iGod

I’d like to share an uncomfortable conversation with you

I had a difficult conversation with someone who is not a Christian, which made me feel deeply uncomfortable and incredibly sad. I was asked a simple question: “Doesn’t being a Christian mean living your life in a different way to the rest of us?

Er...yes,” I slowly replied.

Behind this question there was a whole heap of stuff kicking off. Their experience of Christians has been far from a good one. He has seen them blatantly lie, be foul-mouthed, lewd, be two-faced, put the proverbial knife in the back of others. The list goes on.  In short, he has seen them at their most pious and their most duplicitous.

In a not too gentle way, he was telling me that Christians’ ethics seem confused and leave a lot to be desired. Furthermore, it was not attractive to him.

And if that is not enough, let me now tell you that part of that picture was formed by working with Christian organisations.

How does this sit with you?  With me, it makes me want to squirm.

Now please hear me, I don’t write this from a sanctimonious attitude or am I about to suggest that Stour Valley Vineyard Church is the one getting it right, but my motive for sharing this is because someone else has been denied access to the real Jesus - and that just breaks my heart.

To be honest, I found it hard not to go on the defensive. I said some things such as people will always do people stuff, whether they are in or outside of the church.  I also said that Jesus held his greatest judgement on the religious people of the day who lived by the letter, but not by the spirit.

What would you have said?

At the end of the day I recognise that we are all hypocrites at one time or another and used to being hoisted on our own petards, but the main thing is to recognise this and repent of our ungodly attitudes, and work towards living a pure and holy life in Christ.

My heart’s desire is that people come to know the real Jesus and experience authentic Christianity. The trouble is authentic Christianity has a habit of showing up our worst features to ourselves and those around us.  It exposes us and makes us feel naked.  (If you are not a Christian and reading this please don’t give up looking. It is out there. It really is!)

However, we can’t hide the truth that with God’s mercy comes judgement. The Bible says clearly that all who profess to know Him and live in Him will be called to account for their actions, as much as those who reject Him.

 Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthian church to beware of those who water down the gospel. He says, in effect, that they preach a false Jesus, a false gospel. He goes on to say ‘their end will be met with what it deserves’. Sober stuff!

I am of the firm belief that becoming a Christian is nothing short of a miracle, because left to only us we would make a right old hash of it. Sometimes I think too much blame is put at the convenient door of secularism, when really the problem is inside.

We live with the dialectic tension that we are the body, hands, feet, and voice of Christ, but without his perfection. Yet, by his grace, he still continues to use us.

And what an amazing grace it is too!  It stops me feeling condemned by uncomfortable conversations. However it is a grace given at a price – God’s own son tortured and murdered for you and me. That makes me want to value it not cheapen it.

Following Jesus has got to be a way of life, not a convenience, surely.

ASD

Finding a godly balance between work and life

Today I came across Holy Trinity Cheltenham's rather well produced parish magazine while at New Wine's offices. I say parish magazine, it's actually a bit more than that - it's a blinkin' 60-page glossy mag!  Anyway, there is a thoughtful article by one of its members who talks candidly about his fight against "wokaholism".

He says: "One day there will be people in my firm who have no idea who I am. What I did. Or when I left."

It made me reflect, because only two weeks' ago I had celebrated 10 years working for my company. I am now the oldest serving employee. I find that scary. I think of all the past colleagues I have worked with and wonder where they all are now.

I know a day is coming when this parishoner's words will also be mine. And when it does I doubt very much that a blue memorial plate will appear on the building or a bronze statue will be erected in the reception. It puts life into perspective a bit. You see, I have always given my soul to the company I have worked for. I can't help it, it's just the way I am wired. However, I am not always sure it's been asked of me.

Nowadays with church planting going on in another part of my life I have been forced to evaluate it. I have realised something has got to give. Where once I would have been happy to work a 12-14 hour day, I can't physically do it any more. I no longer feel the need to be a pin-striped martyr.

However, here's the rub. 

My work life is no less significant than my church life, married life or family life, it just needs balancing like a set of wheels on a car. When it's not, like tyres, things get worn out fast and it affects the whole performance. And the emotional and health bill can be expensive.

I believe God has led me to my day job, so I honour him in that and do my best, but I also owe it to those others around me and my body to get some sense of perspective. So...

• I work hard at not being driven by the fear of looking a failure in the eyes of others
• I work hard to not use my work as a constant excuse of being too tired to join my family in weekend activities
• I work hard at resting from my laptop and iPhone (always being in response mode is stressful!) 
• I work hard at remembering that work is an act of worship, as much as something like praying
• But I don't work so hard that I forget that I am mortal.

