Recovering the ‘Can Do’ Spirit

Jennie Pollock interviewed Os Guinness ahead of his visit to the Everything Conference on Saturday 17 March 2012, where he will be the keynote speaker.

You lead an incredibly busy life, travelling and speaking all over the world. What are you doing at the moment?

For some years now, I have been working on the challenge of ‘globalisation.’ I believe this is the widest possible framework that sums up the challenges and opportunities facing the Christian church in the advanced modern era.

I am not the slightest bit pessimistic, but I believe we always have to start with realism and then bring in our Christian hope.
 
What are you passionate about?
 
I often say simply that I love to make sense of the gospel to the world and make sense of the world to the church.
 
You were born in China, grew up in England and make your home, at least part of the time, in the States – does one place feel more like home than any other?
 
And my family is from Ireland and I have lived nearly ten years in Switzerland! I am happiest and most at home in Europe, and in particular in Oxford and London.
 
What would you identify as the biggest cultural differences between the US and the UK?
 
There are hundreds of differences I could mention, but two stick out. First, because of the disestablishment of religion, so that all religion is voluntary, faith has flourished in the US in a unique way. So spiritually speaking, the US is like the tropics where all sorts of weird, wild, and wonderful spiritual movements grow, whereas Europe is like the Arctic where believers huddle together against the chill. Another huge difference is that Europe lacks the ‘can do’ spirit of America, so the climate of enterprise hangs low like the clouds in the UK. It’s time we British recovered the ‘can do’ spirit, not as an expression of American- style enterprise but as an expression of faith in God.
 
What things from the UK do you miss when you’re in the US?
 
British humour, old inns and pubs, English cathedrals, knowledgeable London cabbies, good theatre, a sense of history, good expository preaching, tastes such as thick-cut marmalade, Horlicks, and steak and kidney pie, and wonderful old cities such as Oxford - for a start.
 
And vice versa?
 
I miss my American friends, and the generally far better weather.
 
Do you have a ‘life verse’ that inspires you?
 
I came to faith when God spoke to me through Luke 5:4 “Launch out into the deep,” and that sense of vision and venture has always stirred me most deeply. In the same way, my favourite hymn has always been the 9th Century Irish hymn “Be thou my vision.”
 
What are you reading at the moment?
 
Anything I can find on consumerism. I believe capitalism is at a critical point, and consumerism is an approachable angle on a critique we must all make. At a different level I am half way through Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, and have just finished a biography of the French statesman Talleyrand.
 
What kind of content can we expect from your talks at the Everything conference?
 
I look forward to partnering with David Stroud. My contribution will be two ‘big picture’ talks - one on a vision of a new Christian renaissance, and one on the two words of Jesus that changed the world: “Follow me.”

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Watch the promotional video for the conference now, or download it from Vimeo to show in your church this Sunday.

 
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Reproduced from Connect Magazine, Spring 2012.

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