If you mention "Prosperity Gospel" Christians will usually react badly, and perhaps they should because of the teaching of those who seem to think that Christianity is all about financial wealth. On the other hand I could say that the Bible is all about prosperity, in the sense that prosperity is about health and wellbeing - individual and corporate - in the broadest sense.
While not believing that being Christian necessarily results in financial wealth, there are Christian teachings which if followed are likely to result in a growth in wealth and prosperity for the whole community. One of these is the encouragement to be trustworthy and to seek to trust others. This is mentioned specificaly, and also encompassed in "Do to others as you would like them to do to you." The reason for this is that trust is necessary for trade to thrive, which is presumably why "my word is my bond" was once the motto successfully lived out by the City of London.
So it is with considerable sadness that I see greed and a lack of trust as underlying recent financial collapses (the "credit crunch"). As another example, I have heard of local farmers (in the UK) who have agreed prices for the sale of their grain to one of the trading at a certain time in the future. The price of grain has dropped and the traders seek to renege on their contracts as it will be difficult for them to sell on the grain. Of course they would not worry if their sale prices had gone up.
Trust takes time to build, and can be easily damaged. Perhaps the most important thing the business community can seek to do at the moment is to build trust, through being trustworthy. This is about a focus on relationships, not on solving a "financial problem."
Interestingly, in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey speaks of the importance of trust, and how we need to start to build that by keeping the promises that we make to ourselves (individually). As is so often the case, we need to start with ourselves.
From time to time I receive newsletters from Revd Dr Clifford Hill, of C&M Ministries Trust, Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire. Formerly he was a pastor in East London, and has a challenging prophetic ministry drawing on his learning as a sociologist (it is in sociology that he has a PhD). He's written some interesting books, and he sees that much of what he foresaw is now coming to pass.
His latest newsletter draws attention to the way sociologists recognise five major social institutions, and that there is an invariable rule that when significant change takes place in any one of the five, all others are affected. They are:
The Economy
The Family
Education
Law and government
Religion
He speaks of how all these except the economy have undergone major change since the 1960's so today's financial problems were predictable. Since this is the result of a domino-effect to do with changing values, a solution based on just addressing financial issues will not be suffiicient. The full article is worth reading here. His home page here.
I had a great meeting a week ago with some friends from the Wiltshire Christian Spiritual Direction Course. One was Janet Robbins, who some while ago had won a session with a Horse Whisperer. His hot tip to her was: Watch. Let go. Just be. This is an awesome recipe for life for anyone who generally wants to be in control, which of course is not the way to succeed as a horse whisperer. I am valuing the advice already.
I came across another good motto from a friend from Accts I met recently (Cal Dunlap) at an Accts MMI trustees meeting (I am a trustee). This was advice on the right attitude to visit other organisations sensitvely. To listen. To learn. To love. I like that too.
Toni and I enjoyed a random night out last night dancing and listening to music in one of Bristol's up and coming venues. One of Toni's colleagues is the lead singer in the group The Love Vultures and they were playing at The Blue Lagoon on Bristol's Gloucester Road. Good fun. You can listen to some of their tracks on their web site.
Our dive club in Melksham, The Divezone, won a national award at a ceremony at the Dive Show in Birmingham a few weeks ago. This was the 2008 Coastal Challenge Award from the Marine Conservation Society for contributions to the ongoing cleanup of beaches, in this case particular work on Chesil Beach. This is also a bit special because it is the silver jubilee of the MCS this year.
Well done!
The Divezone November December 2008 newsletter is here.
It's good that people continue to wonder about God, although what he thinks about us may be more important than what we think about him.
The British Humanist Association are the latest in the line-up to give God some publicity, according to a BBC News report. Aided by Prof Richard Dawkins they plan to run a poster campaign on London buses in January with the slogan: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
This is described as the Atheist Bus Campaign, and atheists don't believe in God - right? Yet unable to say, "God does not exist," they usethe motto above. I can only conclude that they're concerned that God may exist, and fearful of how he may react if they say he doesn't. This is despite the BHA's headline on its web site that "the humanist view of life is progressive and optimistic, in awe of human potential, living without fear of judgement and death." I'm not sure they've arrived yet, and I also find myself wondering whether God has an even bigger view of human potential than we humans ourselves do.
I am happy to announce that I do enjoy life, in the knowledge that God is very much alive!
After an enjoyable holiday in Turkey this summer, Toni and I are looking forward to travelling back there in April next year with Tony Fensome, lately local vicar, and McCabe Pilgrimages. This will be a tour of "Istanbul and the 7 Churches of Asia." It looks great, and includes famous sites such as Ephesus as well as Istanbul.
