Professional Life Lessons I Learned From Bishop Arthur M. Brazier

It has been a little over a month now since my pastor, Dr. Arthur M. Brazier, pastor emeritus of the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, IL, passed away. Since that time, it doesn’t matter what’s happening in the day or in the week, for me, there seems to be something that reminds me of Bishop Brazier. It is for this reason that I dedicate the November/December 2010 issue of Dialog Digest™ to him.

As I reminisce on the day when I received the text message from a friend notifying me of the news of his death, I am still overcome with emotions. Despite that, I also have an overwhelming sense of peace, joy, and happiness.

I am at peace because I know that as a servant leader and shepherd, Bishop Brazier did what he was destined to do in my life and that was help me on my spiritual journey of having a stronger relationship with God and better understanding of Jesus Christ.

I have joy and happiness because I frequently recall the wisdom, insight, information, inspiration, guidance, encouragement, motivation, laughter, clarity, and confirmation I gained from Bishop Brazier through the various consultations and spiritual teachings he led that helped me to forge ahead in my career as an entrepreneur and securely establish myself as an inspirational speaker, national trainer, empowerment author, and career coach to professional audiences around the world.

Needless to say, directly and indirectly, I learned so much from my pastor, Bishop Arthur M. Brazier, which I cannot even begin to put into words. Even so, I would like to share with you a few of the professional life lessons I gained from him that I will always remember and live by:

1) Operate from a Spirit of Excellence
As a congregant of the Apostolic Church of God, I saw time and time again how Bishop Brazier did everything from the best of his abilities without excuses. Whether he was leading Sunday morning service, Wednesday night Bible study, one-on-one advising sessions, or serving as guest speaker for ministry and special events, I could count on Bishop to carry out his responsibilities with a high level of preparation, observation, and dedication. This allowed him to give his congregants and audiences his best while equipping us with the insight, information, and inspiration we needed for our spiritual growth and daily lives.

This trait in Bishop has inspired me throughout my career as an author, speaker, trainer, and coach to do the same. Whether I am conducting a time management workshop for managers; facilitating an assertiveness session for administrative professionals; leading my “Frustration Free Friday Teleseminar of Monthly Motivation;” or advising the members and officers of my Toastmasters club, the Wrightwood-Ashburn Overcomers (WAO); Bishop Brazier’s example has forever taught me to always strive for excellence – not perfection – in all that I do.

I know that in operating from a spirit of excellence, I will put my best foot forward at the time of completing a task and I will carry that task through to the end with a level of excellence – without excuses. In so doing, I will better inform, inspire, and serve my audiences and colleagues which can help them to reach their best in all that they do.

2) Communicate Directly and Clearly Especially with Expectations
As a teacher of communication skills, I have found from experience that many of us spend most of our lives talking in circles and having conversations of confusion. Our messages don’t always tell people what we mean; therefore, we find ourselves in muddled situations that are not clear and direct which can lead to problems in or the loss of relationships.

In my communication seminars, I teach my students communication strategies that help them with stating directly and clearly what they mean so that they can confidently mean what they say. From what I observed, Bishop Brazier did not appear to have had this problem.

Ask anyone who has ever attended Apostolic as a member or guest under Bishop’s leadership about what they thought of his communication style, and I would bet you that the majority of them would say that Bishop usually said what he meant and meant what he said – he did not “beat around the bush.”

As a matter of fact, Bishop’s directness and clarity often led to roaring laughter from the congregation. Not because what he said was funny, but because he directly and clearly stated what he meant, especially regarding his expectations for a situation.

For instance, I recall a time when the microphones gave feedback as he approached the podium. The piercing noise startled him and all of us sitting in the sanctuaries. Bishop paused and in a calm voice spoke directly to the sound crew and made a comment about his dissatisfaction with the occurrence and how he did not want it to happen again. He reminded the sound crew that bad microphones gave a poor listening experience for the in-house and at-home congregation; therefore, he encouraged them to find the problem and work to never allow such an occurrence to happen again.

