together. Sometimes we release but at times we also remain involved and that requires a different set of skills. Try to teach a young child to share and you get the picture. Sharing requires maturity, as it’s permission we give for people to handle, change, chew on, mess up what we still are holding and often have even worked to bring into being.
Leadership that doesn’t like to share often is identified by those who lead from a distance. Talking about leading but living disconnected when it comes to sharing. That’s often because sharing is more emotionally costly. Giving something away and saying this is what you should do, this is now yours allows for immediate detachment.
However saying let’s figure this out, let’s share the joy, the work and reward is very different.
Jesus didn’t just give wisdom he shared it. He didn’t just have some disciples he shared his life with those men. He shared the good and the bad. He shared by asking them what they wanted to do, how they wanted to handle things.
David could of just given his young inexperienced son Solomon the plans for the very house he would now not get to build. But he shared in the process with Solomon. Sharing his connections, his resources, his relationships. Sharing means you can’t control everything and that’s why a lot like to give and move on.
But maybe today we could all ask what do I have that I need to start to not just give but share.”
“Leaders that want to lead well, first must love well. Love is the substance from which you build great service.” – Charlotte Gambill
Definition of sharing:
: to partake of, use, experience, occupy, or enjoy with others
: to have in common
What are you sharing?
What is your ministry sharing?
Give examples.
Friend Grace Klein on FB and we will add you to a group called Acts 4:32 where we can experience together the reality of having in common.
Are we in the trenches with the people we serve? No matter what our position, we are equals with all people. Are we portraying that attitude and kindness to all walks of life?
God will equip us for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
As we grow in Jesus, He will grow our confidence, our competence and our capacity.
- Confidence to communicate our needs and to share the God stories of our day to day experiences
- Competence in our callings – able to have the knowledge and understanding of our Kingdom areas and the wisdom of when to share and what to share
- Capacity to manage our time and use wisely, clarity of when to say yes and no and balance so we don’t exceed our capacity.
Our end of the day goal is not to make money, it is for anyone that remembers us to synonymously remember Jesus. When people think of GKC I pray they will think gkc = Jesus. That people will say, oh yea, I cannot remember the name of that place, but I can take you there and you will experience Jesus. You will know you are loved and you will matter. You will feel something when you around these people in this community. The love that comes from these people. I don’t know how to explain it. All I can say is – Jesus.
Two books I’ve read this month that encouraged my heart and obedience to a life of surrender in ministry, trust in Jesus, desire to live in complete dependency of Jesus and space to grow in my personal intimacy with Jesus are:
Soul Space: Where God Breaks In by Jerome Daley
The Backward Life by Jarrod Jones
In summary. The secret of public relations is JESUS.
- Wake up with Him
- Take the interruptions He has chosen for you
- Value your relationship with Jesus and others
- Remember all your resources
- Live others first with intentionality of sharing