and quarrels disappear when gossip stops.
I heard Dave Ramsey talk about leadership last week and he said that one "Unity Killer" in every organization was gossip. So he works hard to develop a no tolerance for gossip mentality at his organization. He is willing and often has to fire people because of gossip.
Proverbs reminds us of the wisdom of this reality in that when we can take away gossip from an organization we will reduce quarrels. Argument and disagreements are so many times caused by gossip.
What does gossip look like in the church? Telling someone that they really need to pray about someone and sharing a request that you didn't have the right to share. We all believe in the power of prayer, but hopefully we can learn to do a better job of not sharing private information in the name of prayer.
Complaining to the wrong person: how often when we have an issue with something at church we start complaining, but we start complaining to the wrong person. Can you believe what the teacher said today in our small group? One of the most frustrating things about being a pastor today is that so few people are actually willing to come and sit down and talk to me if there is an issue with me. I always seem to hear it from someone else. Sometimes our desire to be in the "KNOW" causes us to cultivate gossip instead of fight against it.
We need to all work diligently at making the church a place of no tolerance for gossip. Practice saying things like, "I'm glad you trust in me enough to share this, but you really need to talk to ______________." "You know, we just don't talk like that here!"
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