Making Things Right…
The vast majority of the time, things work out very, very well with my clients. But a recent phone call convicted me to wonder if – accidentally or not – I’ve not always handled every client, every situation in the best possible way.
This phone call came from an old client that I’ve done work with several times. They had an understanding that I was going to send them another document. When it never arrived, they were upset – but didn’t say anything until recently when we reconnected about a new project opportunity. Interestingly enough, the document wasn’t actually part of the scope of work, nor a part of the contract, but they recalled me verbally agreeing to provide it. Honestly, I don’t remember that conversation, but I was happy to send them what they wanted and repaired the unintentional breach.
The Lord brought to mind a couple of client situations from years ago where I didn’t handle situations the way I handled this recent one. In full disclosure, I felt I was right and those clients were wrong and, as a result, let my pride get in the way of serving them in spite of the situation. I’ve sent out a couple of emails as a way to both apologize to both of them and move towards reconciliation if not full restoration. I’ve learned that it’s entirely possible to do a right thing a wrong way. I was technically right, but my attitude was all wrong.
Over the last year and a half, I’ve had a peeling away of the pride I used to exhibit. The Lord, as a good Father always does, has shown me areas where I’ve needed to humble myself and change.
Due to experience and the Lord’s guidance, I’ve been downloading and installing wisdom into my life. One of the major upsides is in how I document and keep incredibly detailed records of communications, contracts and deliverables. In fact, I recently had a client that I was able to show a very detailed list of dates, deliverables and the threaded string of conversations (all documented) that substantiated one of their people had made some serious errors. I was unequivocally right, but this time I applied the humility to not push them and instead backed down even though their employee was proven dead wrong.
Today, I’m a very different man than I was even 18 months ago. Though I’ve had only a very small fraction of bad experiences with church clients, the Lord has convicted me to post this open offer for reconciliation. I want to make right, to the best of my ability, anything where I didn’t work through a situation to your satisfaction. Simply email me: anthony AT anthonycoppedge.com
At the end of the day, we’re all on the same team: Team Jesus. Unity in the Body of Christ should be a hallmark of our faith and I want to invite anyone with even a slight grievance to email me so we can talk and I can apologize. Father has shown me forgiveness and continues to restore me to a right relationship with Him. I want to example Him in all I do for the Bride of Christ.
Most sincerely,
Anthony Coppedge
One Response to “Making Things Right…”
Leave a Reply
For an archive of hundreds of posts and articles, be sure to click here to search my old blog.
I'm Anthony Coppedge, a follower of Jesus, a husband to my uber-bride and father to four great kids. I help ministries leverage technology and communicate with a digitally-infused culture. I'm passionate about this, so that makes me a Technology & Communications Evangelist. I attend and volunteer at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX and love it! To find out more about me, feel free to download my resumé.
Click to download my resumé
on 
Anthony Coppedge Blog 2.0 is using WP-Gravatar
First of all, I want to clarify that I am certainly not in the category of people that Anthony is apologizing to.
However, since no one else has commented on on this post, I just want to chime in and encourage Anthony. I know intellectually you know you are doing the "right" thing and that it is what God wants, but I know that it can be frustrating to throw something like this out and then … nothing…. Obviously I don't know that nobody has responded privately, and just as obviously I don't think you are doing this for the "praise of man".
Having said all that, I wanted to chime in and tell you that your last paragraph really hits the nail on the head. I applaud your willingness to come before us and admit openly that "hey, I've made a mistake or two along the way" We all have, but all too often, especially in churches, we are tempted to hold up our leaders as people who never make – can't make, even- mistakes. The leaders themselves often perpetuate this myth, and it's refreshing to see someone who (at least I consider) a leader in the Church Worship Arts/Technology field willing to come down from the pedestal.
Thank you!