Our significance is not found in a history of a company or movement like the Vineyard, it is who we are in Him. Success is not measured by an accumulation of lifestyle trophies for our years of service of hard work.

I met a guy once who stayed with one company all his working life because he thought one day he would get the top job with top pay and the best pension. In the end he got neither. The plum job went to a younger man, and his pension performed less than a private pension.

The writer of Ecclesiastes asks at one point, "For whom am I toiling and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?" (Ecc. 5 1-18)

It's a question I have asked myself over recent years.

We don't find meaning in life by giving up our jobs and working for the church or for a charity. Believe me, the church is no haven for an easy life. It comes from an attitude of mind.

A non-Christian friend of mine is always keen to say that we work to live, not live to work. Although I am not quite in agreement with the theology of that statement, I respect the sentiment of it. And if it helps to get some balance, then that is not a bad thing.

Meanwhile, it's "I owe, I owe, it's off to work, I go".

ASD

Coffee, Camels and the City

Each day I have a ritual, I get off the train at Liverpool Street station and grab a latte from Prets before walking up Bishopsgate to my office in Shoreditch High Street.

Coffee can do strange things to you. For instance, it can start a new world-class financial centre.

Back in 1698 a little band of stockbrokers downed their coffee at Jonathan’s Coffee House in Change Alley, EC3. The story of the successful Square Mile had begun.

However, progress wasn’t always easy. The South Sea Bubble burst in 1720 and coffee house exchanges burned down in 1748.

300 years later and The City of London has become more powerful than any 18^th century coffee drinker could imagine.

325,000 people now work in the financial centre. The City is set to become bigger than New York, Frankfurt and Tokyo. It seems to go from strength to strength. We might not make cars any more, but we do know how to make money.

Last December, City institutions paid out £9billion in bonuses. The Square Mile has now spread eastwards to Canary Wharf where my sister has the fascinating job of being Bishop’s chaplain to the Docklands.

The City has also gone west into Mayfair, where many private equity companies and hedge fund managers hang out.

Yes, London is certainly the place to be. The Russian oligarchs are further proof of this.

So as I sip my coffee at my desk and I think what a great place the City is to work, surrounded by success. Something our country can be proud of.

Hm! I have an idea.

Maybe I should start a church in a coffee house, call it café church, and see where it takes me.

Maybe I could start a global denomination and have offices in London, Amsterdam Tokyo and New York.

Maybe there could be new tall glass cathedrals in all the major financial cities of the world, designed by Sir Norman Foster.

I could easily see myself as the high tech, commodity pastor, thousands of business workers flocking on Sunday to the most amazing services ever. And those who couldn’t be there could have the services streamed live to their laptops.

Of course, I would have to patent everything to protect intellectual rights. (You know what Christians are like!) Ah, yes, I can see it now, I could be as big as Jes….

Wait a minute, wait a minute…I see what’s happening here.

No wonder Jesus made the point that the poor would inherit the earth, not the rich. He knew what he was saying when he said it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Human nature being what it is and all that. 

It is pretty easy to worship success, isn’t it? We just copy its attitudes.

Maybe there is something in Thomas á Kempis’ classic work, Imitation of Christ. For instance, how many times have we prayed to be more like Jesus?

More to the point, do we really truly mean it?  To be really like Jesus would probably change our lives beyond all current recognition?

As I said, coffee can do strange things to you. 

ASD

Ears have walls: Part 2

If you are regular dipper into this humble blog, you may remember my post about MP3 players were being used around my office to block out extraneous noise.

Well, to support my words I have discovered a new report showing that one in five employees are tuning out of work by listening to their personal players. The study reports that workers are listening for up to three hours a day, even though 30% of firms have banned the devices.

So a little bit of endorsement to my own straw poll recently: MP3 players are being used to shut out their colleagues in open plan offices.  The survey by workplace interior experts Woods Baggot said: “It was opening a gap between the ‘iPod generation’ and their older colleagues”.

Simon Poole, of Woods Baggot commented: “By wearing the highly visible white headphones employees are sending a signal to colleagues that they don’t want to be bothered.”

Bans on MP3 players are perhaps not the answer.  Maybe it is necessary to give workers autononomy and bans of any sort can alienate them. Personal space in any community is vital. Without it, we’d probably all go nuts.

Our Christian experience is the same. We need the opportunity to withdraw to a “quiet place” if we are to function effectively in our lives. The white earphones thing is just one way of saying, “I am not anti-social, just an individual trying to get a bit of peace!”

ASD