Week Thirty-Nine, 2024
But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am? (Matthew 16:15 NIV)
In the Marketplace, especially in Sales and Banking, business leaders are taught early on to have an “Elevator Speech”. That is, to be able to introduce yourself and your business within a one minute elevator ride… to be able to answer the question “What do you do?”
And to be able to say enough in that minute to draw enough interest from the one you are talking with that they would want to continue the conversation.
In Sales and Leadership training, participants are taught to be able to expand that elevator speech in such away, that you not only have the one-minute speech in your repertoire but also have a 3-minute and 7-minute version that can be used in social gatherings and introductions.
Along with client/customer focused questions, these longer versions can also be used in sales calls or presentations… but again only when intermixed with truly customer focused questions.
The truly exceptional professional has these skills/tactics/strategies down to a science. So much so that it becomes second nature. It becomes who they are.
As Believers… as Followers of Jesus… we need to develop similar skills. We need to develop a similar “Elevator Speech” about Jesus and our relationship with Him. Not that we need to “sell” Him, but so that we can best share Him.
In a short period of time, we ought to be able to get to the point where we can share who He is and what He means to us. We need to write it down and practice it.
Our “Elevator Speech” should become so engrained in us that it becomes second nature. That it easily pours from our heart and rolls off of our tongue.
A one-minute version. A 3-minute. A 7-minute version.
Who He is. What He’s done. And what He has done for me (or what that means for me).
How do you answer the question, “Who do you say I am?” What’s your “Elevator Speech”? Marty Stubblefield
Frank Becker’s Comment: “The Apostle Peter put it best:“
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
–1 Peter 3:15
Sometimes True Stories
In a new CNN poll, 39 percent of US adults said they worry they won’t be able to make ends meet. The percentage of past due credit cards is at its highest level since 2012. Young adults are discouraged, and sixty-year-olds are “staring at financial peril.”
– 0 –
It’s called synergy: the strength of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The apostle Paul didn’t know American history, of course, but he recognized the synergy of the human body—individual organs and parts of the body working together to accomplish human goals no individual part could accomplish by itself. And he applied that lesson to the church. Each Christian is given gifts by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:11) in order to build up and benefit the church as a whole (Ephesians 4:12).
What is your gifting?
What are your talents?
What are your skills?
What are you doing with the gifts, talents and skills you’ve been given?
We as a church (and as a nation) are only as strong as the participation of each of us using our talents, skills and abilities together in unity.
Quotes You Can Use
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer includes this eloquent entreaty:
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal.
God can only lead those who will follow and can only give what we will receive. Our spiritual compartmentalization into sacred and secular, religion and the “real world,” keeps us from experiencing his omnipotent, omniscient best. We reduce the King of the universe to a genie we consult when necessary. Jim Denison
It is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is ourselves. C.S. Lewis
I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but it will get you pretty near. Margaret Thatcher
The true convert does not receive the Gospel as an addition to his previous life, but in exchange for it.
Let your Christianity be so unmistakable and your walk so straight forward, that all who see you may have no doubt whose you are and whom you serve. J.C. Ryle
When God says something, the argument is over. R.C. Sproul
If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced. That’s why people with no sense of humor have an increased sense of self-importance.
I have often heard it said to not bring religion into politics, but that precisely where it ought to be brought.
You are what you do, not what you say you will do. Carl Jung
A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul. Charles Spurgeon
The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks. C.S. Lewis
The biggest mistake you could ever make is being too afraid to make one.
One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled, but few are educated. Thomas More
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. You can show a person the trust, but you can’t make them think.
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