Which Supermarket is the most ‘ethical’

 

Last Sunday I was in Southampton and I heard a compelling argument for why Christians needed to be concerned with ethical practices of the stores they used.  Now I’m not hippie (though it’s true I drive a 73 VW camper van), and considerations of where we buy our food, clothes and products for a family of 6 has usually come down to ‘where is the cheapest’. 

On that Sunday, I heard the suggestion that Tesco and Asda (Walmart) were amongst the least ethical, and in my own internet research I’ve had to look hard to find ethical claims or policies for other supermarkets. (even before you get into looking at the issue of large supermarkets killing off town centres, reducing overall employment and pricing little local guys and convenience stores out of business.)

For the preacher, the overriding principle (or golden rule) that we should look at when determining our purchasing is:  Matthew 7:12 (ESV)

¹²"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

at first glance this doesn’t seem to be relevant to the discussion until you see what the effects are of shopping in a place known to use exploitative labour.  The net effect is that I’m saying it’s OK to exploit child labour, underpaid labour, stupidly long manual labour so that I can have produce at a cost I want to pay… and given the above, I therefore acknowledge that I want to be exploited so someone else can have what they want at the price they want…  - see the problem?

Three things have begun to concern me (and I must confess at this point, I’m at the beginning of a journey, not anywhere near to reaching fully actionable conclusions across the board)…

1. Purchasing locally, from local producers ensures a local economy, local jobs, and fewer miles travelled (carbon footprint) why then do I (or any of us) need to purchase items that have travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles and have had to be covered in chemicals to keep them ‘fresh’.   But where I struggle here is that even though the conditions may be squallid and I wouldn’t ‘choose’ to work in them, in an environment where there is such mass poverty and very few jobs am I hurting them all the more by not buying the produce that is bought?  Certainly the effect on the ‘chain’ from UK is very likely to be nil by the inclusion or exclusion of my money, so I will also need to look at what I can do to work positively in the local regions of the food producers.  It really isn’t as simple as boycotting something and promoting something else.
2. What I’ve NOT seen to date is Supermarkets INVESTING in production environments to enable reductions of production costs.  So for supermarkets to be able to undercut other providers either means they,
   • have to carry an item at a loss,
   • have to squeeze the producer for the lowest possible cost,
   • use unscrupulous methods to produce, transport and provision items for our consumption. 
3. I am stinking rich compared to any folk in the developing world. I have stuff, far more stuff than I need and far more than I use. I am wasteful and materialistic, my surroundings are deferentially comfortable but not basic, I have more electronics than required to do my job.  I don’t turn things off to save power, I don’t consider walking much instead of driving and I’ve rarely thought about the effect on people other than those that I can see in the way I’ve chosen to live my life.

There may be all sorts of objections to what I’m concerned about, some legitimate, some just belly aching that perhaps we might have to examine another area of how we live… and it’s certainly easy for me to come up with objections of why this is not a current priority for me, and why it needn’t be for the church of God.

What struck me though in my own reflections on this, is the following 2 verses in Matthew 7

¹³ Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few”.

I don’t want to infer that because the doors of Tesco (say) are wide they are the route to destruction… but just because a lot of people travel through them, doesn’t make it right.

So what am I doing about it?

