Top Ten Most Admired Companies

Do you want your company or church or non profit to be we;ll liked and admired? On a more general basis, is it important for the public to admire and respect God's people and institutions? How is the current scandal about the Roman Catholic Church in Europe affecting all Christian groups? Does it really matter?

The Decker Blog covers questions such as this and tries to help people do a better job of communicating their values and goals. I enjoy reading this blog and generally find it interesting and helpful.

Their current blog covers a recent survey on the top ten most admired companies in the world. The survey also revealed the lowest most admired companies. Ouch! I hope I am not on that list. Unfortunately, Delta Airlines was.

Motivating Employees

In my last post I mentioned one of the reasons why so few ordinary people trust therapists comes from our "Highly Exalted Demeanor" and lack of understanding the common person's life. The fact that many if not most of our current politicians and highest officers in corporations are experts in theory with little practical experience also explains why the disease of therapists has spread widely to other fields.

An interesting article in the Knowledge @ Wharton electronic newsletter about motivating employees by actually getting to know them and their work. What an interesting concept as opposed to treating employees as robots and strangers.

Would you like to get more production from your people? Learn what they are thinking and feeling.

The Myth of the Expert

Anonymous left a comment on the previous post asking, "What is The Myth of the Expert?" Good question. I left the following comment on the blog but want to add some more content to it for clarification.

The Hopper brothers wrote in the book "The Puritan's Gift" that the key to our economic, social and spiritual strength was the approach to work and relationships we got from the Puritans. The were all ready and willing to pitch in and get "their hands dirty". In Britain and Europe, managers did not ever do practical work so they did not have practical knowledge.

Over the past few decades the USA has developed a "professional class of experts" that is out of touch with practical knowledge. This leads us to rack and ruin because the top bankers have never loaned anyone anything. They are theoretically trained in economics not banking so they ruined the financial industry.

The same is often true in counseling, religion and family life. Experts rely on fuzzy theories not practical life. For years such counselors recommended divorce to women who were frustrated with marriage. Then, the wrecks of millions of divorcees started showing up in their offices and those "experts" started to change their minds.

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In the book "The Churching of America" social researchers Starke and Finke say that there is an inverse relationship between seminary graduation rates and church growth. Since the days of the American Revolution the churches with fewer seminary trained Ministers have out planted and out grown those with "experts" at the helm.

In the Seventies I started doing research for a Doctorate on the best ways to train Christians to care and counsel. Much to my surprise I discovered that lay persons (Peers) were as effective or more effective when compared with Professional "expert" Counselors.

The West seems to be hurdling toward making expertise and education even more central to education, business and especially medicine. The medicalization of all kinds of moods and attitudes is not good for the country and it is driving much of the current increase in medical costs. Counselors made a pact with the "expert model" when we started taking third party payments for our work. Those who pay the piper calls the tune so now we have to pretend that it is our expertise and theoretical education that make us better Counselors. That is a major part of the "Myth of the Expert".

One last point. When Universities started programs for Masters in Business Administration, companies started moving away for requiring managers to have common sense and knowledge of the businesses they were in. This was part of the growing "Myth of the Expert" and leads the USA down a road to bad management and a lack of understanding of the way companies and workers operate.

Unions bought into the "Myth" and started demanding that their members got better jobs based not on skill, understanding and abilities but on "seniority". The term "fairness" replaced the need for someone who really knew the business.

I know of churches that selected Senior Pastors on their ability as "Motivational Speakers". In some cases the person had never himself worked in a church and knew nothing about Sunday school, committee work, hospital visitation, etc. Just as the Chris Farley character on Saturday Night Live was a poor leader so were these men. They had no practical knowledge of how to manage a congregation.

You can buy Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty at Author House.

NOTE: I am not anti education. I have several advanced degrees. The issue is having practical people and management skills along with the theoretical knowledge.

Leadership Skills in Desperate Need

The Procter and Gamble Corporation has selected a new CEO. His name is Bob McDonald and he is a very interesting guy. P&G brings in something like $80 Billion Dollars annually. Think about that for a moment. That is a lot of money.

P&G employs about 130,000 persons who come from almost every nation on earth and now work all over the world. That is a huge number of people to pay, manage and care for. They have many, many products, each one competing against other great products. It is a constant, daily, weekly and monthly task to stay competitive and on top of their competitors.

How do they do it? Well, P&G is the most prolific marketing company in the world, but that is not nearly enough to stay competitive these days. The key is great people with great skills. What kind of person is needed to head such an enormous company?