As members of the congregation laughed, applauded, and even gave Bishop a standing ovation for his comments, I made a mental note of how I had witnessed an example of the effective use of directness and clarity in communication skills.

The situation reminded me that I must remember to be direct and clear when I say what I mean and mean what I say – all while not being mean when I say it – as Bishop Brazier had demonstrated.

3) Respect and Value Time by Being Timely
One of the main reasons I became a member of the Apostolic Church of God under Bishop Brazier’s leadership was because he demonstrated to me that he respected and valued time in the way his services and programs started and ended on time.

This blew me away because I had become so accustomed to meetings, programs, and events in my professional world either starting late or lasting beyond the appointed minutes and hours. Bishop demonstrated to me that quality could still take place within a specified time limit. Plus, he showed that starting and ending on time helped to respect the time of those in attendance. Oh, how much I appreciated that!

4) Respect and Value Time by Responding Promptly
Another way in which Bishop taught me to respect and value time was in his method of returning phone calls – himself.

I was amazed the first time I called the church to set up an appointment to meet with Bishop to get some spiritual counseling and his secretary told me he would get back to me within the next three days to establish the day and time I was to come in and meet with him.

I must admit, I was a little skeptical. I thought to myself, “Yeah, right, Bishop is too busy to return my phone call himself.” Well, all skepticism was put to rest when the next day, my phone rang, and it was Bishop Brazier himself returning my phone call to setup our appointment! I was highly impressed!

After I got off the phone with him, I thought to myself about all of the professionals I had dealt with in my day and the number of times it took them longer than three days to acknowledge my message whether by phone or e-mail. Unfortunately, the instances were too numerous to count.

I even got a reality check because there were times in my professional behavior that I, too, did not promptly return someone’s message in a respectable time frame.

Needless to say, I realized the error of my ways and made a vow right then and there that if Bishop could return my call himself within a timely manner, I, as a professional, could do the same.

5) Respect and Value Time with Leisure and Living
Finally, through his leadership and his life, Bishop Brazier taught me that time is one of the most valuable commodities God has blessed us with and how we must use it wisely by balancing in both work and rest for effective living.

As an entrepreneur, I know how easy it is to get wrapped up into your work, especially when your work is your life’s purpose. In reflecting on how Bishop has impacted my life in the area of respecting and valuing time, I recall memories of how he led a life of work and leisure that allowed him to serve God and others while enjoying his two passions of regularly playing tennis and visiting his favorite place, Paris, France.

A smile rests on my face even now as I recall back in 2005 when Bishop came and blessed my new apartment. After he was done, my roommate and I escorted him to the elevator and I inquired about the rest of his day. I asked him if he had more appointments and he said, “Yes, to play tennis.”

Now that was not the answer I was expecting! I chuckled and said “Wow, I didn’t know you played tennis Bishop.” He smiled and said, “Oh, I’ve been playing tennis for a long time now and I love it.” He then told us that he played tennis every week as long as his schedule allowed it.

I remember my roommate and I being impressed with how he, in his early 80s, could be consistent in partaking in his passion, while we, at half his age, couldn’t seem to find time to do anything consistently, let alone something that we passionately loved to do.

Needless to say, we took a lesson from Bishop in that moment to remember to add into our lives what we love to do because it only made us better in what we had to do.

In closing, I learned a lot of valuable lessons from my pastor, Bishop Arthur M. Brazier. These lessons have helped to shape me as a professional plus they’ve added immeasurable value to my personal life.

I am grateful to Bishop that I learned to operate from a spirit of excellence; communicate directly and clearly; respect and value time by being timely, responding promptly, and balancing in leisure and living.

I know that my life has been blessed both directly and indirectly by having had Bishop Brazier as my pastor and for that I will always be internally grateful.

Thank you Father God and thank you Bishop Brazier!