• Food: Francine and I are discussing changing our food shopping habits.  This is painful for us because while there are two supermarkets that have ethical policies that seem very much on the right lines (co-op and Morrisons) neither deliver, which means that there is a cost right there to Francine in how we do shopping and how much time and effort it is going to make (Francine is not a woman that enjoys shopping!)  it is also going to mean that we will have to drive to a supermarket/town to get items that we would have had delivered and shared the cost of delivery with the other shoppers on our round… so there’s an actual cost…   and then there’s the inconvenience of having to get used to a whole new shopping place/items and costs… at best these will be opportunity costs, but I suspect there will also be some real cash costs to this too.
• What I’m finding particularly hard to work out is if the situation for any supermarkets has actually changed.. – I’ve read articles like this one that suggest that Tesco is being forced to review it’s policies, but that was 2007. Connecting the dots and finding out what the position is now, is very hard.
• At the moment I have no idea what this means to the budget for NEWDAY when we will be food shopping daily for around 80 people… Do I have a right or a responsibility to enforce ethical shopping on everyone else?  Especially when several of those people will be ones who can ill afford any increase in cost.  A thorny question indeed..
• Clothing: With very few exceptions I’ve been happy to buy my shoes from ebay and my clothes from Tesco. I’ve even bought things from Primark. I have looked in charity shops and have bought the odd ‘for best’ item for weddings or events from more expensive shops.   I will have to review where I can shop, and make more ethical choices…   I’m not sure if there are resources I can find to help me..  seems to me I could be making more ‘expensive’ mistakes, and I’d hate for those to go to the hands of business leaders rather than to the hands of manufacturers labourers where families would be fed.
• Banking: We’ve been making use of a one account.  This has enabled us to increase cash flow, which in turn has enabled us to be generous with giving.   I have no idea at this point how ethically each bank is run (and whether that ethicalness is limited to retail or investment sectors, or whether that should matter.  What I am certain of, is that if we need to move banks and ergo the mortgage that’s gonna cost us.
• Environment:  How we treat the planet is not a hippie notion, and my current selfish view of ‘the effects are unlikely to be significant for hundreds of years – assuming there are effects that we control’ just isn’t gonna cut it.  I’m going to have to consider if it is justifiable to work 100 miles away from home and whether the transport I use to get to there is protecting the environment I would want to inherit if I was to be born in 300 years time.  I need to consider the damage I’m doing by what I consume and what I throw away.   This is a big area to think about, and it’s gonna take some time to research it.

I’m sure there are going to be other things I need to consider.. but it’s a start, no?

Here are some resources I’ve pulled together which might help anyone else thinking of starting off down this road

• Why buy Ethically
• What is FairTrade?
• What is Christian Ethics?
• Make Wealth History
• OXFAM strategic plan

Another battle of the mind

It can be frustrating attempting to lose weight especially when, like me, you have a lot to lose.  As an attempt to fix what seems like endless fatigue following unrefreshing sleep, I have embarked upon yet another diet and exercise regime [recommended by my medical practitioners] that is intended to bring my weight from “morbidly” obese into obese and increase my fitness from sedentary to mobile [and what I hope will be Marathon running ready before I’m 40!]

Having tried to comply with previous food regimes (and alcohol consumption) in the past without much gumption and then hardly surprisingly little success or change in my condition, I am finding that having attainable goals [London Marathon 2012] coupled with my desperation to fix this debilitation has produced an extraordinary level of commitment to the ‘program’ which has resulted in seeing a daily reduction of at least a Lb and sometimes two!

My overall calorie count is now between 1500 and 2000 a day and I am doing fat burning exercise which is reminding my body that I have legs, a stomach and arms, (all of which have slight aches and pains to remind me of effort undertaken in previous days).  My wife has joined me in the ‘plan’ (though I can’t imagine for a second the thought of running with me in the Marathon is anything she wants to entertain) and I have made my food, sleep, exercise and weight information fully accountable to her using a website (dailyburn.com) tool.

All good stuff.

Then today, mysteriously, for no good reason that I can see, I haven’t lost any additional weight.  I can imagine that 2 weeks in, this is exactly the same sort of thing that happens to people on diets and when they throw all caution to the wind, get cross and go back to doing what they did before… I find myself getting cross at the lack of progress, but I KNOW that I’m making progress towards my goals. SO I MUST NOT GIVE IN.  Shortly I’m going for my second run (walk, run, walk, run a bit more, walk to near my house, run the last bit) with the hope that I run more of it and walk less.  It’s only a 1 mile circuit, yet for me it’s an enormous task, a long way from my teenage years where I ran a marathon a day to run from London to Lancaster for ActionAid.

It reminds me that the battle for the mind is a daily, sometimes hourly requirement. We must not give in to the temptations and fightback that occurs when we choose to follow the way.  There will be days when it is a delight to work hard and find ready success (losing weight) and days when you do the same things and success does not come so readily. (not losing any weight). 

Discernment is in knowing when you need to change what you’re doing to find success and when you need to persist in what you’re doing to find breakthrough. 

I also need to ensure that I do not give myself to worrying over what I did or didn’t do differently, but instead focus on living right today. Continuing to account for everything that goes into my mouth and everything that I do with my body.

I’m taking some leave today, so that I can go to a regional meeting on Social action. it’ll be sitting down most of the time either travelling or listening. There’s higher risk of eating biscuits or cake – just because it’s there – and less opportunity to be as active. 

