 Right. Hi everyone. Welcome to this session. Let's just begin this time with the word of prayer before we start our class. So maybe one of us can please lead in prayer. Vivian, if you don't mind, can you lead? Sure. Sure, Pastor. Thank you for this wonderful time that you've given us to gather together. Father, to learn from your word to learn these deep truths. Father, we pray, Lord, that we be receptive, be sensitive to the working of the Holy Spirit. Father, and help us a lot that we may the seed that is sown in our hearts may bring multifold fruit, not only in our lives, Father, but in the people's lives, Lord, the spheres of influence that you have placed this Lord. We especially come with Pastor Paul into your loving hands, Lord. Help him, bless him, strengthen him, provide your wisdom, your grace and your strength. May your very words be spoken through him. Father, Lord, and continue to guide him and his family, Father. We thank you. We praise you. Jesus preciously. We pray. Amen. Thank you, Divya. Alright, so we've been covering chapter eight. Last week, we talked about people's performance, people processes, performance and rewards. And one of the main points that we looked at was whether we are in ministry or whether we are in business. People is who we work with. So it's all about people and in ministry, especially it's all about people. Yes, there are events, programs and we talk about them, we have them, seminars and all of these things are good. But remember, it's about the people. When you look at an organization, it's the people that make the organization. One person has the vision, one person has the dream of, okay, this is what I want to do, but he cannot do it without the right people. And so we look at how to pay people fairly, they're paid on time, don't hold back, hire, write, retain and review people. So when you hire people as well, have a certain process in place, retain employees who are good, review their performance, help them to perform better. More importantly, treat people the way we like to be treated. And sometimes, even as God raises us up, we go up the ladder, we go to higher positions, it's very easy to use our authority in the wrong way. And it's both in ministry and in the corporate sector as well. So you treat the people the way you want to be treated and that's when we begin to have certain values in the organization and people working for you. The employees will begin to feel that, hey, I'm cared, I'm loved, I'm appreciated, my work is appreciated and so that's very important. One people but never threatened and abused, of course, just because either it's ministry or in the corporate, we have to have certain things in place. Yes, we love, we treat everyone well, but sometimes people may take advantage of that and say, okay, this is what I can do, this is what I will not do. And we see laziness creeping in, people may not be able to do their work well because they just have this feeling of, okay, everything is accepted. One people, as I shared last week, we have like a two strike policy and it's not wrong. It's not like, okay, it's wrong to do this, especially in ministry, it's hard, but it's not wrong. And then we look at empower people for high performance as well. So even as you recruit people, even as you have people in your teams, empower them for high performance. If I as a leader have a team of about 10 people under me and I tell them, you know what, I'm not sure how am I going to do in this project. I think it's not going to work out well. How will the team react? They're not going to react positively. So it is up to us as leaders to empower our team members to higher performance. And there are many ways we can do that. And here in the scriptures is there's life and death in the power of our tongue. So just the words or your words can make a big difference in their lives and in their performance especially. Remember that sweetness of the lips increases learning. So there's a way of putting across things be polite, be kind, be respectful. And so we stopped there. So let's pick up from the next point. I'd like to just project the notes because keep looking down and let me just project the notes. It'll be easy for all of us as well. Yeah. Everyone can see this. Is it clear? Is the fonts big enough? Okay. All right. So be supportive when people make mistakes. Now people will make mistakes. Let's read this. Proverbs 19 and 11. Smart people know how to hold their tongue. Their grandeur is to forgive and forget. Now all of us will make mistakes. And when we look back some of the mistakes that I made, I think of it and I say, I could have easily just avoided that mistake. But in an organization we make mistakes, big mistakes, small mistakes. But learning how to respond when mistakes are made is very important. Meaning if you are corrective for that mistake, how do we respond to it? Are we in a place where, hey, how can he or she tell me this? When I've been working in the organization for maybe 15 years now, how can he say that? And how can they think that I can do this or I didn't do this or I did this? Now there are ways that people will respond to correction. But as a leader, our responsibility is to be supportive even