I've particularly enjoyed the last week as my new work continues to grow. I have been working in partnership with the Wilsher Group by participating in training courses and working with Baxter Europe (part of Baxter healthcare) in Vienna.
The work with Baxter contributed to their leadership development programme and we included training, facilitation, and group coaching to improve communication skills and support project teams. We used Insights® Discovery and other material. It was very enjoyable, and there was great enthusiasm in each of the teams.
Our venue, the Hilton Hotel, overlooked the impressive River Danube, which was an added bonus.
I write as I reflect on dramatic stock market falls today, remembering newspaper headlines a few weeks ago which asked whether capitalism was collapsing.
When the Berlin wall collapsed in 1989 I remember people celebrating the collapse of communism, and I wondered what was so special about another "ism" - capitalism - that gave it the divine right to exist, as if it were flawless.
I can understand that banks may borrow money from some people to lend to others, and profit from the difference between interest rates. I can understand that a firm may want people to invest in it, and that the investor should receive regular income from dividends in return. I can understand the sense of creating a market for the trading of those stocks. What I cannot undersand is how it makes sense to seek to make money just from the short term buying and selling of those stocks in a way that seems little different from gambling.
Somewhere there is a boundary between sane and ethical investment, and the insane and unethical of the current trading of stocks (and perhaps commodities too). We need to identify that boundary and return to the correct side of it. The recent banning of "selling short" may be a move in the right direction, but probably not far enough.
This was the subtitle of a day by Revd Steve Chalke MBE entitled "Intimacy and Involvement" at Gloucester Cathedral yesterday. It was organised by the Spirituality Network for Gloucestershire. I was attracted to attend the day because of the reference in his title to Jesus' summary of the (Jewish) law - love God and love your neighbour as yourself - which seems to me to be about as good as it gets in any summary of how to live your life intelligently.
I'm not quite sure what I expected from the day, but usually days organised by Spirituality networks are "Quiet Days" and have a few short talks with lots of space for reflection. However this day involved a lot of listening to Steve (and he is an entertaining speaker) with a bit of group work so we could think about what we might do differently in Gloucester. (Someone pointed out that they were not from Gloucester but Gloucestershire, and I am from neither!) Steve's main point was that during the 20th century, partly because of the state takeover of social security and health care, the church became kind of ghetto of piety instead of being actively engaged in society. So maybe it was appropriate for him to attempt a more action-oriented day. Steve's own response to his own beliefs has been to set up various charities to help build community through schools, hostels, and medical care (Oasis Trust), encourage social action among churches (Faithworks) and now to fight against people trafficking (Stop the traffik).
He made many references to the Torah to make the point that the whole of life should be worship and the family at the centre of it, and not just some time in a church building on a Sunday. He movingly recounted how a Jewish friend, when asked where the worship happened in the sabbath meal, talked of how everything was worship from the hugs to the eating to the conversation. Yes, life should be worship, and there's not much to a religious faith that does not issue in action. However I felt that although his comments were informative and persuasive, his failiure to value the pietistic side of church life gave his comments a lack of balance. Maybe that was the stance he needed to take to encourage us to become more active!
I continue to be attracted by the balanced way in which the Cursillo movement encourages Christians to view their life by looking at piety, study, and action.
I learned some interesting things to do with Jesus' summary of the law, which gives new significanct to Jesus' comments about his yoke being light (Matthew 11:29), the way he invited disciples by saying "follow me" (Matthew 4:19 et al), and references to his authority (Matthew 7:29 et al).
According to Steve, Jewish rabbis (teachers) would be approached by men who wanted to be disciples. If they showed that they knew the scriptures, then they would be accepted by the rabbi with the words "follow me." The disciple knew the scriptures, so what he was to learn was the rabbi's particular interpretation. This was called their yoke. The way in which the teaching of the rabbi was passed on through the generations was through his disciples who were trained for three years and then became rabbis themselves. Some rabbi's passed on the yoke that they had received. Others developed their own interpretation and were said to speak with authority - so this phrase in the Bible is a technical term. When Jesus summarised the law he said (Matthew 22:37-40)
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments
The two parts of this were well known quotes from the scriptures, he says, however it was a new innovation by Jesus to pair them in this way.
Today I found myself wondering why I don't talk to my local councillor or MP about the things that I do not feel are right in our local area. Reflecting on this, I decided that it is because something in me does not believe that they can make a difference. So feeling that they are powerless, I allow myself to feel powerless too. Our local MP is a Conservative; we have a Labour Government. In these days when democracy in England seems to be about the Prime Minister telling MP's in his party how to vote, rather than ordinary MP's exercising collective influence, I am right to wonder how much influence an MP has - particularly one who is not in the ruling party. Reflecting further, it seems to me that my belief about powerlessness may be wrong, but that even if the belief is correct it is not helpful to accept it!