Taking leave from your activity does not justify taking leave from the plan.

No more than taking a holiday enables you to turn off being a Christian and please yourself. We are ALWAYS working for the kingdom of God even when we are rest, and we should still look to serve God and each other in what we call ‘our’ time off.

So I’m off now for my run, and whilst I pound the street I shall remind myself of possibly the best running song I know…

Be bold, be strong, for the Lord your God is with you.
Be bold, be strong, for the Lord your God is with you.
I am not afraid [No, NO!, NO!!]

I am not dismayed [Not me!]

Because I’m walking in faith and victory,
Come on and walk in faith and victory
For the Lord, your God, is with you.

Rob Bell says he isn’t a universalist, but….

If you haven’t yet checked out the Rob Bell interview on MSNBC with Martin Bashir, questioning just exactly what Rob is saying in his new book, please do check it out..

 

I’m not going to comment further, check out what he says for yourself.

Is there a problem with how we argue the sanctity of life?

"... [In their attempt] to thwart the abortion movement many well-meaning Christians unintentionally exalt man by declaring him to be of infinite worth. Abortion should not be fought on the basis that killing a human being is wrong because he or she is so valuable, but on the basis that, when a child bearing God's image is slaughtered, it is God who is attacked because that child bears His image. If you tear up a picture of my wife, you'll have me to answer to -- not because of the intrinsic worth or value of the paper and print that you destroyed, but because you have insulted my wife. An attack on the image of God is serious, not because of man's supposed great worth, but because of the One whose image he reflects" (Dr. Jay E. Adams, A Call to Discernment, pp. 18-19).

Dr Adams’ argument seems to be directed as an “offence to God” and I must admit I just never thought of it that way, but isn’t that the reason like murder that it’s so abhorent?

• Does this, should this, affect how we determine to minister to women (and men!) who are faced with an unplanned pregnancy?
• If we don’t discuss the impact of potential actions from a biblical perspective, won’t someone who later comes to faith say ‘when I had an abortion no-one told me I was offending the Father?’
• Are we perhaps guilty of only attempting to provide sympathy and understanding with no attempt to be biblical and direct?

I’m not sure I have any answers here… I’d be interested in peoples comments…

Rob Bell, Theology & the battle for mindshare

I'm inclined to agree with Phil Whittle that trajectory isn't necessarily the best marker for indicating what most of us believe – given that far too many of us (me included) are far too influenced by the thoughts of others and not our own carefully thought out, researched position guided by the Holy Spirit?… but shouldn't leaders, particularly ones with lots of followers be especially careful to be consistent?

I think it's helpful for Rob Bell to ask questions about what we believe and why we believe it, as much as it is for all of us to have answers for the hope we profess, and if it drives our church leaders to be more explicit on areas of theology especially ones that we are generally quiet about, then it's net effect can only be good for our congregations too...

But I also have some regard to Matt Hosier’s understanding of trajectory. Mark Driscoll suggests that he wouldn't have some people in his pulpit, because he sees that a principle responsibility of a shepherd is to 'protect' the flock. In that regard I too don't encourage the use of Rob Bell material in our congregation and would be cautious in who I encourage to use or read his material because the conclusions that I draw from his teaching to date do lead to spirituality over relationship and ultimately universalism.

One final thought. There are hundreds of pages written everyday that tout theologies that are different to mine. We don’t generally come into contact with them regularly and neither do our congregations.  Perhaps, in giving media space to Rob Bell’s forthcoming book, we are giving it prominence that might give reason for some to select his book to see what the fuss is all about.  In that regard, maybe we are just as guilty of causing others to stumble?

Big juggernauts or tacking ships

There’s a bit of a circular loop bumbling around my head about the optimal size for church bodies.

With a 100 people:

you can usually form all the core components of church life, have project ministries to your neighbourhoods, have enough finance to support one or two paid staff and have sufficient equipment and skilled personnel for bands, children’s work and preaching.

With 400+ people:

the resources gathered can do significantly more, meetings have a different feel, multiple projects can be established, maintained and (crucially) passed on to another continuing the work.  There’s finance for more paid staff (including administrative) and the reach of the church can be a great deal further than the more local 100.