when people make mistakes. And the Lord Jesus said a beautiful example for us. So many of all of us disciples needed correction. They made mistakes. But the best part was the Lord Jesus used them to continue the work of the ministry. So all we need sometimes is just a little bit of just a start. And then we see that people are willing to learn, people are willing to make an effort, support them, give them opportunities. If they are complacent, if they feel that you're giving them more and more and more opportunities, but you're not seeing improvement. If you see complacent indifference, you see that they're defending their poor performance. It's very important that we show them the exit. Now this part, again, you can set certain things in place. Meaning it can be your two-stripe, three-stripe, whatever. But you cannot have somebody in an organization where you're giving them so many opportunities and they're not growing. And you're seeing that they're still complacent, still being defensive for poor performance. It's only going to hurt the organization. As a team, you're not going to grow if this person is not performing. Now, in the corporate sector, it's brutal. I would say if you're not performing, they just probably give you a week's notice and say, hey, you'll have to look up for another job. In some places, they just lay off, say, hey, tomorrow's your last day. Now, it's not always easy, that kind of an exit. But if you're in a place when you have to make these kind of decisions, give them a chance, give them probably two or three chances. But if there's improvement, continue to support them. If there is no improvement for performance, being defensive, giving a lot of excuses, need to show them the exit. Next one, have one standard for all and show no partiality. Yes, can any one of us read this Proverbs 24, 23 to 25? Proverbs 24, 23. These things also belong to the wise. It's not good to show partiality in judgment. He who says to the wicked, you are righteous. Even the people will curse. Nations will abhor him. But those who review the wicked will have delight. And a good blessing will come upon them. Thank you. Now, Proverbs 28, 21 to show partiality is not good because for a piece of bread, a man will transgress. Now, even the book of James, he talks about partiality. James talks about how if one person comes in wearing good clothes and he's a rich man, will you give him and tell him come and sit right in front? And if there's a poor person, will you tell him to sit at the ground or sit at my feet? Haven't we shown partiality? So James also writes about it now. God is a God who is not partial. He's a God who treats all of us equally. And I'm sure we all have experienced this and we know this. It's a fact. You may not feel it. But it's a fact because we all come to the cross for forgiveness. And all of us are equal in the eyes of God. But what about in a work environment? It is very critical that we treat all employees fairly without partiality. Now, why is this an issue? The reason is that we may have somebody in an organization for 20 years. So Yoshi has been there for 20 years. They have seen the organization grow and they've been there just there working 20 or years. And then now suddenly somebody may come and start working and they've working just for a year or two years. Now it's very easy to show partiality to the person who's 20 years in the organization. And for the person who's two years in the organization, it's very easy to say, hey, no, he deserves it because he's 20 years in the organization. See, there is a way to put across things. There's a way to handle these situations where, especially when you're handling a tenured folk and a person who's new. But employees must be treated fairly. Standards of integrity must be the same for all employees. If somebody is 20 years in the organization doesn't mean he can come and live every day or take two hours break every day. Hey, I'm 20 years and we can't be partial to him. Hey, he's so sad he's been working for 20 years. It doesn't work that way. When we see employees, we should see fairness. We should see that the organization genuinely cares about the well-being of its employees. Now when we do that, it increases commitment to the organization. And we are careful. It is obvious that we will be committed to that organization. And I'm sure many of us may have been working in the corporate sector. And when we come to that, I remember when I was working and I decided, okay, I want to join Bible College and it was the last week and become very emotional. Why do we become emotional? Because there's something that we know. If we don't become emotional, that means we haven't really liked the organization and you're happy to just move out of there. But if you really enjoyed your work, if you really enjoyed, you know, just working there and there was fairness and there was genuine care for the employees in the organization, you will definitely feel it. So I remember just the last week, and I kept asking myself, should I do something partying here? Because I really loved the way that people treated each other and it was a wonderful place. Of course in the organization that I worked for earlier on, I did