Integrity. According to Merriam-Webster integrity is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral values or the quality or state of being complete. In the words of my good friend and college roomie David Brown (check him out here) integrity occurs when you come to a stoplight at 2 AM in the morning and there is no camera, no police, and no one else around. In his words, "integrity stops anyway." Over the past few weeks I've noticed that the topic has come up over and over again in conversations. In conversations like the one below, that I had last week with a T-Shirt company here in town. I was ordering some shirts and the lady I usually deal with was busy so she asked her boss to help me. Here's the convo:
Lady: Can you help Nic? I am busy.
Boss: Sure. Come take a seat at my desk Nic.
Lady: And be sure and give him a great deal...He's one of our best customers.
Boss: Ok.
Lady (To Boss): He works at that church and he's a nice guy...and they actually pay their bill on time.
Lady (To Me): You'd be surprised at how many churches don't pay us on time!
Wow. Real ministry cannot happen without integrity. And integrity cannot be bought. It cannot be faked. Authentic integrity can only be earned...by living a consistent witness to who Jesus is. Integrity is HUGE when it comes to reaching others with the love of Christ. It gives credibility to our message and earns us the opportunity to be heard...
How is your integrity? Are you the same person in the crowd as you are behind closed doors? When you come to a stoplight at 2 AM and no one is around, what do you do?
2 comments:
Uh...I stole that from someone. So...um, yeah...integrity.
Good stuff.
In defense of churches who don't pay their bills on time... Our checks are cut twice a month. Sometimes that passes the ten day window that the t-shirt company wants their payment in. I do my part to submit the invoice for a check request, but it is beyond me at that point. T-shirt companies don't often understand payment cycles and therefore think the church is stiffing them.
grego
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