With 1000+:

places to gather are very constrictive and relationally connected groups are needed to create oneness.  Communication and participation can become almost solely front led, or led by department heads but the ability to launch something, staff it, resource it and deliver it becomes easily attainable. Undoubtedly the reach is further than with 100 people, is it more or less than 10x? I don’t know.  When a church body approaches 1% to 2% of a geographic location’s population the church voice can start to be heard (along side it’s actions) and the ability to shape policy and highlight social change becomes dramatically easier.

Here’s the questions:

A church body aspiring to be 100 will rarely reach bigger than 100.  - Is that such a bad thing if the contribution on the ground is effective, localised and well regarded?  - Should a key metric of effectiveness ALWAYS be numerical growth?  Is it more likely that we can build many churches of 100 or so, and that we need to work more strategically together to accomplish more, rather than building mega churches?

Moving from 100 – 400 (via the inevitable 200) is a challenge.. the processes and communication methods that can work with 100, don’t work as successfully with 200, and worse with 400. Email discussions become a nightmare with more than 3 people in them, and planning meetings (and meetings in general) seem to need to increase to get anything done.   Does relationship suffer in this process? Does the output from church life become projectised rather than loving?  is there a propensity to carry more passengers than activists?  Are the 100+ leaders the same as 400+ leaders?

Foundationally, should our church communities have bigger numbers in mind than the next numerical growth target?  for instance, is it ludicrous to act like a church of 1000 when you only have 60 people? Does there need to be consensus in the minds of leadership teams and department heads that we’re going for numerical growth, and what that growth looks like?  How do we ensure that economics are geared around how we serve, not maintaining buildings or other assets?  How does vision change as size increases?

Marriage prep

Mark Driscoll http://www.facebook.com/pastormark posted a very interesting tweet/Facebook post, which I’ll have to repeat here because I haven’t figured out how to link to it…   He said:

“You want to get married? You’re gonna have to go through a premarital process, declare all your sexual sin and history, submit to spiritual authority, and someone may tell you no. And you have to be okay with that because getting married is easy and fifty years of joy is hard. http://jesus.to/fuPICP”

Our understanding of what marriage is is formed from observation of our parents and tv.  For Christians it's important to look again at what marriage is from a biblical perspective. - so I'm in favour of some form of marriage prep here’s why…

Many who marry are barely honest with themselves, let alone with each other because insecurities prevent getting past 'if I tell them this, will they still love me'... marriages are stronger when hidden actions, addictions, baggage and sin is dealt with... because whatever is not dealt with is right there in the foundations of the relationship too and will have an effect until it is dealt with.

We are all discipled all the time in some way or another (either by intent or passively). The wise among us, seek out the guidance of those who are ahead of us (in the direction we want to travel) and follow it.  I see no reasons that marriage should be excluded from this, and in that regard I would assume support would be an ongoing process, not a course, checklist or exam to be passed. Evaluating if everyone is on the same page, can give a new marriage a really good supported start.  We must remember that we’re not called to private lives, but to public ones and I for one (having failed at my first marriage) am tired of the many reports of failed marriages in church/christian circles.  The tide has to change here, and being intentional about supporting this key stage of development and decision making may make a great deal of difference to it’s success.

One caveat is:

Leaders have to be careful not to (for all the right reasons) heavily shepherd people, but they should (like parents for their children) contend for the way which leads to righteousness.  They can help people to discover 'conviction' or 'calling' from 'idealism' or 'imagination', but the marriage threesome is Man, Woman and God, not Man, Woman and Church.  BUT the church family have the privilege to encourage and support any person, persons, couples and families in the context of journeying together, and being salt and light, and I would hope that would include lovingly asking questions and responsibly leading towards Christ.

Finding your rhythm

“Get into the groove” Madonna pronounced “you’ve got to prove your love to me”. This lyric keeps returning to my head today and is driving me mad..

I was playing through some songs with my son David (whose drum lessons are starting to pay off) and I was acutely aware of 2 things.

1. the necessity of the pace to be set by someone who can keep time
2. the requirement for the rhythm used to be compatible to the style of the song being played.  - (the groove of the song)

You can be in time, but out of step.  The rhythm, or style, sets the feel of how the song progresses and connects with the pattern played by other instruments (namely the bass guitar and rhythm guitar) to create a layer on which the melody can sit and find it’s voice.

