What’s your story?

We all love a good story: something with which we can engage, something that draws us in and resonates with us on some level, conscious or unconscious, right? But what makes a story good? What is it that draws us in, hooks us, makes us keep reading, keep watching or keep listening? Is it the plot? Is it the romance, the drama, the twists and turns?

No. The plot, the romance, the thrills and the twists and turns are the fluff around the edges, the icing on the cake; the thing that keeps us engaged is character – maybe just one character, or maybe several. At the heart of every good story is a character with whom we can connect. Sometimes we connect through empathy, sometimes through disgust, and sometimes we can’t explain why we connected, we just did.

I guarantee that for every story you have ever thought to be good, if I asked you why you would talk about characters in that story. Take movies – we buy because the pitch (the trailer, the blurb, the write-ups) persuades us it’s worth a look. Whether we watch to the end depends on what we find inside. The best car chases, the most spectacular effects, the steamiest romances will only hold our interest so far. We may stay sat down to the end if for no other reason than we bought the ticket so we’ll damn well get our money’s worth, but we’ll only be engaged to the end if we connected with a character in the story.

And the same is true in business: at the heart of every great business is a great story; and while the story may be one of triumph over adversity, or the journey from rags to riches, or of struggle and breakthrough, at it’s heart will be a character with whom we connect. Potential investors will look through the numbers, they’ll assess the product, they’ll review the market; but even if every box is ticked the answer is still in the balance. The same is true of potential clients: the slickest pitch, the most elegant of solutions will not guarantee you the business. Ticking boxes simply gets you through the door. Read more

When principle and passion just isn�t enough

Fundamentalist Islamists, Evangelical Christians, anti-war protesters, pro-life campaigners, the pro-choice lobby:  all causes fuelled by passion, all causes buoyed by publicity, all carried on the shoulders of the passionate, committed and determined.  But now there’s a new pretender in the arena of noble causes: the football fan (soccer, if you are a Yank).

The FA Premier League here in the UK is the place where the creme de la creme come to ply their trade, earn bucket-loads of cash and grow egos the size of small galaxies; it is also the place where fans get ripped off, big-business comes to rape and pillage, and the merchandisers make hay come rain or shine.  For the fans of one club – the most successful European club at the current time – enough was enough, and a ‘Fans’ group’ was born; in fact 2 were born with some common aims, but approaches that are poles apart

Both are run by volunteers who are passionate to steroid-driven levels, and whatever your opinion of how they operate, no-one can legitimately call into question their commitment, determination or desire.  But there comes a point when passion, commitment, determination and desire are not enough: those things are an ever-present requirement but, on their own, they are just not enough.

There comes a point, which in reality is a point that should precede any action, when not just an appreciation of, but a single-minded, unswerving, utterly blinkered focus on the bigger picture is vital.  Without a focus on where you are heading – an awareness of the route and its potential twists and turns – you are heading into militant, issue-driven, opportunist, reactionary behaviour. 

This is exactly where one group has, seemingly, ended up: question it and you get screamed at or ignored, make suggestions and you risk being castigated, and dare to offer opinion that is pragmatic, and your commitment to your club is questioned.  The other has largely operated under the radar: after initially declaring its intentions, it has purposefully dropped out of the public eye, building communication channels, an infrastructure, proper governance, and a plan.  One group seems well organised, focused and credible, while the other seems militant, angry and utterly reactionary.  You decide which is which.

When you focus on issues, when you act too early, when you try and launch a rocket off a platform that isn’t yet finished, you back yourself into a corner.  Questions can seem like attacks, suggestions like criticism, and opinions like an attempt to undermine.  A response to this, perhaps inevitably, is to develop a vocabulary that is riddled with militancy: protest, demonstration, boycott.  This doesn’t win support, it alienates it from all but those who see militancy as the only way to win. Thatcher v the Unions: who won?  Enough said.

I know this from bitter experience: with To All Nations, we ran before we could walk; we spoke when we should have been silent and we moved when we should have been still.  People questioned us, stated opinions and made suggestions.  We were too immature as an organisation (and maybe as people) to see those opinions, questions and suggestions for what they were, and we became defensive.  As a result we alienated people rather than attracted them, and ultimately we shot ourselves in the foot; we had some success, but no-where near what we could have, or indeed should have experienced.

If your approach is grounded in militancy – and fuelled by passion alone – there will quickly come a point when you simply lurch from flash-point to flash-point, and people don’t take you seriously.

Remember, the turtle won the prize, not the hare.  Passion, commitment and determination are all vital, but they need to be underpinned by a strategy that flows out of a vision.  Never lose sight of that – I did once, and it leads to a nasty place.

Vision: Strategy is not unspiritual

A well meaning gentleman once said to me, when I had enthusiastically finished sharing my vision, ‘that is totally wrong because business has no place in the church’.  Well that, frankly is the biggest load of whatever that I have heard.  We are called to be good stewards of that which God gives us, and that means that church, however that looks for you, and the Christian life is an ongoing balance between Spirit and strategy.  All Spirit no strategy leads to self-serving inward-focus, while all strategy no Spirit leads to results driven, mechanical ‘performance’.

