Christians in the Workplace

08/10/2020

Let me pray Isaiah 54 for us - read the whole chapter - I’ve memorized it and meditate on it every day. Here are a few highlights that I pray for you:
4/ Fear not, for we will not be put to shame; neither feel humiliated, for we will not be disgraced; but we will forget the shame of our youth and the reproach of our widowhood we will remember no more. . .
9/ “For this is like the days of Noah to Me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you nor will I forsake you.
10/ For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but my loving kindness will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has compassion on us.
Amen.

08/10/2020

During this unsettled time created by coronavirus many of us with jobs or without jobs have experienced a great deal of anxiety.
I have meditated often on Psalm 90. The whole Psalm is required reading. Let me share my prayer and a prayer for you from the end of Psalm 90:
12/ So teach us to number our minutes, our hours, our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
13/ Do return O Lord, how long will it be? And be compassionate toward your servants.
14/ O satisfy us early with your loving kindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15/ Make is glad according to the days that you have afflicted us and the years we have seen evil.
16/ Let your work appear to you servants and your majesty to our children.
17/ Let the favor of our Lord be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands.
Amen.

01/31/2020

When we talk about faith and work, we often refer to Genesis and think of our work as fulfilling the covenant God gave us to have dominion or stewardship over the earth. But everything changed with Christ's resurrection. Christ's resurrection and ongoing redemption changes everything - it opens future possibilities, it points us into kingdom of heaven purposes. We are not working to restore what's past, with closed possibilities. We're working to create what's ahead, with wide open possibilities: think new, listen for God's voice, move into great new opportunities, ideas and challenges that God has for us.

12/14/2019

Watch for our six week video curriculum Christians in the Workplace. I will be posting it online early in the New Year.

12/14/2019

This is a video that Brian Brock and I did to help parents of kids with special needs. However, everything in this video is also true as we train our children whether or not they are differently abled. If you find it helpful Brian and I have a YouTube channel Brian&PaulLive where you can find more resources like this - more to come over Christmas break.

Sometimes as parents we have such a strong desire for our children to fit in and do well that we actually cause harm by over-training our children. We need t...

09/15/2019

Want to improve your selling, leadership, or relationships? Here is an article that I wrote that can help you in any of these areas. If you find it helpful please share it with a friend.

Have you ever experienced nervousness, fear, or insecurity when you are cold calling, meeting with a client for the first time, or trying…

07/17/2019

Broadcasting occurs when one person stands up and tells one or more people what or how to think. Broadcasting is dead. It's time for us all to quit broadcasting and start connecting. What do you think?

Bharat Anand’s The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change (Random House, 2016) is one of my favorite business books of the…

07/16/2019

Beat your sales goal every month - and enjoy every minute of it:

If you want to become a superior salesperson, you have to always be observing, adjusting, and connecting. In other articles I will be…

04/29/2019

Sales Call Anxiety (SCA) - sales is an essential work skill. However, sales call anxiety can get in the way of effective sales. SCA is especially prominent in two circumstances; canvassing and closing. I spent some years as a stockbroker. For me, canvassing was initially an anxiety-creating endeavor. Closing was much less anxiety creating. But everyone is different.
There are four main components of sales call anxiety. These can surface for a young salesperson, an experienced salesperson who has faced some setbacks, or a salesperson under pressure to up their game, either for family financial reasons or externally from their firm.
The four common components of SCA are negative self-evaluation, negative views of the evaluations of others, physiological symptoms, and taking negative protective measures. What do you think are some ways in which a strong Christian faith can alleviate these symptoms?
I am writing a few articles about how to alleviate sales call anxiety. It can be positive and when it’s negative it is possible to overcome in most cases. I’d love your input. Please share if you found this helpful. The more feedback the better.

04/25/2019

Sabbath rest, the daily office of prayer and six diligent days of caring for our affairs are the sacred rhythms of life. Ignore them, wisdom will depart from you. The compiler of Proverbs writes in 2:3-4:

“For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.”

From this passage we learn three things: seeking silver, searching for hidden treasure (working hard for gain), is a good thing and can be used as a model for seeking wisdom and discernment; we ought to use optimum diligence both in our daily mining for silver and in our daily seeking for wisdom and discernment; finally, we need to develop habits of the heart that lead us to cry for discernment and understanding.
Sabbath and daily prayer leave is six productive days each week to seek silver and wisdom and discernment. . . A seventh day and daily rhythms of prayer give us the strength and power for our searching to bear much fruit - wealth, wisdom, peace, joy, all found while working, enjoying the fruits of our labor, caring for others, while remaining in right relationship with the Lord.