Many of us will be familiar with the clackity clack, clackity clack of a train on tracks, and the somehow soothing nature of its predictable call and response as each set of wheels crosses the same point on the track.

Without being in a predictable groove or rhythm it is difficult for others to join the song, and travel the same path. In our churches, if there’s not a simple, understandable, clear message how can others know where we’re heading and what we’re doing on the journey to ‘there’… ?

But there’s another rhythm, one that comes from the heartbeat of the Father. One that propels us to love and care, one that nurtures our compassion and unleashes it on the dispossessed and impoverished (physically or spiritually).  That groove is often drowned out by the noise of our own activity, and I can’t help wondering if God is asking us to prove our love for him, by getting into his groove.  When we’re in the groove, there’s an easiness (even if the work is tough), because we move in tandem with the spirit, and ride the momentum of what He is doing, being the hands and feet and mouth that he so readily chooses to use.

There are so many anthemic songs written in 4/4 Bb (capo 3G) and they ring out some truth or over, and we lap them up because we love that particular groove as it reminds us of the greatness of God. The power he used in raising Jesus from the dead, the same power he uses to save us.  We allow our voice to rise and our heart to celebrate and rejoice, we may even clap or dance along. We love how it feels to be praising God this way… and it is right to do so… but this other groove, this message from the Father, this commission from the Son, this direction from the spirit.. maybe we need to find that groove, learn it’s song and prove our love for Him?

Father I thank you for music and song. I thank you for the way it unites us and enables us all with one voice to praise and thank you specifically. It allows us to connect our emotions with our understanding, and focus our passions.  It’s an amazing gift to us.  help us to appreciate the truth in the words we sing for more than the moment that the song is on our lips. Where there is a promise from you, let us take it to our hearts. Where there is a promise from us, let us remember to follow through.   Cause us to hear from your throne room the rhythm of your heart, the beat you want us to follow and the path to walk down. God of Justice, Saviour to all give us ears to hear, hearts to love, hands to serve and feet to go.

Nehemiah, Organised builders and got building underway

I’m preparing for leading congregational singing and looking at the text for this week,  where we’re preaching through Nehemiah and looking towards moving from our current building to a new facility in the town.  I’ve struggled to get excited about Nehemiah 3 which is essentially a list of names of people who rebuilt parts of Jerusalem’s walls and finding songs that mesh even harder to find than normal!

I turned to Mark Driscoll’s series on Nehemiah for some inspiration. http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/nehemiah/leading-and-laboring#play  These are the notes I took as I listened to him preach on this chapter.

