iron sharpen's iron

In his book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" Patrick Lencioni says that constructive conflict is good for any organization. He says that when people on a team trust each other, are not selfish and truly want to see the group's success they should be open to criticism and conflict.

In proverbs 27:17 it says, "as iron sharpens iron so a good friends sharpen each other".

The church sometimes is the most sensitive ground out there. I don't know which one it is, but it is one of these problems. 1. they lack the trust (faith) needed to allow this iron to sharpen them. 2. they are selfish and don't care if the church succeeds or not. They are only concerned about their own feelings or their own success. 3. Lastly, harmony and comfort is more appealing then building the Kingdom of God.

On Sunday 5/2 I preached that the apostles criticized Peter for going into a Gentile's home. It was their constructive criticism that brought out Peter's testimony of God delivering the Gentiles. This in turn brought out praise for God. One of Two things could have happened which would have stifled the testimony. The apostles could have thought it is too painful to criticize Peter and kept their mouths shut. This would have resulted in them going around Peter's back and discussing their frustrations. The other response that could have gone wrong is that Peter could have gotten upset for their critique and argued back instead of just plainly telling the apostles about what had happened.

The truth is, many of our churches, families and companies are dysfunctional. We need to look at ourselves and reevaluate our priorities. Then we need to be open to other's comments so that we can learn and be sharpened. I just ran spell check and it came back with some critism. I was happy to listen becuase I wanted my blog to be correct. How come we can't take that type of harsh words from friends?

Amen!