 Right. Good morning everyone. Welcome to the session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer and we'll get into our teaching. Anyone would like to pray? Go ahead Francis. Let's pray. Thank you for this wonderful time. Thank you for a good day Lord. We are coming to the second section. Thank you for here with us. The pastor to teach us Lord, give us the wisdom and knowledge to understand the things Lord. We are asking the wisdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright. So last class we did chapter 6 and chapter 7. Chapter 6 we talked about organizational structure and then in chapter 7 we talked about innovation and creativity. Okay. So we'll get into chapter 8. Chapter 8 is very interesting because chapter 8 has a lot of practical insights and these practical insights are, you know, so this portion, this chapter is written from a leader's point of view, like a pioneer's point of view. Right. So there'll be a few, you know, points here where we feel, okay, I'm not, I may not start my own business but I'm just going to be working or I'm going to be serving in a church. But these are, you know, eventually remember that you will, when you join an organization, you will grow into leadership. Right. And as you grow into leadership, these are, you know, certain categories that you will begin to work with. So let's look at chapter 8. People, processes, performance and rewards. Right. You know, HRM, Human Resource Management is managing people, which is a very important aspect of an organization. Right. I'm sure all of you have heard of HR, Human Resource. Right. So there's employee motivation, there's resolving conflicts, performance evaluation, employee rewards, employee retention. And so in an organization, it's very important to be able to meet the needs of the people who are working for you. That's your stuff. Right. It's very little to do about, okay, it's my organization, it's my company and I want to do it that my way. It's not always, it's not always that way. Right. We need to be able to, you know, bring in employee motivation. Why is, why should a person stay in this company or this organization when he or she has 20 other options in 20 other places or in different countries? Right. Why, why is this person staying? So we're going to look at this chapter and, you know, bring out some aspects on people, processes, performance and rewards. Right. Number one, pay fairly based on contribution and value to the organization. Colossians chapter 4.1 says, Masters, give your born servants what is just and fair knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Now, this is what I meant when I said, you know, as this chapter is mostly looking from a pioneer's point of view. But as an organization, it's very important to pay fairly. Right. So for example, there's a person who's working for maybe, you know, it's not always tenure. Meaning it's not always like a person should be working for five years, only then he'll get a good pay. It's not always, you know, nowadays, especially now in this generation, you have the skills, you have the ability, people are willing to pay you. Right. You and now with people working remotely, you have the skill, you have the ability, I'll pay you, you get the work done. That's all what matters. Right. And if you know, I know a lot of folks who are into just an example, right, graphic designers. I have a few friends who are graphic designers. They don't have a schedule. They wake up, whatever time they feel like, right, but they're very good at their job. They wake up, whatever time they feel like, they open their laptop, whenever they feel like they all work from home. Right. And they do their work, they sit up at night, they go out for lunch, they come back. I'll be looking at them and say, what is this? You know, and they're doing well, doing very well. Right. But the thing is, they've got the skill, they've got the ability, they've worked hard to learn the skill that they have. Right. So as employees, as employers, we need to pay our people justly and fair, right. Have a mutual understanding. Do they have the current knowledge? Do they have the current skills? Do they have the ability to solve problems? Do they have the ability to make decisions? Right. To have, you know, the ability to stand as a leader, right, provide leadership skills. The ability to build communications, build gaps in an organization. These are intangible skills that you and I have and we must use it. Right. We cannot expect an organization to pay us well and do nothing about it. Right. There was this very hilarious video that somebody sent me a long time back. This interviewer is asking a little boy, probably about six or seven year old boy. He said, do you want to be rich? He said, yes. The little boy said, yes, I want to be rich. So what do you want to do when you want to be rich? I want to do very little work. Right. And what will you gain by doing very little work? I want to gain very, a lot of money by doing very little work. He's a six year old boy. Now that doesn't work in reality. Right. In reality is you have the skills, you put it into place, you get