1. Leaders keep names of people they are leading to pray for them.  These were ordinary people building the walls, and were honoured by God when he listed them in the bible.
2. The size of the project determines the size and function of the organisation to tackle the project. As an organisation grows, it complexifies.
   • Initially when an organisation is small, the pastor tends to do all and know all.
   • Then when there are two or three together, a little of the load is shared, but still pretty much everyone does everything
   • Get a little bigger and complexity starts to increase, it’s a bit more like a basket ball team, where there’s a single coach, and a play maker and a solid team with some guys on the bench
   • Bigger still and gets more like a American Football team where there’s specialisms and parts of the team don’t even know or serve together, you have offence and defence, and different coaches. They don’t all play at the same time and have different skills and tasks.
3. Nehemiah can’t build the walls all by himself, it requires the help of everyone to do their part.
   • He broke the task down and allocated to smaller groups, who were unified in theology, purpose & relationally.
   • Teams were built on pre-existing relationships. (family, friendships, co-workers)
   • The bigger an organisation gets, the more important it is that there is trust.
     1. The task cannot be accomplished if people can’t be trusted to fulfil their part
     2. Trust the people you’re building with to do their part as you do yours
     3. Important to keep faithful to the vision, and not side snipe and become divisive.
   • Teams specialised on each section of the wall. Generalists are great when things are small, but when the tasks are larger, we need to use specialists who will be more effective at supporting the work.  (Consider the difference between your GP and a specialist at a hospital, where there are departments and consultants.)
     1. We need to change our focus on where we go to with issues – we can’t all run to the pastor when there are hundreds of us.
     2. Clearly identify who is doing what, and who the goto guys are
   • Have to focus on Air War and Ground War.
     1. Air war: communication to the masses (Chapter 2, preached to them)
     1. Necessary for explaining vision, correcting theology, setting the pace
     2. Some of us have only been affected by the air war. We listen to what is said, attend meetings but are not plugged in.  They’re identified with us, but not engaged in our task.
     2. Ground War: Training, leadership developments, community groups/relationships. biblical counselling. (Chapter 3, work connected to the vision takes place, to make the difference!)
        1. Those who are engaged in the ground war are:
           1. financially contributing
           2. engaged in service
           3. in a community group/relationship with others
           4. understands the vision and the part they play in achieving it.
4. Nehemiah worked ON the organisation not IN it
   • Nehemiah didn’t build a section of the wall himself
   • He stayed attentive to what was going on in each group and how the work was progressing.
   • He looked for old stones. (140 year old stones, were re-used)
5. God lists by name a list of people.  Because he loves people and loves to father them
   • God could have rebuilt the wall himself (he made the heavens and the earth didn’t he?)
   • We capture something of God’s heart when we work with him,
   • We can share in his joy of what is accomplished.
6. Everything we do is ‘ministry’, even if we’re not paid for it, if we do it as ‘unto the Lord’
   • Jesus worked for 30 years in relative obscurity before his 3 year public ministry. During that time he was still Holy, still serving God.
   • Whatever it is we’re doing, it’s all sacred if it’s done unto the Lord.
     1. Some say, I wish God would use me. whatever you’re doing, if it’s unto the Lord,  HE IS!.
     2. some of the guys mentioned in Chapter 3, are mentioned for ‘picking up rocks’ and putting them in the wall.
7. The nobles refused to work – don’t look to lead if you don’t serve.
   • Some people worked from Home.
     1. They worked outside their house
     2. Your house is an extension of your church facility
   • Minister as a family.
     1. Recognise gifts as they grow
     2. lead by example
8. Some work is less desirable than others.
   • The dung gate.., someone volunteered. lets humble ourselves to get the work done.
9. Old stones (older Godly people) have life, wisdom and experience of God working
   • Model godly behaviour, support new growth.
10. With 38 teams of people the wall got built.

So what is my response to this?  How will I lead now?

I’m looking for songs that encourage us to:

• Understand the ‘right now’ vision He has for us
• Get our hands dirty and serve
• See that God loves us and works with us
• Be the new creations that God has made us

Celebrate:

• We’re working with God to his plans
• That we have a place in his purposes
• The family (natural, church and spiritual)

Lord I thank you that from a list of names torn from a journal entry in Nehemiah, we can see that you are a God of order and of purpose. I thank you that you choose to use ordinary people just like us to humbly serve you and fulfil your purposes.  I appreciate that you call different people to different tasks, some specialist, some general but all are necessary to get the job done.  I thank you for my family, and the maturity and gifting I see in them as we serve you together. I pray for my leaders that they will continue to grow in humble stature and skills and continue the transition from doing all IN the church to working ON the church, establishing healthy growing teams where growth can be accelerated as we work together to build your church.

Power Cuts

This morning we’ve experienced two power cuts.

I like many of you I suspect, use a laptop and so the first I know of a power cut was when I come to send an email or post a blog and find the broadband connection is down.

Now my laptop functions perfectly well without a connection to the internet. It can compute things, write things down and remember them, it can display information it has remembered and function pretty well.  It even has it’s own source of power so that it can work without being plugged in to the mains and it will continue to work like that for as long as the battery lasts.

The battery will last a long time if I put the computer in sleep mode.  Because I’m not asking the computer to do anything, it draws very little power.  If I use the laptop and turn down the brightness of the screen and change the power settings to idle when I’m not using it for a couple of minutes, I could expect the battery to last quite a long while.  But if I use it normally, the battery will last only a few hours and then it will turn off.  A computer without power is useless to me. It becomes a paperweight at best and a barrier to completing my work tasks for the day.

Even if I conserved it’s power, there’s only so long that I can be effective in my job without it. Sooner or later I’d need to check a system or send/receive an email, look over new work requests in our call management system or call someone on my voip phone. All of these things require a communications connection, and that connection needs power to work!

