Titus Connection Volume 18, Number 10 – October, 2024

Greetings.  This Titus Connection is being sent out late because my mom passed away  September 22nd.  Our family had the service for my mom during October’s first weekend.  Thank you to all who have and are praying for my family.  It is greatly appreciated.  Mike

In addition to possessing solid core values that the leaders of a ministry adhere to and live by, and subsequently everyone else involved in the ministry (July, 2023 Titus Connection article), quality leadership is vital for a great ministry culture.  This may seem like an obvious statement but unfortunately not all Christian ministries and organizations overseen by believers have quality in their leadership.
Consider 1 Corinthians 10:31. “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  Whatever a believer in Christ is doing, we are to bring glory to God, pursuing excellence in all we do.  Excellence is being and doing the best we can to honor and glorify the Lord.  This does not mean always getting “A”s on tests to pursue excellence.  Perhaps your best is a “C” and you did the best you possibly could.  That is excellence for you in that situation.
Look at Luke 10:25-37.  The Samaritan had very little motivation to help the man other than the fact he lived a life of excellence, being the best he could be in any situation.  He courageously and generously gave of himself to help the man in great need.
Having godly men and women who believe they are responsible to God in the role placed upon them.  These people seek to serve the Lord as they serve people and whatever they do, they do with excellence, pursuing to be the best representation they can be.
People serve because they know that is what Jesus would be doing and they serve because it makes those who are under one’s authority, as important, and times, more important than themselves.  Placing another person’s needs at the same level or higher as your own needs, causes you to positively influence and treat that person in ways that affirms him/herself their value and importance.
Involving someone with a poor character and providing him with skills and inspirational speeches will not change the person’s heart.  The person must want to change.  For a person to change, it is an internal motivation switch that the person must switch on by herself.  We all can make choices because we have the gift of reasoning.
If you have someone on your team that is unwilling to personally develop in their character to become someone who desires to serve others and simply is willing to treat others with respect and love, you have a problem.  In a business you may be able to move them to a different group or location within the business.  In a volunteer organization, it may be more of having a sit-down discussion with that person and be honest that their value system is not consistent with the group’s values.
This is why an organization/a business needs to live their core values on their sleeves, the values have to resonate in all areas of the group.  You must speak and live out your value system.
Ask yourself, in your organization are we people of integrity?  How do we know that we are?  What do we need to develop to be people of integrity?  How can you encourage the team to develop better core values or the values that the team has already, to be lived out by all team members?

One of the popular parables in the New Testament is the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).  An expert in Moses’s Law (first books of the Old Testament), came to Jesus to test Jesus.  He asked Jesus what he had to do to have eternal life.  Jesus replied by quoting two Old Testament passages (Deuteronony 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18), which the expert would have known well.  After quoting the verses, the expert was told to follow those passages and he would have eternal life.
Then the expert asked Jesus who would be the expert’s neighbor.  Here Jesus told the story of the three men who passed by a man who very well could have been a Jew, that had been beat and robbed by some nasty people on the road to Jericho. He looked dead.  In the time of Jesus, this road was crooked, narrow and steep so robbers could easily hide as the Jerusalem is at about 800 meters above sea level and Jericho is 400 meters below sea level.
The first person to pass was a Jewish priest. The priest performed many religious activities.  They were to avoid unclean items like dead bodies.  Touch a dead body and you could not perform your duties in the Temple as he offered the animal sacrifices for Israelites and was the only one permitted to enter the Temple’s Most Holy Place.
Next was a Levite, representing following lots of Jewish rules.  Levites from the tribe of Levi had temple responsibilities but different from priests.  We can speculate these two men were afraid that the robbers were still around, too busy or had the “Bystander effect”, where you don’t help someone in distress, just watch or leave perhaps due to don’t want to be singled out or the courage to step into the situation.
Along came a Samaritan, the worst-case scenario for a Jew and Samaritan.  An unclean person was coming to help this guy and going to touch him, totally unclean if you were touched by one.  Deep hated existed between Jews and Samaritans.  Jews saw themselves as pure descendants of Abraham, while Samaritans were a mixed race produced when Jews from northern kingdom intermarried with other people groups.
To this legal expert, the person least likely to act correctly would be the Samaritan.  In fact, he could not bear to say “Samaritan” in answer to Jesus’ question. Jews traveled around Samaria to get from Judea to Galilee so as not to step into Samaritan territory or touched or even seen with one.  This expert’s attitude betrayed his lack of the very thing that he had earlier said the law commanded – love.
This Samaritan, the victim very possibly hated, much less wanted any help from, risked his life as robbers could be around.  He put the guy on his own donkey, personally sacrificing and costing him several times over as he gave two days of wages (and possibly more) to cover for a stranger, a Jew, someone who would otherwise not be a part of the Samaritan’s life.  The Samaritan willingly died to his own self.
Who is the “neighbor” in our lives that we do not get along with, that we may even hate or despise?  There may be many people in that category, perhaps someone who has more money than you, are of a different race or ethnicity (tribe), different lifestyle or the person who has deeply wounded you.
This nice Sunday school lesson can dig deep into a person’s life if we allow the Holy Spirit to do some soul searching.  Jesus took the worst situation for a Jew and asked if the expert really loved the way the Bible lays it out.  Love is the difference for a disciple of Jesus (John 13:34-35).  Love breaks through prejudice, racism, hatred, unforgiveness and living like those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus.  Who is your and my neighbor?