Take It On the Run

"I heard it from a friend

who-ooo 
heard it from a friend 

who-ooo 
heard it from another 

you’ve been messing around"

This poor guy!  Well at least the guy was willing to hear her side of the story. I know some who totally take gossip for real! How sad.

It’s amazing we even have to deal with this. But we do.  

Ministry can have the grandest vision and the best strategy but with gossip, good luck getting it off the ground and if you did will it be any fun at all?

Gossip is toxic.

You see it’s like this. Relationships are the air you breathe in ministry.  Mutual trust is the glue that holds it all together.  Anything that violates that trust well, it’s toxic vapor, it is the catalyst for rust.  Gossip and rumors destroy the trust.  It rusts the trust. 

Take it on the run.

We all know gossip destroys, I really don’t have to tell you. And really the only thing that stops rust is prevention.  We can moan and groan all day about gossip but that's not healthy and in some cases leads to more gossip (see it's rust). Let's come up with ways to stop it from slowing us down and keeping us from the grand destiny God has for us. Let’s take it on the run.  Let’s deal with it and keep going.  Let’s move on and not let this bring us down, individually and corporately. 

Can I quote you on that?

I heard a good way to protect a ministry from gossip.  Sharon Lussiere, the women’s ministry leader for Riverside Church, Sebastian hands out notebooks, for the ladies to carry in their purse.  Whenever someone starts up with questionable topics they can pull out their notebooks and say “Can I quote you on that?” Ha! That’s a good one. And that’s taking it on the run!

What are some of the ways to stop the gossip in your ministry?