Take a look at the article in the Cincinnati Enquirer about their new leader and get a sense of what skills they think the new leader had to have in order to take on such a big task. Then go back to my post on The Fruit of the Spirit and re-read what the Apostle Paul said about Christian leaders. (This story in Fortune also talks about Mr. McDonald.)

What about Church and Para Church Leadership? What do we need to compete with the world, the flesh and the devil?

International Partners for Wholeness

At the Equipping Ministries International banquet and homecoming it was announced that EMI is training Christians how to develop a "Lifetime of great relationships" in over 70 countries. Right now they are counting over 500,000 graduates of the training programs. It was great to catch up with the work of EMI.

My colleagues and I founded EMI as an outgrowth of the Teleios Center at College Hill Presbyterian Church. Larry Chrouch, Maurie Loomans, Pat Wray, Alice Petersen, Vivian Hayes, etc and I had a ball taking Teleios internationally.

After completing a Doctorate at University of Cincinnati in 1975 I started training Peer Helpers at CHPC. In 1976 we set up the Teleios Center to do what we could to facilitate "Wholeness" among our members. (Teleios means whole and complete.)

I took insights from my doctorate and used materials developed by Dr. Richard Walters to "Equip the members to do the work of the ministry". After a few years of great success ministers and counselors from other churches asked us to teach them how to do the same things at their churches. That was when I reorganized a 501 c3 not for profit called Christian Information Committee and folded our new ministry into it in 1979.

We developed a philosophy that said, "Freely you have received now freely give what you have to others". We decided to partner with ministers, missionaries, Christian counselors and educators to set up training centers around the USA and the world. We did not want to become a huge American organization but help others develop their own unique brand of Peer Helping, healing and Christian growth. That philosophy has been very successful.

Several friends and colleagues thought we were silly for taking that approach but the fact that EMI has now reached people in seventy nations is amazing and shows that the best way to expand a ministry is through establishing cells that could then multiply themselves. The process of acting like "dendrite cells" guided us from 1979to 1994 when I resigned as President.

EMI and the other groups we established after leaving EMI have been used by the Holy Spirit to bring God's truth, His fruit and His gifts to even more than is known. The reason is that I trained many missionary groups that took my materials and re branded them for use in their ministries.

YWAM has been especially open to learn and take our materials into the world. Larry and Ellen Chrouch have trained numerous YWAMMERS who in turn have trained numerous students to minister in numerous counseling centers all over the world. I applaud them for such fertile minds and reproductions.

Kirsten Callesen took our Listening materials and translated them for use in counseling people with Autism. It worked marvellously. Then she translated them into Nepalese. Kirsten is Danish and she translated our materials into Danish from English and then from Danish into Nepalese. With her materials she trained 50Believers from the persecuted churches in Nepal. Those fifty teachers and now teaching hundreds of their fellow countrymen and women.

Steve Griebling and I trained hundreds of ministers and cell groups leaders in Singapore and Taiwan who have taken the materials to the uttermost parts of Asia. The Holy Spirit revival in Asia is being followed by discipleship in love, care and healing.

The training centers in Russia set up by Galina Chentsova have multiplied into the entire former Soviet Bloc. Galina is healing families, addicts and Pastors by the hundreds.

Who knows? Maybe there are over 100 countries and one million people who have had their lives touched for the better through this First Century model of ministry expansion. Who says it will not work today?

Want to know more about

and how you can get involved?

Sweeten Life Systems

A New Way of Thinking

Is it possible for me to please God and do His will without renewing my mind? In retrospect, I thought I could be a pretty good Christian with my own mind. I had never heard that I needed a new mind and a new way of thinking when I was a young Believer. I was, in fact, a very arrogant person who was convinced that my thinking and approach to life was just fine, thank you very much.

Today, however, I see that my mind was filled with distortions, misunderstandings and bad theology. I know that bad theology leads to a dysfunctional lifestyle and poor emotional/spiritual health. No wonder the Lord wanted me to alter my thinking and repent! Those old habits got me into a lot of trouble with God, myself and other people.

God wants me to be healthy and live in abundance of joy, great relationships and spiritual peace. The ideas, assumptions and principles that were loaded into my hard drive called the brain before salvation blocked peace, inhibited joy and promoted conflicts with God, myself and others. YIKES!!! I needed help.

I needed a church and Christian leaders who could assist me to repent of my old ways of thinking and to develop new Belief Systems.

