Last week, while caught up in the sheer leadership genius from Catalyst One Day, I posted notes from the main sessions here on my blog. Honestly, I didn’t even think twice about it, mainly because live blogging is nothing new. BUT…after receiving some insight from some people that I really respect, I decided to take them down.
Why in the heck would I do that? Because it was brought to my attention that putting up notes verbatim from the workbook for everyone to see might violate copyright laws. (I contacted a leader from Catalyst to check about it later and, sure enough, it is copyrighted).
Simply put…I want to live a life of integrity. In all honesty, what I did may not seem like a big deal, but I don’t want anyone to have a legitimate reason to question my integrity. I have made my share of stupid decisions in the past, but I’ve resolved to live my life at a higher standard.
Lots of Christians, and maybe even you, don’t seem to care about integrity even in the small issues. Countless churches (and admittedly, I myself in the past) have blatantly ignored the law when it comes to videos, music, and everything else out there. Will it cost more money and time to get the right permissions? Absolutely. Should you stop downloading illegal music and software? Of course.
How can we lead people to a pure and better life if we aren’t living “above reproach” ourselves?
Until you start living life with integrity, don’t expect anyone else to follow your lead.
What do you think?
husband. father. leader of a community of Christians called Venue Church. creative. passionate about diversity. simply trying to be obedient in the little (and huge) things.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
How can we expect God to bless our ministries when we dishonor Him by ignoring the rules made by those He placed in authority over us?
Wow. Excellent answer to a tough question. I'm with you. If we have no honesty in the small things, we have none at all.
Many times, though, you'll be the one standing alone as the "jerk who always gripes about copyright laws and makes it hard on us"…. btdt.
I'm not gonna lie… I've been the one to "ignore" the laws in the past and plead ignorance. But I'm learning that integrity is often proven in these smaller things than in the obvious ones. What's crazy is that most of the time it"s not even a "gray" issue.