Thank you for your comments, shared stories and concerns.  The Gossip Free Challenge has and will continue to touch people's lives.  That is exactly what we were trying to do.  Get the word out about the cost of Gossip and what the Bible says about it. 

As many of you have commented and shared your personal stories about Gossip, we thought it would be helpful to include some ways or tips to address Gossip. We have included most of chapter 6 from the Gossipfree booklet as well as some other very important components.

1.) The true source of power is not from yourself, but comes from God.  The first and most important step is to understand who God is and how you can have a personal relationship with God.  We have laid that plan out on our church website "http://www.GoToTheSanctuary.org"  Please read it.

2.) Check out the Gossipfree booklet for many Bible verses that talk about Gossip.  The Bible has a lot to say about Gossip as well as how to address many other daily challenges.  At the end of the day, it is all about tapping into God's power through a personal relationship with God and reading the Bible.  That is the starting point.  In the book of James (toward the back of the Bible) God talks about controlling the tongue and focusing our minds on God.  Where our thoughts are, so will our actions be.  We cannot continue to think about Gossiping about others, or listening to Gossip from others, and expect not to take action on those thoughts.  Therefore, we have to start changing our thoughts in order to change our actions.

3.) The following is an excerpt from the Gossipfree booklet (chapter 6):

Short of cutting out our tongues and severing our ears from our heads, becoming gossip free is going to take some effort.  You many even lose some friends along the way, but after all this talk about the destruction of gossip perhaps you will find that they really aren't your friends after all.
     I believe that most gossip is started when we handle conflict improperly.  Instead of going to that person and seeking a resolution, we complain about them.  When we are unable to get the resolution we are looking for, we get angry and bitter and begin to hold a grudge.  One of the first things that we can do to become gossip free is go to the source of the problem or somebody who can help resolve it.  Refuse to talk with anybody who is not directly involved.  It is also very important to forgive those who've wronged us.  If we allow ourselves to carry a grudge and become bitter, that bitterness will consume us and cause us to intentionally harm them and it will become very tempting to gossip about them.  Another important thing that we can do to stop gossiping is to take personal responsibility for ourselves.  I know we've probably all seen that person (we've probably all been that person from time to time too) who always has to blame somebody else for their own failures and inadequacies.  This is a huge cause for gossip.  This person attempts to justify their actions or blame somebody else for their situation by gossiping about them.  It's important that we don't shirk our own responsibility by finding fault with other people.  We must take responsibility for our own failures and for our situation in life.  We should allow others to take responsibility for themselves and resist the temptation to bring them down a peg just because we feel that we have been shamed.
     When we have dealt with ourselves and have learned to keep our own mouths shut we have only won half the battle.  What about other gossips?  How do we avoid becoming a part of gossip through listening?  Well, there's more than one way, some more comfortable than others.  One phrase you may try on a gossip is simply to tell them, "I'm sorry, I'm really not interested".  This may be sufficient to keep them from gossiping to you, but it will probably not stop them from finding an interested party.  It may be more efficient to confront the gossip by defending the subject of their gossip or even perhaps by saying, "I'm sorry that's not any of my business and it's probably not yours either."  This is definitely going to make an uncomfortable situation but perhaps it will also serve to set a standard.  If none of this works, and believe me sometimes it won't, you may have to simply walk away.  I realize that the rudeness of this gesture makes it a highly uncomfortable choice.  We may be thinking that it's easier to just listen than it would be to confront the gossip.  We think it won't hurt anything if we do, but the truth is that once something has been said it will begin to pervert our perceptions about people.  We really are being injured by the rumors we ingest and if we won't protect the person being gossiped about, we should be willing to, at least, protect ourselves.

Have you had an encounter with gossip?  We have seen gossip destroy lives, ministries, churches, families etc.  We are motivated partially by our own experiences with gossip and the devastation that it causes.  If you'd like to share some of your own stories, please feel free to use our comment space as a place to testify to the damage that gossip can and does do to people's lives.  Also, if you've been impacted by the Gossip Free movement, please feel free to share those stories as well.