I finally found ways that helped me repent. Oh, I knew that I needed to change my drinking, sex and cursing, but those are easy to alter. After repenting of my wild side I began to read the Bible while studying to be a teacher and coach.

I learned about God's word along with teaching students grow and change. I decided to apply those teaching methods to the Bible.

I learned:

If it works, do more of it.
If it does not work, stop it.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I learned the Christian education was NOT working.
I learned about what needed to STOP.
It was broken so I needed to fix it.

It was my experience with coaching that taught me most about being a disciple maker. I needed to coach Christians how to change their thinking, feelings and behavior. I learned that talk is not enough. I learned that students/disciples only learn when they change and only change when they actually PRACTICE new ways of thinking and acting.

Now I train, coach and disciple men and women with processes that see them change. Next time I'll tell you more about what I learned.

See my web page at www.sweetenlife.com for more on this topic.

A Prayer for Living

Over the past few weeks I have been teaching on ways to implement the very important principles found in Romans 12:2.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

These simple words summarize much of what I have learned that works in the Christian life as well as pastoral care and counsel. Think for a moment about not following St. Paul's admonition. Suppose he said, "Please, friends, continue to do what the rest of the world wants you to do. Don't change your ideas or actions even though they are leading to chaos, confusion and dissipation and is obviously contrary to God's will."

Any culture in which we live invades our thinking and feelings constantly, silently and completely. As Will Rogers said upon his return from Paris: "Those Parisian kids are the smartest I have ever seen. Every one of them spoke a foreign language. French."

Not only does everyone living in a French speaking country speak that language, they also think in French and think and act like the culture thinks and acts. Americans are conformed to our culture in ways that are uniquely ours.

But, are these cultural values always Christian in orientation? The answer is a resounding "NO!" Greed, rampant individualism, sexual obsession, abortion and aggression are not biblical values. When St. Paul wrote to the Believers in Rome he knew well that the culture there was anything but Christian so he exhorted them to work at renewing their minds. Only then would they be able to live like Christ and love one another.

Celebration of Missionary Organization

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Photos from the October 2 Banquet and Ceremony to Honor Dr. Gary Sweeten and other pioneers who founded and developed the Teleios Center and Equipping Ministries Inernational over thirty years ago at College Hill Presbyterian Church.

Healing Minds/Touching Hearts

I am enjoying the good things happening as we cooperate with Tri-County Assembly of God. Pastor Brad Rosenberg went to Cincinnati Christian with my kids and is now Senior Pastor of one of the most influential congregations in the Tri-State region.

Here is a video on YouTube of a neat program called TCA Hope Fair being held next week. Take a look at it.

Go to TCA's home page to read about a seven week series I will be doing there on Wednesday nights starting in October. We will teach Christians how to "Take every thought captive to the mind of Christ" and put an end to their fears, anxieties, depression and anger. Sign up and attend all the classes you can.

The Crisis in Christian Leadership

I wrote a paper some years ago about the issues of leading men and women jumping headlong into sinful emotional relationships and ruining the lives of many. I rewrote and posted it on my web page at sweetenlife.com

Once on the web page hit Pastoral Services. For the last several years I have been the 911 number on the speed dial of many ministries, churches and leaders. The worst part? The calls come after the person has destroyed himself and his "Soul Mate". The reputation is gone as is the wife, kids, friends, staff, position and ministry. Just look at the pitiful state of Governor Sanford.

I could have helped Governor Sanford when he and friends saw the signs and symptoms of an imminent collapse. Healing is possible and crises preventable. But strong men do not ask for directions or assistance.

If you are interested in the warning signs of a mental, emotional, sexual collapse, take a look at it and weep for those caught in the snares of the devil. But be careful because you may know people who are getting ready to jump off the cliff of no return and you may need to intervene. That takes guts and you will very likely lose your friendship.

Gary Sweeten

The Pressure of Culture

I had a great conversation today with Amy R. She works with women at Horizon Community Church and has a great ministry.

We chatted about the pressure we feel in our culture because of the Matrix-like nature of the ungodly aspects of our world. Perhaps it is no worse than in other times but we live in our times.

Another friend in ministry, Mark Lutz of the "Big Vineyard" described it best. He said something like, "It is like wrestling with one of those huge guys in Japan who weigh 300 pounds. All they have to do is lean on me and it wears me out. I get so tired of fighting the weight of the cultural sin."

I thought of that today when I heard that Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett had died. I had just spent most of my day at a Celebration of the Resurrection for Bill Nester. Dr. Nester had been my boss and mentor at the University of Cincinnati during mys six years on the staff. He was a giant among educators. He impacted multiplied thousands of young men and women, many of whom have gone on to be great educators and counselors themselves.

