Church and Sweet Tea

    I have known two churches now that have hired MBAs as their administrators. Both churches had horrible experiences with the MBAs not being able to work in a church environment. In one church, the MBA lasted less than a year, and in that year, was able to completely mess up every part of the job. In the other church, the MBA, even though a Christian, was so business like, that church lost its sense of Christian responsibility in its business practices, especially towards employees. My suspicion is that these churches hired poorly and that MBAs can really do a good job with church administration. Continue Reading »

    In our community, West Point Stevens, a textile company, is shutting down its two mills in our community (and moving them to China). This will put an estimated 600 people or more out of work. Several of these employees dropped out of school to work for the mill. The mill has been their lively hood and for many, it is the only job they have ever had. There is a wonderful government program that will pay for their education for two years in order to learn new skills to find a job in today’s marketplace. The only problem is that you must have a GED or high school diploma to get into these schools. There is a GED training center in Valley and Opelika, but in order to get in, the test taker must score close to the GED passing grade. Otherwise, the GED hopeful has nowhere to turn. Continue Reading »

This article is the second in a series that will be my effort to respond to two people who visited my site searching for answers to why they were “tired” and “weary” of the church.  

One of the reasons we grow tired and weary of the church is that we warp our minds to think that Christians are perfect. We tend to expect Christians to act like saints only to discover that no one is perfect. The truth is that we are all on the road to perfection. There are many bumps along the way. Continue Reading »

    I use Microsoft products. I haven’t always given Microsoft great reviews, and I don’t think I’ve ever just jumped up and down about any of Microsoft’s features. Well, I recently upgraded to Office 2007. I have used it for a week or so, and it seems to do just fine, but I didn’t see anything to get excited about until today.

    Today, I was writing blog articles. I usually type them up in MS Word and then copy them over to my blog. That way I get the full use of spelling and grammar checks from Word. In Word, I clicked on New Document, and it prompted me with “Blank Document” or “New Blog Post.” I thought that was interesting and selected New Blog Post, not expecting much. It then asked me what type of blog I use (Wordpress) and asked me to enter my site’s address and user info. I entered it, still not expecting much. But lo and behold! It worked. It publishes just fine! I can’t set the date stamp on it to publish future posts (although you can publish it as a draft), and it won’t let me choose multiple categories, but other than that, it works great, and it’s simple! It even uploads pictures that you insert. It also handles multiple blog accounts.

Way to go Microsoft! You get a standing ovation from me for this one!

     In the transition from one webhost to another, I lost this story, so I am reposting it.

A few years ago, my wife and I were driving around the Wal-Mart parking lot in Gulf Breeze, FL one day. It was pouring down rain, and so we took the extra time to try to park up front. As we drove by the garden department, we saw a Wal-Mart employee standing in front of the store where they have plants displayed on the sidewalk. He was holding an umbrella in one hand, and a hose in the other. Yes, he was watering the plants in the rain. I wish I had taken a picture. We laughed about it and watched him complete his task. I told Cindy that I supposed he would go inside, find his afternoon checklist, and mark that item as completed. He did not recognize that God had already done that one for him. There’s a sermon illustration for you!    

It also illustrates the difference between employees that can be self directing, and employees that require direct supervision to accomplish their tasks. Wal-Mart may be ok with this, deciding that it is better for workers to be automated rather than self directing. They may not want an hourly worker to be burdened in deciding whether or not a plant is getting enough water from the rain. During my internship at Disney, I found that Disney often employs the same practice to ensure a task is performed the exact same way every time. If you work the Jungle Cruise, for example, and deviate from your spiel by adding a joke that is not part of the script, you could lose your job. It makes sense in this instance, because the script is carefully constructed to consider the diverse cultures that may be represented on the Jungle Cruise at any given time. Disney does not expect an hourly worker to possess that level of discernment.