make a lot of mistakes. I was very young when I started off, but they gave me opportunities. They corrected me in the right manner. They gave me so many wonderful opportunities. They didn't say, hey, you're so small. You're still small at age, so you won't know about this. There were times they would call us to sit for these meetings with head of departments and it was such an honor to be in that kind of setting. So basically show no partiality equal to everyone. Listen to all sides of the story. Now, Proverbs 18-17, the first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him. Conflicts, when we look at people, when we talk about people, we must understand that people are different. Leadership styles are different. Working styles are different. Ideas are different. Implementation is different. Everything is different. So when we're working with people and we're working in a team, conflicts will happen between people working in the organization. Now, how do we resolve those conflicts? Here's very important. We must learn the discipline to listen to both sides of the story. Get a full picture before you make a decision. Now, especially when it comes to, if I translate this to ministry, oh, we really need to do this. We really need to listen to both sides of the stories. The problem is when we make a decision very quickly, just by listening to one side of the story, it becomes a challenge. You've heard half of that story. In leadership, time is of the essence. So sometimes we don't want to waste time on petty matters and long stories and silly things. Sometimes we just want to be quick in making our decision. But when we do that, sometimes we could pass a wrong decision and end up hurting people. So in these especially important decisions that you have to make, involving hiring or maybe asking people to quit or it could be anything that is a moral issue within an organization, always look at both sides of the story. Get information from others as well. Talk to other people. Don't make up stories or don't just make a decision immediately. Now remember, people can make up stories. Whether they're believers, whether they're unbelievers, they can make up stories. What I was going here, I saw this person, he was doing this. Or I remember, they may say, I was working on a computer and I saw that this person was using certain documents of the office. Now if we listen to one side of the story, we may end up making a wrong decision. Why do we bring this correction? Why do we resolve conflicts and ensure that at the end of it all the employees remain encouraged or at least they feel that they've been heard. Their opinions, their take, whatever they're sharing is valued in the organization. Right now in ministry, you may have to make these decisions. You may have to make because people may come and say certain things and it can happen within a church as well. So always take two or three sides of the story, see what it is, what people are saying and then make a decision. To settle a dispute, quiet the quarrelsome person first. Proverbs 26, 21. A quarrelsome person in a dispute is like kerosene thrown on a fire. And I love the message translation. It's like kerosene thrown on fire already there's a fire. This guy or this person has quarreled some poisonous, instigated, ready to even just raise their hands at each other. When you are in that situation, first tame the situation down, calm it down and probably separate them, work with the rest of the people first and then also work with the other person alone. And once the resolution is solved, once there's a resolution or once the problem is solved, it's more on with your work. Now I remember this, this happened when we were working in one of the organizations where something happened where there was a top performer and I think he was really upset that he didn't get a performer of the quarter or something like that and he was really working very hard. He would make those sales, he would come in early, he would hardly take breaks and we all knew that he's a very, very good performer. He sacrificed a lot but what happened was in that quarter there was a young boy maybe in his early 20s and he had good experience in the call center and so I remember this very clearly where he did really well, exceptionally well. He came to a place where he almost reached the top performer by 2-3. The margin was just 2 or 3. And so the team decided that, hey this boy has just joined and it's just a month but he has come second, closest to the top performer. The top performer has been here doing this work for about 10 years. So they decided, hey let's give him the benefit of the doubt and let's honor him for his hard work. And so they honored him, they gave him performer of the quarter and I remember that it became such a problem, this guy, the other person got so angry and he started using abusive language and all of that and it was on the floor, on the working place. Everyone could hear what's happening but I remember our manager just came and quickly took him aside, took him to the cafeteria and there he started throwing things and all of it. He just took him outside of the place and just calmed it down and brought him in but when he came back