His life and death will not be noticed by many in the Matrix Media at Fox, CNN or ABC. They are obsessed with fame, fortune and notoriety not lives well lived. But Bill Nester did more, much more to elevate the level of thinking, nurture and the common good than all the movie stars and rock stars combined.

Obituary of Dr. William Nester

Dr. William R. Nester, the first chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Kearney and former vice president at the University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University, died Wednesday morning surrounded by his family at Hospice of Cincinnati in Anderson Township, following a long illness.


A longtime resident of Anderson Township, he moved to Bellevue about a year ago. He was 81.

"Dr. Nester was a wonderful teacher and friend," said Bill Keating Jr. of Mount Lookout. They had remained close since Dr. Nester was Mr. Keating's faculty adviser at UC back in the early 1970s. "He led by example and had a positive influence on all of us who had the honor to work with him over the years. Bill's influence will continue to benefit our community for generations to come."

A Cincinnati native, Dr. Nester was born on Feb. 19, 1928, to William Nester Sr. and Evelyn Nester. He grew up in Evanston and graduated from Walnut Hills High School. He held a bachelor's degree in education, a master's in counseling and guidance and a Ph.D. in higher education administration, all from UC. As a student he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and later served as its national president. He was also a member of Sigma Sigma, a service organization.

Dr. Nester also held honorary doctorates from Northern Kentucky University, the University of Nebraska at Kearney and UC. He received the William Howard Taft Medal for Notable Achievement, the highest honor given annually by the UC Alumni.

He had a 26-year career at UC, starting when he became director of the Student Union in 1952. He later served as dean of men, dean of students, and senior vice president for student and academic affairs.

In 1976 he became a founding member and first president of the Metro Six Athletic Conference.

Dr. Nester moved his family to Columbus in 1978 when he became vice president of student services at OSU. In 1983 he became the seventh president of Kearney State College. He led the college's move into the University of Nebraska system and became the first chancellor of UNK.

In September, the university named the newest section of its "Living and Learning" complex after Dr. Nester.

He returned to Greater Cincinnati after retiring in 1993. Since then he has worked in administration and fundraising at Northern Kentucky University and served on the UCATS board.

A lover of jazz, he also hosted two programs on WOBO radio - "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Swing Time."

His wife of 55 years, Mary Jane Grossman Nester, died in 2005.

Survivors include: four sons, William Nester III of Fresh Meadows, N.Y., Mark Nester of Cumming, Ga., Brian Nester of Cincinnati, and Steve Nester of Maineville; and seven grandchildren.

A celebration of his life is 11 a.m. Thursday followed by a lunch and reception at St. Timothy Episcopal Church, 8101 Beechmont Ave. Anderson Township.

Memorial gifts are suggested to Nester Family Scholarship Fund, University of Cincinnati Foundation, P.O. Box 19970, Cincinnati, OH 45219.

Many people call themselves mentors today but few can really pull it off. Bill was able to really mentor yourng men and women and people all over the earth remember him with gratitude today.

Gary Sweeten

Seminar on Faith History

 

May 28 was a great day to interact with God and one another while learning about ourselves. The all day seminar led by Jens-Petter Jorgensen, our dear friend from Norway, touched deeply the hearts and souls of sixteen Christian leaders who sacrificed a day to grow in the love and fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We received positive comments from a high percentage of participants. Most wanted more on this topic so they can lead others in the sam process.

Go to www.sweetenlife.com for more about us.

We shall follow up with other day long events to facilitate the growth and healing of lay and ordained leaders. Send your suggestions for topics to gary@sweetenlife.com

My Letter to a Friend

My old time friend from the Jesus Movement, Michael Cristiani, is a compassionate Believer who feels the hurts and pains of people in need. He often writes about our Christian responsibility to care for the hurting among us. Below is a note I sent to him tonight in response to an article he sent me.

My response to Michael is partially in response to an article I read by Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action. Ron is a wonderful man who has worked to help the poor for generations. He believes strongly that high earners should be taxed at very high rates to give directly to the poor. He calls it "biblical justice" but I call it "forced charity" which is not charity at all.

Dear Michael,

It seems to me that the very worst thing a government can do is to give direct payments to poor people without also interacting with them in an up building manner. For over forty years I have tried to help the poor, the broken hearted and downtrodden. I learned very early in the process that poor people are of two types. The situation ally poor and the chronically poor.