It struck me that I can sometimes be like a laptop disconnected from power.  I can function, but can only recall knowledge I already know. I can work things out, but without the benefit of Godly direction and I can serve but my reserves of energy are quickly depleted. It is important to remain plugged in to the triune God.  This is not to say that he ‘leaves us’ once we are His, but rather that we choose to ignore or work with our relationship in place (a bit like when I choose to ignore the satnav’s directions or say yes and no in what I hope are the right places in a conversation with my wife when I really want to be doing something else)..  Sooner or later (usually sooner) I recognise that I’ve become unplugged and I need to reconnect with God. I need to seek his spirit and his direction, I need to be thankful and cognisant of his salvation, his grace and his mercy. I need the refresh of the Spirit’s power, I need to draw from God’s love and tenderness, I need to confront the sin that so easily entangles and find the forgiveness of the father.

Lord, thank you for your steadfastness which goes on and on and on. There is nowhere I can run from you, and no place that I can hide. Thank you for your voice that remains speaking if only I will listen. Forgive me when I think my ways are better than yours or when I go off like a bull in a china shop and drain my resources faster than you provide them because I’m not doing what you say. Thank you that you restore me when I fail. Thank you for your power that works in me to fulfil your purposes.

Check Out Rick Warrens book: GODS POWER TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE (Living with Purpose) for ways of staying plugged in and making a difference to your life

Numbers are meaningless

I am 14,000 days old today.  But no one counts their age this way, instead most of us click off the annual occurrence of the day of the month we were born based on the Gregorian calendar.  In the Gregorian system my ‘birthday’ is always in half term in October, but celebrating every 500 days enables celebrations at different points through the seasons.

I started thinking about all the things we apply what is loosely called ‘metrics’ to, and considered that some of them are arbitrary at best and unhelpful at worst and can significantly colour how we measure success.

For instance, we count people in attendance on Sunday’s as if physical presence was a measure of growth. What we’re actually counting there is number of seats needed + squarefootage + cups, chairs, leaflets etc required for family worship and for teaching activities in our facility.  Numerical growth may be indicated by the number of chairs required for Sunday meetings, but there’s a big difference between those attending and those ‘added’, and an even bigger difference between those added and those growing.

Growth is difficult to measure by numbers.  As a child each summer in my grandparents house I would stand against a wall and have my height marked off.  I remember that for the early years of life I was always some 4 to 6 inches (meaningless to those of a metric persuasion) behind my sister who was 393 days older than me. One year though, my growth had accelerated and I was a good 4 inches ahead of her. Tremendous growth in a calendar year.  Was I now older than her as well as taller?  No I was still 393 days younger.  Height was no measurement for maturity.

In the same way, increase in bums on seats is no measure for maturity of congregation. Neither is age of congregation, years saved, areas of service engaged in, responsibilities held, people in your growth/cell/small/connect/home group.   All of these may be ‘indications’ that enable an assessment against ‘is growth happening’, but are not measures of growth.  For instance, if someone has been ‘saved’ for 30 years, I might expect that they are well accustomed to the teachings of Christ and are able to apply his teachings for themselves and for others in what ever situations they find themselves, that they have learnt to hear the voice of God in the stillness and be prophetic, prayer warriors with many a story of God’s provision to underpin their faith and stir faith in others?  There are definitely many people for who this description fits to a T, but there are many others where it doesn’t so it’s not a reliable metric. Similar considerations can be made with nearly every metric.

The problem then with counting the things that are easy to count is that I can miss the tangible growth when it happens.  I don’t always see that Barry prayed with someone for the first time, or that Joanne took time to help someone get to hospital, or that Craig spent an hour helping someone understand something from scripture or that Gary stood with someone in their situation. Moreover, I’m not always privy to what is done in secret, so even if I was super observant I might miss growth as it happens.

Lord forgive me when I look but don’t see. When the tangible metrics cloud what’s really happening in the hearts and minds of those I stand shoulder to shoulder with.  Keep me focussed on growing with you, applying what is learnt in practical ways to love people and love You.

Does the Trinity affect your life?

I’ve recently read Donald Macleod’s book shared life in which he argues succinctly and understandably that we need to be mindful of the three persons of the trinity in our worship life.  To worship God the father without acknowledging the salvation brought through the Son or the guiding of the Holy Spirit is severely lacking..

