Tenet # 11 we speak the common language of Jesus

God confused the language at Babel (Genesis 11) as a way to disempower the creativity and determination of men, otherwise they would have destroyed themselves. But God redeemed and re-empowered us through Christ, “Then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they may call on the name of The Lord, to serve Him with one accord.” Zephaniah 3:9

Tenet #11 is a leadership and team issue: “We speak the common language of Jesus.”

It sounds like this:

A word fitly spoken, a soft answer that diffuses anger, the righteousness of faith saying, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” The word of Christ dwells in us richly in all wisdom, and we teach and encourage one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. Our speech is always with grace, seasoned with salt; sound speech that can not be condemned. Like Daniel, we are “prudent (discerning, insightful, understanding) in speech.” They who know their God will be strong and do exploits.

It looks like this:

As leaders, we don’t exaggerate numbers, and we don’t use Kingdom resources to invest in personal fame. We don’t diminish others or lay claim to their accomplishments, and if leaders do these things to us, we rejoice.

We don’t cover up our mistakes or blame others. We don’t talk about problems or faults to anyone who can’t fix them. We don’t criticize, berate, or threaten.

We honour and reward honesty, positive openness, good manners, encouragement, hard work, creativity, excellence, and especially generosity.

The integrity we followed to get here still applies to us and to those we lead today.

In Summary:

We will walk in love and mercy.

(btw, we didn’t do tenet #10 as it was pretty well covered in the previous tenets)

for the video version of #11, which won’t earn me any fame: http://vimeo.com/90103498