paid. Right. And nowadays, you know, we have these whole, this whole thing of, you know, gender, you know, male and female. All of that has gone out the window because in this generation, it doesn't matter if you're a male or a female, as long as you have the skills, you have the skills, an organizational value. Right. Never permit culture or entitlement to set in. The moment people operate with an idea that they deserve the role or they deserve the position, they begin to, you know, it impairs performance. Right. So for example, if I believe that I deserve the role that I have, then my performance goes down. And it brings, you know, lethargy, it demoralizes others. Nobody's encouraged to do the work that they're doing. Right. Well, let me just share the notes so we can all be on the same page. Okay. Number two. Oops. Sorry. Yes. Number two, ensure people are paid on time. Leviticus 1913. Go ahead. Anyone can read that. Do not drop or take advantage of anyone. Do not hold back the backs of someone you have hired, not even for one night. In an organization, you know, for example, some of you are going to become pastors. You have associate pastors or you have staff members with you and sure they paid on time. Don't say, wait, I don't have the money now. I'll give you after three days. All of that is not there. Right. When you're, when you, when they have worked, got to pay them on time. What does the Bible say? Don't take advantage of anyone. Do not hold back wages from someone you have hired, not even for a night. Not even for one night. Right. Organizations, most organizations have a monthly cycle, right? So there are some organizations that play once in two weeks. Some of them pay bi-weekly. Some of them pay, you know, once a week, right? But mostly if you look at India, it's always a monthly cycle. So remember that the people that you have hired have families. They probably have people to take care of in their family. So we don't withhold money. And when you do that, the scriptures present this as a violation. And it's regarded as a sin. When we hold back wages that are, that we have to pay somebody and we don't give it back, it's regarded as a sin. Right. So when an organization is probably strapped and may not be in a position to make salary payments, that's all right. We can probably send an email, tell them, okay, this is what is happening. Give them the details. But don't keep them into, you know, just wait for it. Whenever I feel like I will decide to give, no, that's wrong. The organization has to be able to pay its people. Right. So for example, something that we do at ABC is that when we have vendors, right? Now, you know that we use a lot of vendors, right? Coffee, food, tea, everything that our vendors, LED screen, sound system, every place that our vendors, not one of them. I would say that what we do is we get the budget. The budget comes in, we get the approval. The moment the approval is got. The moment, so, okay, this is approved. LED screen for the next six months approved. The payment is done. Right. So then it is their responsibility to come and do it. We don't say, you know, you do it. Then we, when we have the time, when we have the money, we know. Funds are given immediately. So that people know that we value their, what they're doing, right? They're coming, they're setting up the LED, doing the sound. They value it, right? And they know that we will pay them. I remember this one time, something happened. And this happened long time back, I think 2014, I think, I mean, 15. Something happened, the payment got delayed. But this vendor of ours, he never even called us back. Right. And it was couple of months later that they came and, you know, they said, see, this is what has happened. Actually, I didn't get paid for this two months or whatever the time frame was. And then when we went into it, we saw that somewhere in the, it was an internal problem. Somewhere in the emails or somewhere in the, it had gone by. But what surprised us was, he said, I knew that I'll get paid. Because I worked with you for so many years. I know that APC will pay. Somewhere something's gone wrong. So I came to just let you know, but I'm not in a hurry. I know you all will pay us. So that is, that is the standard that you and I must set as an organization. It's hard, right? It takes time to set that standard, but you can, you and I can do it, right? Don't exploit people. Don't hold back wages. That's what we've been talking about. God forbids us from exploiting, cheating our employees. When something is rightfully theirs, just give it to them. Never exploit the poor and the powerless. You told me 24 14, you shall not oppress a hired servant who's poor and neither, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land or within your gates, right? Now, one of the, when we look at the Old Testament, especially, there was a lot of oppression where the rich people would oppress the poor. It was very common in the Old Testament, right? And that's why the story of, you know, Boaz and Ruth is so wonderful, right? See, Boaz was a rich man, right? And, and when he, he had the right to oppress the people because his