Brownsboro F.U.M.C.
by The Elliots

Wow! What a week! Some of our hard-working members spent the week updating the foyer with paint, chair rail, a beautiful cherrywood table and oversized gold framed mirror. It's not finished yet, but the look is incredible and a joy to behold. After it's completed there are plans for potentially updating the sanctuary.

Ernest's brother from Texarkana preached yesterday about the church being a body and how negative talk can persuade potential visitors from staying away. This sermon came after a wonderful brunch and fellowship proving our body was in-sinc with each other and was feeling good physically and spiritially.

Fifth Sunday night found us at Union Hill where regardless of your denomination the spirit moved with song, laughter and an inspiring message from Bro. Bill. Their ladies outdid themselves afterwards with the food and a dessert buffet to die for.

God is so good to us. What part of the body are you in your church? Do you work well with the others or do you want to be the brain when God intended for you to be a foot? If you're not a part of God's body but you would like to be, give us a try. Exciting things are happening. New changes in our Sunday School, a new confirmation class starts Sunday and after completing it a new class will start.

Our Kingdom Kids with adults went to the park Sunday after church and every first Sunday will have an added role in the service.

Sunday at 5 p.m. our new youth group will meet with Lisa Conroy and myself leading the 6th and up group. God bless! --Glenda

Alan Loy McGinnis is a business consultant and author who had been called in to help change the negative trends in many large companies and corporations. In his book, The Power of Optimism, McGinnis writes:

"Corporations occasionally ask me to work with their lowproducing managers and salespersons, the people who are failing, but whom they'd like to reclaim.

As I sit with these men and women and listen to their conversation, I'm always struck by how pessimistic and cynical their talk is. One might say, `Of course they're engative; they know they're in touble in their company.' But I suspect it may have worked the other way -- the reason they became losers was their habit of negative talk.

At some point they evidently got into the habit of commenting on bad circumstances, the bad working conditions, and the bad state of their business. Maybe it originally got them some sympathy and attention, or maybe they picked up the habit from other workers. In any event, they became negative, and their work suffered."

McGinnis suggests several ways to reverse this, but one of the most powerful is to monitor and change the way we talk. When people begin talking more positively, they begin thinking or acting more so. He suggests watching every conversation to see the direction of the comments and attitudes it contains.

"In almost every situation," he writes, "it is possible to give the conversation an optimistic spin."

The instructions from God's Word on this matter says, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearer. (Eph. 4:29). In the Greek the word corrupt meant anything rotten, bad or worthless. As a Christian and as a community let us be positive in our speech and the way we live our God-given lives and help others to speak and see life as a positive. Let us pray for our church, our community, our community leadership and each other in a positive way and God will use us and bless us.

In His Name, his servant Ernest Elliott.