We are the Church!

You have likely heard your pastor or people in your church say, “Don’t just go to church; BE the church.”

Often, what well-minded people are trying to convey is that many of the services and activities that people associate with the church can actually be done individually or in small groups - -things like bringing meals to those that can’t get out, helping out a neighbor in need, getting a group of people to help clean up a park or a church etc.

While these are very good and useful activities, that is not at all what the Apostle Paul meant when he told the Corinthians, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Cor 12:27)

When the Apostle Paul refers to the church he calls it, ‘the body of Christ.’   He doesn’t refer to it as the body of Christians.   While the body of Christians may be divide, the body of Christ cannot.  

“ For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.” (1 Cor 12:12-14)

We are the church when we recognize that while all of us have different gifts and different callings, all of us can and should contribute to the body “But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” (1 Cor 12:20-21)

We are the church when each of us individually realizes that the Great Commandment (that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbor as ourselves) and the Great Commission (go and make disciples) applies to us, not just a ministry within the institutional church.

Institutionally, the church has had many problems over the past 2,000 years.  But as the body of Christ, we have the most profound impact and collectively work together for the fulfillment of the Gospel.

Make a PLAN

My observation is that it really doesn’t matter the type of training, the education nor the profession, many people think little about planning.  Whether it’s a business, ministry or even vacation plans, some people really don’t understand how important it is to have a plan.

While many quote are attributed to people incorrectly, Benjamin Franklin, one of the most interesting of our Founding Fathers, was a gifted writer and publisher of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”.  In it he penned the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Yet, many fail to heed his advice. 

When my wife and I were first married, we talked often of our dreams and hopes for the future.   It wasn’t until we had been married a few years that we actually sat down and came up with a financial plan to buy a house.

A plan doesn’t have to be long or detailed it just has to be thought out.  Plans always include timelines so having a goal, a few action steps and a timeline is a great outline for most plans.    Too many of us find ourselves in situations where we can easily think of ourselves as a victim of our circumstance when it is being a victim of a lack of planning.  

Jesus was even a fan of planning as when he was talking about the cost of following him He said, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” Luke 14:28

Raise Your Prices!

People shop Wal-Mart.  Many believe that the reason people shop at Wal-Mart is because they have very low prices.  While, lower prices may motivate many people, Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton had ten rules for his business and none of them include having the lowest prices.   Sam Walton valued things like exceeding customer expectations and appreciating both suppliers as well as employees. 

People do love value but value doesn’t mean cheap. Value is most often defined as the correlation between quality and price.  Most people have had the experience of buying something at an incredibly low price only to find that the product underperformed or often failed completely.

Remember that when it comes to price, price is more often considered the best indicator of quality.  

Studies have shown, including a popular study at the University of Michigan,  that when consumers have some uncertainty concerning a product's quality, the consumer often assumes that a higher product price indicates a higher level of quality.  Even more importantly, consumers trust brands and will pay more for products and services that are associated with brands that are well known and trusted.

When consumers do not have all the available information on a product, a significant input into their evaluation is price. A high price may indicate either bad value or good quality, whereas a low price may indicate either a good value or poor quality.  Notice that with a higher price, poor quality is typically not one of the expected outcomes.

Develop your brand if you want your customers to buy your product or service, remember your brand and recommend your company.   Your brand is a promise of the service, quality and value proposition.   Developing your brand doesn’t start with lowering the price but by improving the value.  As you improve the value, you'll have the opportunity to not only raise your price but attract more customers.