As Christ-followers, whether corporately or as individuals, we need a strategy that is driven and led by the Spirit, and focused on maintaining momentum towards our vision.  Many people seem to have a mis-placed idea that having a strategy is somehow a sign of a faltering faith; something that boxes God out of the equation.  In reality, a Spirit-inspired (and that’s the key) strategy is an outworking of your faith – a signpost that says ‘I believe in this vision that God has given me, I trust him to get me there, and I think this is how we are going to do it’.

Your vision, at least its essence, may be cast in stone but your strategy is not.  Your initial strategy will change as you learn along the way.  What seemed the ideal route will change, maybe even dramatically, over time.  I looked back at the original strategy document I wrote three years ago for To All Nations and was amazed at how different it looked from the one I am writing now.  There are common elements, but it is a very different prospect now than then. 

Be prepared for changes in your strategy.  Be alert enough to recognise new opportunities.  Be ready for situations to explode your boundaries; opening up your strategy to include elements you never even dreamed possible.  Be eager for God to clarify your route as you travel. It isn’t failure or some sign that you weren’t listening to God (though you may want to just dwell on that for a moment – I know I need to all too often!) if you find you radically change your strategy as you travel; it is a sign that you are learning and God is shaping you along the way.

My recommendation is that, at least on one level, you approach your strategy as a business may do:

First, throw out a long-term plan.  In journey terms this is like saying ‘we are going to travel from one side of the country to the other’.  You have no real idea how you will get there, but you know what ‘there’ looks like.

Next, throw out a medium-term plan.  This will still be a bit vague, but will have more detail.  In this part of your strategy you establish a few signposts and map out a very high level route – you know you are traveling east to west and you have identified the main arterial routes.  You have identified a vehicle that you can use, and you know roughly what you need to take with you.

Finally, throw out a short-term plan.  This will be your street-level view.  This part of your strategy will tell you how you are going to get going – how you are going to move from where you are to the first signpost in your medium-term plan.  It will tell you where to turn right, where to turn left, where to stop for petrol and when to take a break.

Every journey throws up unexpected twists and turns, and a sensible traveller takes note and responds accordingly. If your initial route said to take a particular road, but as you travelled along it you passed a sign to say ‘bridge out, find another route’, only a fool would ignore that information and carry on regardless.  It isn’t a lack of faith to plan a route.  It isn’t a sign of failure to change that route in the light of new information.  It’s common sense.

A Spirit-inspired strategy is not unspiritual, it’s essential.

What’s God doing?

A recent Evangelical Alliance campaign asked ‘What’s God doing in your area?’. 

Almost daily I hear people saying ‘God is on the move!’, or ‘God is really doing something around here!’ or ‘God is up to something big!’ Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year it’s the same story – ‘God is about to do something big!’ But no-one seems to stop and wonder why He hasn’t done it yet. 

Well here’s a suggestion as to why He hasn’t done it yet – He’s waiting for us to get off our backsides and do something first!  Yes, God is undoubtedly on the verge of doing something about the catastrophic mess we have made of things, but He will remain on the verge of doing it until we haul ourselves off our fat backsides and get with the story.  Never mind asking what God is doing where we live, let’s bring it back a step – what are we doing where we live?

The Kingdom of God is not a spectator venue or a passive activity, it is a full on participatory experience – it is a living, breathing, dynamic environment that requires us to engage with it, not watch from a distance.  There are people where I live who have been saying for decades that God is about to do something, and still they wait.  They wait, they wait and they wait.  And still they say that God is about to do something. 

How long do we wait before we actually wake up and realise that something is missing?  To these perpetual waiters I say this – ask yourself why He hasn’t done it yet.  He is waiting for us to catch up with Him and then start moving forward.  He is waiting for us to start working together; pursuing the real presence of the Kingdom instead of growing our own little Empires.  And He will out-wait us all if He has to. 

To pass the time while they wait, people talk of the days that were – around here they talk of the days when Richard Baxter took Kidderminster by the scruff of the neck and opened it’s gates to the presence of the Kingdom; the days when Kidderminster was called a little colony of Heaven.  Well here is a news-flash – Baxter dreamed of what could be, and he knew what should be, and he did something about it.  He stepped up to the crease, bat in hand, and faced the ball.  And as he stood there waiting for the delivery, God stepped up and played the shot, hitting the ball out of the stadium, taking Baxter’s willingness to chase down what should be and turning it into reality. 

What’s God doing where you live?  But, what are you doing where you live?  You can’t play a shot from in the pavillion, so if you want to see the world changed, if you believe God is going to do something big, you better get your pads on, pick up your bat and get ready to take the field, because if He is going to change your bit of the world, He is going to want you to take the field first.  He wants you standing there right next to Him.  Don’t leave it to others, because it may just be that God is actually waiting for you to step up to the crease and face the ball.  Don’t miss your chance, don’t be a spectator, rise to the challenge and step into the life that awaits you.