he came and he shook hands with this guy and said congratulations. So I wonder what the manager said but I remember this because he did a wise thing. He really did a wise thing, probably spoke to him and said, you know what, this is the reason we gave it to him. So quietened the quarrelsome person first. And there are times when we may know in the corporate sector, okay, this person can get quarrelsome or boisterous or get agitated. Try avoiding to purposely stir them or purposely try to push their buttons. Just avoid that as much as possible. But if you have to get work done from them, you have to get it done. I can't say he's a short tempered person so I'm not going to ask him, no, you have to do what you have to do. But wherever possible, just try and avoid that. Use the power of a gentle response. We talked about that as well, right? The sweetness of the lips. Proof of 15-1, a soft answer turns away raw, but a harsh word stirs up anger. A gentle response is very, very powerful. A smile with a gentle response is even more powerful, right? I don't know if this has happened to what you're doing in traffic and maybe you're riding or driving and then you know that somebody is coming the wrong way or he's not obeying the traffic rules. And then they just look at you and give you a smile and say, sorry, I know I'm wrong. What happens? Do we get upset? We don't, right? Normally what happens is we just calm down there and say, okay, maybe he's in trouble or maybe he has to get somewhere or maybe he didn't notice that it's a one-way or it's a wrong route. Just that smile or that sorry makes such a big difference. But imagine a person is coming the wrong way and you are driving or riding and the other person says, hey, can you move? I need to get here. And he's not even being apologetic. What are you going to do? You say, hey, you're in the wrong way. You're doing what's wrong. But remember, a soft answer really can change a situation. Turns away right. So as much as possible, we'd be soft, we'd be calm while working in the organization. Keep gossip and strife out of your work environment. Proverbs 17, 14, the beginning of strife is like releasing water. Therefore stop contention before quarrel starts. Proverbs 7, sorry, let's look at the other one. Proverbs 26, 20, when you run out of wood, the fire goes out. When the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down. Now, if you look at a church, and if you look at ministry, it's very easy to get people to stop gossiping and just get to work, get to do what they have to do. And there's this feeling of God is watching and we know that the Holy Spirit is with us and all of that. So it makes it a little bit easier. And I'm not saying that it's not there. In terms of dealing with believers, even if there's gossip, we can get it out. We can burn it out. But what about in the corporate sector? They got hundreds of employees. Everyone has something to say and you've got these office politics that's happening and people are talking about each other, behind each other's back. And you feel that the whole pulse of that, of the organization is, you know, this lot of gossip, it's strife that's happening. People ridiculing each other now. It may not be only about work. Sometimes people gossip about each other's family problems. That is family problems, the way they dress up, the way they, what car they come in or what bike they come in. So people have many, many things to gossip about. It's like fire. It just keeps spreading. It just goes on. It's an unending supply of gossip. But as believers, do your best to keep away from gossip. If there are times when you're leading a team or your organization or ministry and you feel this gossip, bring that person and bring the person who, you know, whoever you feel it is, talk to them. Ask them, why do you feel that way and have a lot of meetings with your team and let them know that this is, you know, or you can probably put out values, cultures of the organization, keep talking to them about it. Let them know that they are valued in the organization. Let them know that it's a team and they're all together. If one person wins, one person does, you know, wins all of us when and one fail, all of us fail. So you're making that whole sense of teamwork coming in. Right? So if you feel that it's out of control, that you're already working in an organization and you're saying, hey, there's too much of gossip, too much of, you know, strife that's happening. It's out of control. There's no way that I, as a person, can do anything about it. Best thing that you and I can do is to stay away from it. I just choose to walk away. And that's happened many, many times when people have been, you know, sometimes we go for lunch and I'm talking about when I was working in the corporate sector. We go for lunch and we all get our lunch, we sit down and they start talking. Hey, did you do this? Did you do that? Any time I've just stood up, taken my plate, I said, hey guys, I'll just go and sit at the other table. And they all looked at me and said, oh, you know, probably mocked me and ridiculed what I did. But I was, you know, just making sure that I don't involve in any kind of gossip. One, because