We can assist the person with money who is poor because of sickness, job loss or a weather catastrophe. However, the chronically poor ought not receive direct payments from taxpayers. They must also have someone work with them to teach them better living and financial habits. Otherwise they will not be able to alter their lifestyle and, as Jesus said, "You will always have them with you".

This is the same with an addict. Direct aid to an addict moves them deeper into the addiction. They will simply ingest more of the toxic substance. Change from addiction to sobriety can rarely be achieved unless loving persons enter into the world of the addict and walk with them through the pain of recovery. This is also true of the chronically poor.

When we over function for the poor, the addicted or the under performing we condemn them to further pain. The current Obama Socialism approach to helping the poor is poorly conceived and will move poor people further into poverty. Placing higher taxes on workers to pay the poor directly is stealing from the productive to place higher burdens on the unproductive chronically poor.

IWW. (It Won't Work!)

Gary Sweeten

Are You a Change Agent?

I have been trying to help people change things for a very long time. This means that I am an expert at failure. Yep, failure. Plans and intentions to change people never survive the first battle. Why? Because Seekers have their own objectives and their ideas about if and what to change.

Change is hard. If that were not true we would not be seeing commercials for weight loss programs every five minutes on TV. Half the people in Outback Steak House just came from a weight loss class and are eating to deal with their lack of losing weight.( My joke.)

If you are in a position of helping people change it is helpful to learn about the things that help and the things that hurt your efforts. In other words, you and I need to CHANGE the ways we try to help people CHANGE.

If you are interested you need to read my book Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty and keep reading these posts on change. Preachers, teachers, parents and sales people can all benefit to say nothing of counselors. Here is the first hint.

The change must be desired by the Seeker not just by the Helper or the Seeker's family. Helpers often try to please themselves or a family member and miss the central fact that the Seeker must decide to change himself before anything positive happens. Have you ever said, "If only they would listen to me they would be OK." I have.

This boils down to the old saying, "God loves you and I have a plan for your life."

So, what to do? Listen carefully to what the person wants. What are his goals, objectives, values and interests? Does he know what they are? Few people do. This is a major way to help people change. If goals are clear then it is much easier to start working to accomplish them. If not, all the work in the world will not produce much more than confusion.

Next time it's timing.

Gary Sweeten
www.sweetenlife.com

Leaders Speak

Two great communicators together: Rick Warren and Barack Obama

Any church or business that is growing is led by a good communicator. We can see from recent elections that the ability to speak clearly and persuasively is critical to one's political success. Mr. Bush is a fine man but he is a terrible communicator and McCain is not much better. Mr. Obama is untried and untested but he is a great communicator.

Sarah Palin surprised all of us with her tremendous ability to connect with people. I will be interested to see where she goes from here.

Great leaders get help so they can improve their communication. They need to communicate well in writing, interpersonal relationships and public speaking. Even Tiger Woods gets additional coaching and he is the best golfer ever. Great Pastors and Great Leaders have coaches as well.

Lloyd Ogilve was a famous Presbyterian Minister in Hollywood before taking the position as Senate Chaplain. Every sermon he gave was analyzed and discussed by a special speaking coach. The content was not discussed, that was the Preacher's job. However, the delivery, timing, pacing and tone were all fair game. That is how an expert gets better.

Who is coaching you?

Take a look at a great blog on communication. It has the top ten best and worst communicators of 2008. ( I am not on either list.)

Gary Sweeten

www.sweetenlife.com

Why Do I Have Hope?

If I did not have hope and faith that substantial change and improvement was possible I would retire immediately. Being a Minister or a Counselor is challenging and difficult in any event. However, to be a Helper when you do not believe that God can bring SUBSTANTIAL HEALING is almost impossible to contemplate.

I have ministered personally to thousands of hurting people and trained numerous Helpers to minister to multiplied thousands. Their problems varied from depression, anxiety, adultery, fear and sexual addiction to anger, bitterness and aggression. I have seen far more people receive substantial healing than those who dropped out. In fact, those people who are motivated to change and will do the hard work it requires always experience healing and relief.

No one experiences Perfection.

Everyone can experience PROGRESS.

Steve Griebling and I wrote a book several years ago that lays out the basic principles of facilitating change. Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty is featured on the side of this blog and it can be ordered at Author House.