field, but he said, let the people glean, let them take whatever they want. Don't, don't, don't be behind them. Don't, you know, trouble them. Let them take whatever they want. Let them glean in the, in the, in the crops. And when God saw that, God honored him, right? And he was blessed. He decided not to oppress the people. Did he have the ability? Yes, but he decided not to. So in the Old Covenant, especially, it's very common where the rich would oppress the poor. We saw a little bit of it in the New Covenant as well, right? Where the Romans were oppressing the Jews. And we can also see it now where we can have leaders and pioneers or people who are in business oppressing their stuff, right? And when we do that, we are sinning, sinning against God. And so we must never do that. Proverbs, there are plenty of verses. Proverbs 22, 22, not rob the poor because he is poor or oppressed, he afflicted at the gate. For the Lord will plead their cause and plunder the soul of those who plunder them. Right? Next point. Higher right, retain and review. Proverbs 26 and verse 10. Anyone like to read that? Any employer who hires any fool that comes along is only hurting everybody concerned. Yeah. Higher right, retain and review. In an organization, we have to higher right. Just because I have a friend, I don't hire him. That person must be able to do the task of what the job is, right? You hire right, you can do things right. You retain people by giving them value in an organization, right? What is the meaning of retaining? You keep them in an organization, right? You, when you hire somebody, you know that they're an asset to the organization, you retain them, right? You give opportunities, you spread their horizons, meaning you give them, you don't make them, you know, stay in that same cage for many years. You give them opportunities. Now, what will happen is if we don't retain, people will look at other opportunities. Now, there's nothing wrong in looking for other opportunities, right? But it's very important to do our best. Now, see, I cannot control. So for example, I started church or I started a ministry or an organization. I hire some people three years down the line that the person who I really liked, right? May decide to get another job elsewhere. I may say, hey, you know, that's why we have exit interviews. Ask them, is there something that went wrong from our end? Or is there something that we could have done better to help you to stay back? Or is there another role that you'd prefer to do? And so they share. And if it's possible, they stay back, right? I can give you an example. What happened to me was when I was working in one of the, you know, in the corporate, in about six months, I put my papers down. I said, I want to quit. Okay. And then the manager called us and said, why do you want to quit? So I had an exit interview. He said, no, I'm not happy with what I'm doing. I can do so many other things better than this. Okay. Those days I didn't have any commitments. So I was just, I said, I'm not happy. And I wanted to do something more than this. And I remember this exit interview. I was probably about 21, 22. I was talking to these managers and they were saying, okay, Paul, we'll, we'll, we'll give you opportunities to travel. Yeah. You can go to different places and you can, you know, start training people on, you know, language and communications. So is that something you'd be interested? I said, yes. Right. So I said, where will you, what are the opportunities around? We can send you overseas. We can send you to other countries. We can send you within our nation. I said, okay, I'll stay back. I went back. I went back, sat on my desk, continued working. It was a very simple interview. Why? Because they gave me better opportunities. Right. And I knew that, you know, if they said it, they'll do it. Right. And so thank God, I mean, I got so many opportunities to travel. And so this is one of the ways that you can retain people right now. You don't retain people by saying, hey, I'll send you here, send you there. And then tell them, no, you stay here after two months. Right. When you say something, you must do it. Right. And then you review people. Now, just because they have the ability, just because they have, you know, skills, doesn't mean that they are perfect. Right. As a leader, you must be able to review their work. Right. Every year. Right. It's been more than a decade that we are working here. Right. Every year we have a review and over the years, we keep having reviews. Right. So we have reviews as a pastoral team, as staff. And for each area of ministry, we review what we did. 2023, this is what we did. 2024, you know, so the end of 24, we will review the whole work we've done. So 2025, we will see. Okay. This is what was done. This is this thing work. This didn't work. And we review the entire work that is to given to us. Now, reviews help us to do better. It helps us understand that, okay, these are areas that I should not have gone into or these are areas I could have done better. Right. It's not to bring us down, but reviews help us get better. Right. You know, for example, you're