Kiwanian Jerry Pipes, pastor of First Baptist Church, spoke to the Kiwanis club, Tuesday, February 13, on “Adding Value to Others”.

He used scripture from Ephesians 4:29. Communication is adding value to others. The weakest link in communication is listening. We do not listen with our eyes, our ears and our hearts. We are too busy thinking of what we will say in response.

The goal of communication is understanding and the mission of communication is encouragement. To say the right thing at the right time adds value to others. We need to have a daily decision to live a Christ-centered and others-centered life. Living the intentional life adds value to others. The people who are truly happy are those who are giving themselves away.

We give ourselves away by living in service to others. Communication is a process that involves sending and receiving messages through verbal and non-verbal methods. 70% of communication is non-verbal – body language, facial expressions.

Five things to do every day are 1) value people, 2) think of ways to add value to people, 3) look for ways to add value to people, 4) do things that add value to people, 5) encourage others to add value to people.

Dr. Pipes closed with a story about a teacher who did not value a messy, smelly child until she knew his back story. That information changed the way she treated him and he became an exceptional student, a doctor and influential man. He always gave the credit to the teacher that believed in him. She added much value to his life.

Kiwanis members thanked Dr. Pipes for his thought-provoking message about adding value to others through service.