it's not right. Two, because, you know, it's not what God wants me to do. God wants, as a believer, I don't want to be involved in gossip. So there are times we will have to make those hard decisions. People may ridicule and mock you, but it's okay. You're doing right in the eyes of God. Finally, show troublemakers the door. Proverbs 2210, cast out the scoffer and contention will leave. Yes, strife and approach will cease. Now, having to dismiss underperforming employees or those who are casual, you know, or causing internal problems in an organization, it's not easy, right? But if you know that this person in the organization is a continual troublemaker, or if there is character issues, moral issues, you know, they are underperforming every time, any of these things, right? And you see that, you know, that person is not improving or there's no changes. You'll have to make the decision, right? Now, here's the flip side to it. There are times when people are excellent at their performance, but morally they're, you know, completely away. Maybe they're rude, arrogant, they've hurt people in the team, but performing very well, right? Now, remember that the team should always supersede the individual. What is the, what is beneficial for the team is more important than one individual, right? Now, there can be a person who is in the team who's, you know, an average performer, but he's very good in terms of, you know, character issues, character is very good, very kind, very open to take correction, open to learn, open to growing, just very honorable in his work, but he may, he or she may not be like a top performer. So I would say personally, I would choose this person rather than somebody who's a top performer who is always having problems with people, who's a, you know, troublemaker. There will be times we have to show people, troublemakers the door, especially in ministry. It is hard, it's very, very hard, right? Now, when you have people in church and you see that they're continuously causing trouble and, you know, we give them many, many opportunities to change, we correct them, we change them, we see that they're just making the same mistake again and it's affecting the church. We have to show them the door. It's not easy, but we do it lovingly. It's not that we don't love them, but it is the actions that they're doing. We're not seeing a change. So again, in the corporate and in the ministry, when we're showing people the door, basically it should be the same love, the same care that we have, you know, for each other. We should do it in a loving manner. And so, yes, so this is chapter eight, people, performance, processes, performance and rewards. Any questions? Any questions, any thoughts you have? Any questions? Did any of you, just thought I'd ask this, does any of you, do any of you have had a situation where you have had to make a decision to, it could be your cell group also, it could be in church, it could be in the workplace, but you had to make a decision to resolve this conflict and then eventually it went on to become a decision to show the person, you know, the person had to leave the organization. Did any of you have to go through that to make that kind of a decision? How did that go out? How did that span out? Any of you like to share any thoughts? Or how did you resolve like a major conflict? How were you able to resolve it? If there are no conflicts, that's wonderful. John, since you're leading a church, would you like to share something, anything that you feel? Yeah, so there have been times when we hear one side of the story as we mentioned today. You know, we might be very upset about that side of the story. I don't take some time to, for me personally what I did is, it took some time personally just to assess the situation, not to judge rapidly. I was afraid about it for a long time and called the party and just verified if it is right or wrong. And so, as we discussed today, it is very important to hear both sides for making adjustments so that was one experience we had. Yeah, that's nice. Thank you for sharing, John. Yeah, because at times somebody comes and says, you know, this is what they said and immediately our reaction is, how can he or she say that? All right, so I don't want to start off with chapter nine. What we'll do is we will start off with chapter nine from next week and see if we can finish this for the two classes that we have next week. So if there's no questions, if there's no thoughts that you'd like to share, then we can spray and close. Would any of you like to pray? Athena, if you're there, would you like to pray? Yes, please do. Yeah, go ahead. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you with the name of Jesus. We thank you for the day. We thank you for the past. We thank you for the past, you Paul, for his teaching and God, whatever he has taught us today, we look forward to your practice and lift your name of every other name no matter where we go, where we work and what we do. Let it be done for you. Thank you God for being with us and guiding us throughout this session. Jesus, thank you. Amen. Thank you, Athena. Thank you, everyone. We'll catch up next week. Have a great week ahead. God bless. Thank you.