Some oft used phrases can mislead us to thinking that only one member of the trinity is resident in our lives such as “God shaped hole”, “Invite Jesus into your heart” and “Indwelling of the holy spirit”, but Donald argues that scripture points to all three persons being resident in the redeemed soul.

The implication of this triune dwelling is security, power and ability to always be in the presence of God.  We share (through adoption, by grace) the special relationship that Christ enjoys with his Father and the Spirit… just think about that for a minute!

In his book Donald also provides an overview of the doctrine of the trinity and some observations about the differences with  Judiasm, Islam, Jehovah’s witnesses and mormonism.
For anyone confused with what the trinity is, and why it’s important to every Christian, I heartily recommend his book. Shared life.

Genuinely loving AND making disciples

 

Jesus Saves

Salvation is a sovereign work of God alone through Jesus (John 2:2.) There is nothing that we can do of ourselves to bring someone to Christ. Jesus, is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) This enables us to concentrate on being the salt and light that we are, ensuring that Christ is visible in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Make disciples

The mission from Christ is clear:  Go into all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:19) and for many a year this has formed within us a strategy of seeing every person, every encounter as a God opportunity to win someone for Himself.  Being aware of this great commission while undertaking our daily activities is foundationally helpful, so we remain focussed on living a worshipful life and looking for opportunities, not letting them pass by.  But we must be clear that making disciples isn’t the same as converting people to Christ. Making disciples is journeying together towards Christ, it’s living life in the scrutiny of others, mutually following Christ and leading others to do the same. Maturing in Christ then encouraging others to mature. 

Love one another

The hallmark of being a follower of Jesus is that we love one another (John 13:35). It is in how we love, submit, serve, carry burdens, stand with, do good, support, care for, and encourage each other that it becomes easy to see that we are governed not by the desire to reach others for Christ, but by our desire to be Christ-like.  If our motivations for interactions with people are because we genuinely love them, that relationship will endure long after their decision to come to Christ for themselves.  Wouldn’t it be devastating to us if, once we came to Christ, he abandoned us to go find someone else to be friends with? So our motivation cannot be simply to reach people for Christ without wanting to be an eternally loving family.

• It is possible for a while for me to fake love.  I can act loving, draw from experiences where I've been loved or felt loved and act that way towards others, but in the end my well of love will run dry, it will become a thankless task that will make my heart sad.  
• It’s possible to assume that it is Christ’s love that will enable me to love people, and that in someway my own emotions and feelings won’t come into play because I'm about the Lord’s work, but love cannot be inferred from another. it will be my arms, my ears, my actions that will express love to another. It will be from my heart that the measure of love will be communicated.   
• It’s possible to assume that I can determine when I'm leading others and maturing in faith and when I'm taking a day off, but whether I'm consciously engaging with others or being observed from afar, I'm still leading, Christ is still within me and I'm still a son of God.  If we could step out of his gaze, or the salvation won for us, I would be very worried indeed. If we are to diminish in stature for Christ to increase in us, should it not be that we are always ‘on duty’? Always worshipping, always caring, always loving?

If then I choose to be outside of my ivory tower or homestead castle, and live on the front line, everything I do, every day, matters.   Perhaps it is difficult to genuinely love others and make disciples if I'm not mindful of living a worshipful life 24/7. It can’t be something I pick and choose to do.  It is tiring and endless.  Jesus would retire regularly to pray and recharge with his father.  This is somewhat different to the ‘I need a holiday’ mentality i can sometimes take to get away from my responsibilities and ‘switch off’ and please myself.

Almighty God, my heavenly Father, I have sinned against you, through my own fault, in thought, word and deed, by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. For the sake of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, forgive all my offenses, and grant that I may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your name, Amen.

(The Book of Common Prayer)

This is our God (Your Grace is enough)

 

I think it would be good to learn this song in the near future:

This is Our God (your grace is enough)

Your grace is enough, more than I need
At Your word I will believe
I wait for You, draw near again
Let Your Spirit make me new
And I will fall at Your feet
I will fall at Your feet
And I will worship You here

Your presence in me, Jesus light the way
By the power of Your word
I am restored, I am redeemed
By Your Spirit I am free

Freely You gave it all for us
Surrendered Your life upon that cross
Great is the love poured out for all
This is our God
Lifted on high from death to life
Forever our God is glorified
Servant and King rescued the world
This is our God