Thanks-living

In his book, GOOD TO GREAT, Collins talks about great leaders effetively serfving the people who work with them.  It seems a given to me.

Unfortunately, in much of corporate America we are discovering recurring accounts of company executives and leaders plundering the company's financial assets and leaving their company employees holding the bag for a bleak future.

It is not only the coporate world.  We see it in the political arena as well where we discover politicians behaving poorly, disregarding the effects of their self-indulgeent behavior on their constituents and the states and cities they are elected to serve.

And, sadly, even the world I serve in--the church--is hounded and humbled by stories of domineering pasrtors and trusted church leaders forcing their will upon unsuspecting members, boith finanancially, and sexually.

Jesu said to His disciples, "I came not to be served but to serve..."  He encouraged them not to do as the pagans who lorded their positions of leadership over their subjects.  Accordingly, Jesus demonstrated throughout his eaqrthly ministry a servant's heart, a pattern not forgotten by Peter and Paul in their letters to the early church.

With that  in mind, and looking ahead to my final three months as a pastor at the church I have now served for over fifteen years, I am looking for ways to express my love, thanks and appreciation to the people who have been my co-workers and congregants.  Hopefully, this is not a new "Dale" they are seeing, but someone who has served them with an attitude of thanksgiving for their faithfulness and participation in the ministry they have shared together.

Thanksgiving season stirs up an appetite for turkey and dressing; but it also stimulates within me a renewed attitude directed towards letting those who are special to me, letting them know how much I love and appreciate them. I hope to write my co-workers and family members in particular in the next few days an expresison of my love and gratitude for what they mean to me.

I hope they won't be surprised, but that my intentional mindset of "thanks-living" will be reflected in thanksgiving.