learning an instrument. You play for one year, you go back and you review yourself. Oh, man. Okay. I didn't know these chords. Please have learned these chords in this year. Right. It helps us. So, so when you're, when it comes to hiring people, hire right. And just because somebody looks good, don't hire them. Just because somebody dresses well, don't hire them. Just because somebody stays near the office, don't hire them. Right. You should hire the right people, retain the right people and review them help them grow. Right. Now, as I said, in retaining, there will be people who will choose to leave. We cannot hold them back. Right. But one of the things we can do is find out why they want to leave and so that the organization can get better. So we have something called as performance reviews, feedback improvement, creating culture where everyone is able to address their problems, meet each other's needs. Right. And talk to everyone. Six to one. Okay. I'm just going to keep going. If you have questions, just feel free to stop me and ask your questions. Right. Okay. Six to one. Treat people the way you would like to be treated. Luke six, 31 and 36. Luke chapter six was 31 and 30 days. Do for others just what you want them to do for you. Be merciful just as your father is merciful. As a leader, you treat people how you like to be treated. Yes or no? If remember that, you know, maybe one time you were an employee. Right now you may be a leader in an organization. But one time you were an employee. So you treat people the way you like to be treated. How do I like to be treated with respect, with dignity, corrected in private, applauded in public. That's something that we always do. Right. Now, if, if you were the employee, how would you like to be treated extend mercy and compassion. And again, this is a reciprocating relationship. That means if you want to be treated well as an employee, you got to get, give 100% in the work that you and you're doing. Now, if I'm giving 10% of my, if the boss says, okay, do these five tasks and I don't do any of those. Or maybe I do one of those five and the boss has come. I want me to do talk to you. Don't expect the boss to say, oh, very good. At least you did out of five, you did one. So we can cut a cake later. He's not going to say that he's going to give it to you. Right. Because the work is not done. So if I want to be treated well, and I want to be treated with respect, I must also be able to fulfill my work responsibilities. Right. Again, in being a leader, here's the thing. We need to, you know, show goodness. We need to show mercy, but we also need to be, you know, make sure that there's hard work. There is correction. There's exhortation. Right. So you be balanced that you want to do well. You should also be willing to do well. Right. Meaning if you want as an organization, if you feel that you're not being treated well, you know, there are other ways to, you know, handle that. But you do your best. The organization will do their best for you. Right. Next point. Warn, but never threaten or abuse. Read that verse. Efficient 6, 8 and 9. Remember that the Lord will reward each of us with a slave or free for the good work we do. Masters behave in the same way toward your slaves and stop using crates. Remember that you and your slaves belong to the same master in heaven who judges everyone by the same standard. The whole point of this is God is your ultimate boss. God is our ultimate boss or our employer. And then we have our boss who God has placed in our life where we report to. And as leaders, there will come a time when you have to, you know, warn people because people have different mindsets. Right. People have different. When we're working with people, it's very, very different. Especially now, how do I put this? Now in the corporate sector, it's a different world altogether. Now in ministry, we need to be a little bit careful. We need to be wise on how we do things. But the Bible also teaches that the Apostle Paul, he didn't just say God is love every time. He exorted, he corrected, he rebuked. What did he do to the Galatians? What did he do to the Corinthians? Galatians, he said, you're foolish. Now that's not something nice to hear, but he warned them. He said, as believers, if you are going back to circumcision, I warn you that what you believe in the cross is useless. He's warning them. You either choose circumcision or you choose salvation through the cross. Don't do both. He's warning them. Through the Corinthians, he says, you people are coming. One is saying I follow Paul, one is saying I follow Apollos, one is saying I follow Cephas. There's division among you. And then you're having large table as if it is breakfast. So all of this is causing problems. So he's warning them. He's warning them. He's saying this is wrong. He's not saying, you know, do whatever you want. No, as an apostle, he's telling them what to do, what not to do. So the same way as an employer, you need to tell people. I remember I was a Bible college leader. There's my opportunity. I start telling people, then I started warning people. But not in a bad way, but I will tell