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

The Greatest is Love

The Wall Street Journal, my favorite paper, has another great article in its online version. The article focuses on happiness and economic well being. They ask the question: "Does riches make us happier?" They say, in part<

It doesn't have a place in accounting students' spreadsheets or future venture capitalists' portfolios. But at business schools on both sides of the Atlantic, professors are increasingly studying and teaching about an intangible they say is nonetheless a key part of the modern bottom line -- happiness.

Economists, psychologists, sociologists and others trying to untangle the relationship between wealth and emotional well-being have found a home in business schools in the U.S. and Britain. They say the schools, more interdisciplinary and open-minded than many other parts of academe, are the perfect place to examine that connection.

Read the rest of the Journal to get to the meat of the question. But first, what do you think?

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

Moscow Revisited

I am sitting in a Moscow Internet Cafe named Asia Cafe eating an omlette with Tiger Prawns an cheese although I thought I ordered ham and cheese. Such is the state of trying to communicate in English only with a young waitress who speaks only Japanese and Russian. Living and traveling in the largest city in Europe certainly proves that we are experiencing the global village in a whole new way. The trains, subways and streets are filled with people from every nationality, tribe and tongue. Cars from every imaginable country run rampant through the streets are breakneck speeds and a pedesrtian must always be alert or be killed. It is great fun to experience the excitement of international interaction.

I am staying in a flat (apartment) near Christ The Savior Cathedral and it is a very high class, busy section of this huge city. The Cathedral stands as a huge testimony of the failure of the Bolsheviks. It seems that the Communists hated this church more rabidly than most even though they hated all churches. In a fit of pique they blew it up in an attempt to erase its powerful message from the consciousness of the Russian people for all time. (It was originally built as a memorial to the defeat of Napolean's armies so the pride of Russia and Moscow was great.)

The Communists, in a typical stroke of genius, decided to build in its place a big office building dedicated to the rise of Communism. Here was the problem: God openly rebuked their efforts by making such a structure impossible. The prayers of the people and the church somehow softened the ground under the structure and the engineers and architects found themselves unable to get a foundation to stick. (Hmmm! A lack of foundation. Isn't that interesting.)

So, after several tries, the Party gave up and made it into a big swimming pool. It was as though God placed a large baptismal fount right in the middle of the city for all to see as a symbol of the atheistic attempts to destroy the church. Many of my friends swam in that pool and it kept the story of the Party's failure alive in the hearts and minds of the Muskovites.

Just after the fall of Communism, the Orthodox Church decided to rebuild the Cathedral. Despite warnings that the ground was too soft to sustain it, they went ahead. "How" they asked, "could the ground sustain the original Cathedral and not a new one?" Now Christ The Savior stands as an open rebuke to all attempts to destroy Christ and His message of victory and hope.

My spirits are uplifted each time I see the church and I am reminded of God's power and truth.

Pray for our ministry here. The efforts at helping Christians grow and prosper in a very difficult place are succeeding but it is slow and challenging. Pray for Galina and her team of intrepid and skilled workers. The culture and society has been severely damaged by seventy years of crushing oppression and trauma. Alcoholism and other addictions are rampant destroying many Christian families. Our friends are making headway but the enemy is strongly resisting.

Gary Sweeten

www.sweetenlife.com

www.liferoute.ru

Want Time With God?

Good Morning Ladies
The Fall Retreat is this Saturday. We have room for about 6 more women to register. THE WEATHER IS TO BE IDEAL. Why not put some things on hold to spend time with God?

Contact:
Judy Haag
Spiritual Encouragers of Cincinnati
5091 South Ridge Drive
Cincinnati OH, 45224513
853-2995
timeofrefreshment@gmail.com

The Need for Volunteer Organizations

The Aspen Institute established a task force some ten years ago to do a study on how to improves Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). They have come back with a paper that lists Ten Key Ideas to Improve volunteer groups.

In their introduction, the task force mentions the economic heft of such groups in the USA. (T)he economic impact is clear: nonprofit and voluntary activity accounts for roughly 7.2% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP).1 To put this in perspective, consider that the entire construction industry accounts for 4.4% of GDP, and the combined utilities – electricity, gas, and water – 2.0%.

Between 1995 and 2005, total revenue for the nonprofit sector increased by 54% compared to a GDP increase of 35% over the same decade.2 Their share of the overall U.S. workforce increased from 5.6% in 1972 to 7.2% in 2004, with nonprofits now employing more than 9 million people.3 This workforce growth has consistently outpaced both the business and public sectors.

What think you about these data? How do you think such groups can be made more effective and efficient? Make your comments on the comment page and let me know or write me at gary@sweetenlife.com and go to my web at http://www.sweetenlife.com/