As I talk to people, it seems that many share a view that they can have little influence on the society that they live in. For example some think that the only influence they have on the world of politics is through voting in a General Election every five years or so. So we seem to have a culture of powerlessness.
If people feel powerless, who do they think calls the shots? As Margaret Mead, anthropologist, wrote: "Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." Is she right?
The Bible develops a similar theme: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self control." (2 Timothy 1:7)
I find Stephen Covey helpful on this to, as he writes in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People about how we are concerned about many things, but need to focus on those which we can influence. He says this will not only result in us having influence in those areas, but discovering that the number of areas in which we have influence will grow. This contrasts with the common habit of moaning about things which we don't think we can do anything about!
One of the strengths of coaching, which I do, is that it leads people to discover the action that they can take to bring about the changes that they want.
So, I've decided not to collude with a culture of powerlessness.
When I was praying the other day about the challenges of Climate Change, I was reminded of Jesus' "Summary of the (Jewish) Law." He said love God with your whole self; love your neighbour as yourself; and then he explained that the whole law depends on (flows from, is subservient to) these two. (Matthew 22:40.) So life needs to be seen in the context of our relationship with Creator God and with other people.
If this was (is) Jesus' perspective on life; then it needs to be ours also.
Having been thinking along these lines, I found it interesting today to be given publicity for a day event at Gloucester Cathedral by Revd Steve Chalke MBE organised by the Spirituality Network for Gloucestershire. (4th October; 10.00-3:00.) The title is "Intimacy and Involvement" and the sub-title "Love God - Love others - nothing else matters."
Isn't it great when someone writes a really clever and incisive letter to a newspaper?
Miss Christine Gilbert recently said that schools were let down by too many satisfactory teachers. This resulted in a letter to the Telegraph from Nicholas Bielby of Bradford (which I read in The Week today).
He writes that just as everybody cannot be above average, a good system works with satisfactory people performing satisfactorily - producing good-enough outcomes. There is something wrong with the system if it only works with excellent staff.
My holiday reading has included 1421 The Year China Discovered the World, by Gavin Menzies, a former submarine captain.
After years of research he has discovered evidence that Chinese sailors explored most of the world, colonised America before Europeans got there, and drew many of the charts that European navigators later used (so they knew where they were trying to get there).
In this year of Chinese fame with the 2008 Olympics this is a fascinating insight into a civilisation that was very advanced, even in the 15th Century, but then suddenly turned its back on this knowledge and persued an isolationist policy for many centuries.
This is a fascinating insight into navigation and the waxing and waning of civilisations. If we like to assume our present Western Civilisation is the zenith of all that is great, even in the face of climate change, it is good to wonder about the vulnerability of civilisations, and what does make a civilisation great.
Our return flight from Egypt to London Gatwick was with Monarch Airlines. It was delayed by six hours, but nobody at the Monarch check apologised. I infer that this is commonplace.
I'm also getting fed up with the way that on such charter flights there is insufficient leg room for people of around my height (6 ft 3 / 190 cm). Once upon a time preference seemed to be given to tall people to get the seats with more room at fire exits. Now airlines charge for these seats, and there may be none left for the tall people.
If we had some kind of "disability" I guess that with current legislation and/or morality they would feel obliged to make special arrangements for us at no extra charge. How should "disability legislation" apply to public transport.
I've enjoyed three separate weeks of holiday over the Summer: a week skippering a yacht in the Solent, a week exploring Cappadocia in Turkey (including balloon flights over the extraordinary scenery), and a week scuba diving in the Red Sea (at Nuweiba on the Sinai peninsula) so we are all now Advanced Divers.
I'm pleased to have completed my courses in Spiritual Direction and coaching. The two have fed one another, and I feel more equipped for the work that I am doing.
Starting a new business continues to challenge emotionally, as I need to persevere with what I believe are the right things for some while before seeing results - months rather than days!
Happily we had bright enough weather on Saturday to enjoy a repeat visit to the festival. We enjoyed the many busking morris dancers on the High Street, and the action in the arena (below). We returned for further great concerts that evening. Click on the photos for more details.
I'm very much enjoying the Change Leadership and Coaching Course that I am doing with the Wilsher Group in Corsham.
It is an eight day course and I have just completed the second set of three days, and there are two more to go.
There is a great balance of theory and practice, to further develop coaching skills. I am also enjoying the content on the ways people learn, which has been a gap in my previous studying.
Naomi Klein, famous for her book No Logo, has written another challenging piece called Shock Doctrine.