them, see, two years we'll get over. I'm warning you. After two years, what you'll do? You can't do this in your house. I'll keep warning them, keep telling them. There's nothing wrong in doing that. And what happens is we are helping them get better, but we're not threatening them, not abusing them. We're not forcing our will upon them and say, you have to do it. No, we want them. We correct them. I love what apostle Paul does. He exhausts them. He corrects them. He says, it's the choice of yours. I'm not going to, as an apostle, I have the right to speak into your life, but I'm not going to force it. You decide what you want to do. Right. Then empower people for high performance. Proverbs 30, 24 to 28. There are four things which are little on the earth, but they're exceedingly wise. The ants are a pupil, not strong. Yet they prepare their food in the summer. The rock badgers are a feeble fork. Yet they make their homes in the crags. The locusts have no king. Yet they all advance in ranks. The spider skillfully grasps with its hands. And it is in king's palaces. This is a perfect example of empowering people for high performance. Let's look at these examples. Three things here. Ants, quite a few actually. Ants, rock badgers, locusts and spiders. Now Solomon is taking the example of nature and he's bringing out high performance. The ants, I'm sure all of us have seen these ants. High performance. You go and destroy that line. That line goes somewhere else. You come back after half an hour. What happens? It's back. Somehow they've got it back. Now they don't have a leader. They don't have somebody who can, you know, tell them, do this, do that. They work as a team. Who tells the ants? Really, season is going to start. So start storing up. They just know, right? And the moment they know, high performance starts. You don't see ants simply walking around here. If you do see them, they've lost their way. But they're not just sitting in one place. They're trying to find their way back. God has designed ants that way. For empowerment, teamwork and high performance. Imagine ants store up food for like three or four months during the summer. So that in the winter, they have enough food for themselves. Can you think about that? Ants have the ability to carry more than 10 times of their weight. Have you seen those ants? You know, they'll be walking suddenly. You'll see they'll be carrying one dead spider over and, you know, they're able to. What are they doing? They're working as a team. We need to get this to the storehouse. This can be a good meal during the winter season. High performance. Look at the rock badges. I don't know if you've seen the rock badges. They're very feeble. They're very timid animals, the rock badges. But they make their homes in crags. Crags are like between these mountainous areas. Look at the locusts. They have no king. Yet they advance in ranks. And the spider skillfully grasps with his hands. And it is in the king's palace. If you look at spiders, it's very interesting. You know, spiders have a very... You know, they're considered one of the most active predators on earth. Can you believe spiders? You know what they do? They make a web. They spend all their energy making a web. And they sit and wait in the corner of the web. Have you noticed that? Or they sling down from the web and choose a place that is little away from the web. And they sit and watch. Any insect or any mosquito comes. They're stuck there. No trouble. Quietly it will go. Finish the meal, come back. Or wait in the side. I'm talking about home spiders. But you should read about these spiders that are in jungles. And the wild spiders, extreme predators. They're able to catch insects and animals. Double their size. Who taught them all this? God was able to... You know, God has made them in a way for high performance. So empower people with their skills, training, equipment, equipping. And give them the tools that they need to build them up. So one of the wonderful verses is, look at the ants, you slugger. We can learn by looking at the ants. That we are not called to be lazy. God has called us to put in effort and do our best. Next one. Remember, sweetness of the lips increases learning. Proverbs 16, 21 and 24. Proverbs 16, verse 21 and 24. The wise in heart will be called prudent. And sweetness of the lips increases learning. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb. Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. We cannot force speed learning. Example, we can take a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink. Have you heard of that saying? You take a horse till the water. You can't make it drink. It'll drink when it wants to drink. You can't force a person to learn this. You can't force a person to complete your DTH or your BTH. You can't force a person. You can encourage them. You can't force them. But sweetness of the lips increases learning. Continuous learning and skill development is essential for the organization. So you keep encouraging people. Keep encouraging learning. Never stop learning till your last breath. Don't stop learning. Keep learning. Keep growing. Make mistakes. It's okay to make mistakes. There was a phase in my life, you know, I said, okay, now you're a pastor. And I thought, okay, I shouldn't make any mistakes. Master. That's unnatural. Everyone will make mistakes. Pastor is just a title. But you're still a human being. And mistakes will happen. But you learn from those mistakes. And sweetness of the lips, meaning when we speak politely, speak gently, take things positively and encourage people, then it really builds us up. It empowers us to be better people. Pleasant words are like honey. They encourage the person. They invigorate, refresh and inspire. Imagine, right? I remember, you know, we just went for our parent teacher meeting for my son. And, you know, after the whole thing, he did well in his studies. But the teacher said, you know, your son is a very good boy, very quiet boy, but he's very naughty in class. He keeps running around. He keeps, you know, he's very distracted. He wants to always play, right? And then we finished the whole thing. And then when he came back home, I asked him, he was there for the parent teacher meeting. And I asked him, what do you do in the class? He said, you know, why are you so distracted? He said, no, my friends always say this. You know? But I remember telling him, see, as a teacher, I'm also a teacher. When people are distracted in the class, that means they don't value your teaching. Do you value your teacher? Yeah, I like my teacher so much. Then I said, then you should sit quietly in the class. You should listen to what they say. And just went into him. And this, you know, he was saying, I want to write a letter to my teacher and say, I'm sorry for troubling. And, you know, so it's a sweetness of lips. But the last time there was no sweetness of lips. I was very strict. Right. And I did see the changes. But there are times you and I need to use both. Look at the apostle Paul. He talked about Galatians and Corinth. Corinthians, right? But what does he also say to the Galatians? You are my beloved children. Sweetness of the lips. To the Corinthians, he says, I have, I have, I have, I have, you know, you have been born through my ministry. Right. And he's encouraging them. Saying, continue the gifts. These are the gifts that you have. And he blesses them. So there are times when you have to be stern. Sweetness of lips is also very important. You can't be always stern. All that happened is that person will get dejected. Every now and then, we need to encourage them, be supportive. Next point, be supportive even when people make mistakes. Proverbs 19, 11. What people know how to hold their tongue. Their gender is to forgive and forget. Hold their tongue means not literally hold their tongue instead. Hold their tongue meaning they know when to speak, what to speak and why to speak. That's wisdom. And we talked about it. How our words can get us into trouble and our words can get us out of trouble as well. So all of us make mistakes. Learn how to respond to make mistakes. Whether the mistakes are big, whether the mistakes are small. Of course, if you're working in an organization, big mistakes. It's good to have a good boss who can help you and help you overcome those big mistakes. But remember, part of if you are a leader now, for example, you're going to start your church. You have a young boy attending your church and he overslept on Sunday. He did not open the church. He didn't do the setup. Don't call him and give him a piece of his mind. It's okay. He's a young boy. He overslept. Why didn't you sleep the whole night? What were you doing watching TV, watching the phone? It's okay. We did it when we were young. They're probably 19, 20 years old. What do you want him to do? Pray the whole night. He's not able to do that. But he comes in the morning every Sunday. But one Sunday he overslept. It's okay. Don't tell from now on you're not in the sound and setup team. Exit out. You give them. People learn from them. But you tell him or her what is the result of those mistakes? See, I understand you overslept. But this is what has happened. When we came in the morning, everything was you know that you're the main person. You had to be here to set up. Everything was all over the place. We were struggling. And so it was very difficult to get things set up in the morning. So next time if you feel that way, just let us know and we can get somebody else to fill in for you for that Sunday. Very simple. What I'm trying to say is don't just you know look at a person and decide what he or she is. You may give somebody to preach in your youth meeting. A person will go on the stage and may preach for 10 minutes and it may not be good. You feel it's not good. So we don't say you didn't preach well. No. It's the first time anybody will be nervous. Preaching. So you help them to get better at what they're doing. Extend support when people are struggling within the organization. Sometimes all they need is a little push. Just a little push. And then they may you may put them in the place where God wants them to be. Right? As long as people are willing to learn and make an effort to grow, support them. If they are complacent, indifference