Go to her web site to find out more, and watch the short (six minute) film which summarises her important points, graphically.
She notes that following national and international catastrophes immediate changes are often, and that the general public is both amenable to this and expects change. What happens if leaders are unscrupulous, and the changes made have little to do with the event that has just happened, but instead they seek to use the opportunity to advance their own agendas?
This is what she explores, and it is fascinating. I have long felt that "gut-reactions" after major events can seem to "lose the plot" in ignoring the deeper priorities or values of society. For example action taken in fear of terrorism often restricts the freedom of the general population: values such as liberty and free speech should not be given away easily. The hope is that in a healthy society there will be a time of review of "emergency measures" when society reviews the deeper issues and appropriate adjustments can be made.
So Naomi develops this further, even wondering whether theory and practice of free market economics is not so much something that is for the public good as oppressive practice brought in by these methods. While I agree with her principles, or "doctrine," I'm not yet sure whether I fully agree with the way she applies it to the world of economics - but I haven't read the book yet. (It's logical, but are people really that unscrupulous?)
Go to her web site to find out more, and watch the short (six minute) film which summarises her important points, graphically.
I am surprised to write that I have joined an evening life drawing class in Bath. Joshua wanted to improve his art skills to help with his future career and university application. I decided that it would be easier to join in than to drive backwards and forwards delivering and collecting him.
Besides, "join an art class" is on my unwritten list of things to do before I'm 90 (no, I'm not nearly there - just a little over half way).
I've never done life drawing before, and not attempted much drawing since I left school when I did not think I was much good at it. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and that I created somethng recognisable at the first session!
If I were to write that the launch of the new terminal at London's Heathrow Airport seems a sad affair, as much reported in the news, that would not do justice to the inconvenience experienced by the many passengers who became separated from their luggage.
Being an engineer at heart, I felt I had to enquire how extensive the commissioning within the project had been of the luggage handling system. Before opening the terminial, to what extent had they tried to simulate the arrival of aeroplanes full of luggage?
I e-mailed British Airways to ask their "Corporate Responsibility" department. They suggested I contacted British Airports Authority (BAA) who had "responsibility for" the terminal. They did not reply to my e-mail.
Surely there are serious corporate responsibility issues here? On the one hand this is just a private project. On the other hand, quite apart from the cost to someone of reuniting baggage with passengers scattered across the world, the cost to the country of the wasted time of so many passengers stranded at the airport is mind-boggling. If this were due to negligent project management, would the guilty firm get fined for this kind of thing?
This has not been a perfect project (but whatever is?) however hopefully once it is working we shall have some national pride in the finished product. I hope too that there has been some pride among the engineering team - at least before opening day. That is why I am also surprised that I have not been able to find some chronicle of the project plans on the internet.
The last two weeks have been good, as Toni and I have been on holiday. We spent a week in Lyme Regis, Dorset (see photos), enjoyed Easter, had a day in London including seeing the musical version of Billy Elliot, and last night a great party at home with family and friends to celebrate 50 years of me.
Apart from great food, great company, and great games (as the night wore on), a highlight was an extraordinary photo collage of my life that my family had secretly put together.
What a way to celebrate my birthday: a fitness test at the local gym (First Steps near Corsham). Toni joined some months ago and her subtle persuasion finally worked.
The fitness test went OK, so the next step is that the trainer puts together a personal programme for me.
I've just returned from a week in Austria, organised by Accts MMI (see other articles in this blog) and hosted by the Austrian army chaplaincy.
There were around fifty participants from about ten European countries: mainly from the former communist area plus a lot from Austria. We had gathered to enjoy fellowship and skiing together, as well as to explore what it means to be a Christian in the armed forces. There were impressive speakers giving lectures and Bible studies (I led one of the Bible studies) and participation was enthusiastic.
This is an enjoyable way to do Christian mission, and it was great to see relationships growing during the week.
Today I visited the One Life Live exhibition at Olympia, London. This is an exhibition for people wanting to make the most of their life, and comprised several hundred exhibition stands grouped in zones to do with coaching, spirituality, gap year opportunities, starting a business, etc.
I went along to observe the competition in the coaching market. It was interesting to see that some coaches were obviously clear about what they offer, and others not - and some stands were far too cluttered. I feel challenged to focus my own marketing more effectively.
The spirituality zone was next door to the coaching zone, and some of the stands seemed really wacky, and to be offering escapism rather than a way of excelling at life.. On the other hand, the coaching zone didn't really seem very interested in spirituality, and was thus not really holistic. I found myself wondering what it would look like to offer coaching that takes spirituality seriously as a part of real life.