or defensive about their performance you will need to show them the exit. You understand that? If people are willing to learn willing to accept their mistakes give them more opportunities. But when a person says no, it's not my mistake I did it like this because I knew it would be better. If a person says this is the poor performance because all this happened. So it's not my mistake. Now what will happen? They are not in a place to learn. They're not in a place to improve. Give them one warning, two warnings. Show them the exit after that. It's good. Why? Because the organization is in priority first. You're trying to build an organization. So you give warnings. One warning, two warnings, maybe three warnings. And different organizations have that. Give them warnings. And then if there's no improvement you show them the exit. But our main responsibility is to help them get better. Right? One standard for all, no partiality. Let's read Proverbs 28, 21. To show partiality is not good because for a piece of bread a man will run this. Don't show partiality in the office. Is it there in offices? Organizations? It will definitely be there. Right? Now if you are on the receiving end of partiality don't worry. You pray to God. God is the one who will grant you a favor. Why was you think about this? Why was the king so in favor of Daniel? Did Daniel say when you come back to Jerusalem I'll give you some money. I'll give you a good house. I think Daniel God's favor was upon him. It was not partiality. But the other people thought why is the king always behind Daniel giving him all the opportunities? That's because God's favor was on him. Right? But as a leader I must not show partiality. I give everyone opportunities but when I give everyone opportunities I also watch what they're doing with that opportunity. If they're taking it lightly if it's something that they don't value I will wait. I will not give them the opportunity again. I will wait. Because something given freely has no value. I always believe that. Something that's just given has no value. That's why I always you know when I see people taking our APC publications I always say use it well. It's free. Don't just throw it here and there. Use it well. Value it. One standard for all. No partiality in office. Whether you're tall, short tall, fair, dark handsome, not handsome you have a car, you have a bike. All of that don't matter. Everyone are equal in an organization. Okay, next one. Listen to all sides of the story. Proverbs 18, 17 The first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him. As we are dealing with people in an organization there will be conflicts there will be indifferences there will be people who need to be disciplined so very important to learn and listen to both sides of the story. If somebody comes up to you and says you know pastor that other person said that you're not preaching correct doctrine don't go straight to that person and say hey why are you saying I'm not teaching the right doctrine. You don't have to do that. Listen to both sides of the story. It could be a completely different scenario. Don't be quick to make decisions. Don't be we want to resolve the matter quickly which is important there's a sense of urgency but sometimes in all this urgency we may miss out hearing from everyone. So it's very important to hear what everyone has to say. This is part of leadership and I learned this I always thought okay just stand in notes preach and you're good to be a pastor but all of this is there. You've got to listen to different sides of the story. Sometimes people keep talking for half an hour one hour you've got to listen you've got to deal with the problem it's part of leadership right but very important listen to all sides of the story to settle a dispute quiet the quarrelsome person right problems 26 21 go ahead a pure lesson person in a dispute is like kerosene thrown on a fire kerosene problem you know kerosene is going to become even worse but it's all in conflicts there may be one person who would say he's very angry, very upset and sad for him you can shout, you can say things of the best way to settle the matter sit with them calm them down and then try to resolve the matter don't try to resolve the matter when a person is very angry and washes and that's a natural instinct which people have some people you know they be very hurt with it but you know they some people they say whatever they want to say and the other people they be loud so offensive to the others so you resolve the matter lighten them up use the power of a gentle response problems between one a soft answer turns the way around but the harsh words and soft answer solving conflict soft answer now in a heated moment especially speak gently speak peacefully and when we speak gently it diffuses the tension people will think ok let me calm down there are talks that make me tell and when people who are contradicted or angry it's very easy for us all to look at anger but we must take care of it I get angry and he has been even more angry I think it was use the power of a gentle response ok alright we take a break we come back thanks bye