The media, in all its various guises, is undeniably a tool for shaping culture and world views. It is my dream and goal to be a mouthpiece for God and a light for him in that arena.
 
Many of the things I write about are quite esoteric but I believe that in attitude and approach (in what I write, in the way I relate to colleagues and interviewees, and in personal integrity) it is possible to have an impact here.
 
The article that was displayed at the conference was taken from my previous role as a reporter at FT Tilt, an emerging markets news service from the Financial Times group. It represents the beginning of the journey - only God knows where it ends.
 
——-
 
Alastair’s work was exhibited at the Everything Conference 2012 Art Exhibition.
 
To contact him, follow this alastair.j.marsh@gmail.com and you can view more of his work here.

The pitches worked amazingly well and the several hundred people who stuck around to listen to them got to hear a diverse selection of ideas. We recorded the ideas that were pitched so you too can listen to them if you missed out on Saturday.

First Time Dads

Jonny Elwyn pitched his idea for his baby clothing company First Time Dads at the Everything Conference 2012. First Time Dads is the UK’s first and only range of baby clothes and accessories designed to help fatherhood a little bit easier and a lot more fun.

If you would like to get involved with First Time Dads, either by investing or offering your experience and expertise, contact Jonny at jonnyelwyn@gmail.com

Online Computer Vision Platform

David Akinluyi pitches his idea for his Online Computer Vision Platform at the Everything Conference 2012. Computer vision enables networked machines to see and hear so that they can be more helpful.

If you would like to get involved with this computer vision platform, either by investing or offering your experience and expertise, contact David at david.akinluyi@googlemail.com

YELP Students

Sharla Duncan pitches her idea for YELP Students at the Everything Conference 2012. YELP Students significantly increases access to leading universities, by harnessing the power of their most outstanding students to work with local disadvantaged secondary school pupils.

If you would like to get involved with YELP Students, either by investing or offering your experience and expertise, contact Sharla at sharla.duncan@yelpstudents.org

Magnify

Ruth Awogbade pitches her idea for Magnify at the Everything Conference 2012. Magnify is about creatively presenting the message of Christianity in a refreshing and accesible way, to the disillusioned and lost women in our world, through engaging in various media platforms.

If you would like to get involved with Magnify, either by investing or offering your experience and expertise, contact Ruth at ruthamagnify@gmail.com

Following on from Andy Crouch’s exhortation last year that we should not be merely critics or consumers of culture but collaborators, cultivators and creators of it, we’ve got a couple of opportunities for you to do just that this year, too.

The Chalkboard

 
In the Mezzanine area, we’ll have a large chalkboard on which you can write a one-line description of your Good Idea. It could be an environmentally-friendly taxi firm, or a mentoring programme for teenagers. Perhaps it’s a local idea, like making your local park a safe and inviting place, or something with international impact such as a new idea for sustainable farming.
 
The one criterion is that the ideas have to be ‘Good’: i.e. reflecting Kingdom values, with a clear aim to serve society.
 
We’re asking you to put your email address up there too, so if someone else wants to get on board, they’ll be able to contact you. Who knows what could happen?

The Good Ideas Platform

 
During the lunch break, we will have four entrepreneurs, pitching for four minutes each, outlining the Good Idea they are passionate about implementing or expanding, to bring about positive social change. Think Dragon’s Den with friendly dragons! (This article gives you an idea of what it’s all about).
 
Why not join them at The Good Ideas Platform at 13:00 – 13:30 (The Mezzanine – directly up the stairs from the auditorium) and help make these ideas happen?
 
Come and get involved, contribute, support… or just be inspired.

Pitchers include:

jonnyelwyn@gmail.com: First Time Dads is the UK’s first and only range of baby clothes and accessories designed to help make fatherhood a little bit easier and a lot more fun.

sharla.duncan@yelpstudents.org: YELP Students significantly increases access to leading universities, by harnessing the power of their most outstanding students to work with local disadvantaged secondary school pupils.

david.akinluyi@googlemail.com: Online computer vision platform: Enabling networked machines to see and hear so that they can be more helpful!

ruthamagnify@gmail.com Magnify is about creatively presenting the message of Christianity in a refreshing and accessible way to the disillusioned and lost women in our world, through engaging in media platforms.

The inspiration for the event came from seeing many great ideas that have been brought to life by members of ChristChuch over the last few years. A common pattern emerged; someone with a good idea connected with others with the resources and skills to help turn the idea into a reality. Why not catalyze this process, by giving people a platform to pitch their ideas and what they need to take it to the next stage?
 
We decided on simple criteria; the ideas had to be ‘good’ - reflecting Kingdom values, with a clear aim to serve society. As soon as word got out about the event, an amazing deluge of good ideas began.
 
So, on a mild Friday evening in January, 12 pitchers were given five minutes each to pitch their idea. The pitches were as brilliant as they were diverse - from dad-oriented baby-wear, through decor-friendly fire blankets, to franchises for ex-offenders and food vouchers for the homeless. The venue - the crypt of St James’ Clerkenwell - could have been straight out of Dragon’s Den itself. Around 80 people came to hear the pitches and to offer their advice and support over a glass of wine afterwards.
 
Thanks to great pitchers and a great audience, the feedback has been really encouraging. The pitchers are now pursuing multiple offers of help, contacts and even funding. We hope to run a similar event in a few months time - and we’re also thinking about other ways to support those who are already pursuing their good ideas.
 
This initiative works really well in a big church that is already buzzing with ideas, but there’s no reason a few churches in an area couldn’t get together and organise a similar event, pooling resources across congregations, and helping people find like-minded others to connect with and see their ideas take shape. If you’re thinking of doing something similar, you might find these guidelines that we gave to pitchers useful.
 
If you’d like to see the idea in action, look out for it in one of the breaks at this year’s Everything conference - we’ll be hosting a mini-Pitch event to inspire you and hopefully make some more great connections. Don’t forget to book into the conference in advance to save 20% on the ticket price. Now that’s a Good Idea if ever I heard one.

But these are no ordinary fashionistas. In many ways they contradict the stereotype of the fashion industry being vapid and shallow. The pair attend Alliance member church Holy Trinity Brompton and have a deep sense of God’s calling them into this industry.
 
Their luxury clothing brand has featured in the media spotlight in recent months. Their popularity was also boosted when the Duchess of Cambridge wore one of their stunning gowns at a charity event. “We’ve been quite fortunate with the press,” says Natasha. “People love a brand with a story.”
 
The name Beulah is a biblical term that means ‘to come from a place of darkness into one of light’; and that is what the girls are trying to do with their fashion brand. Natasha and Lavinia set up Beulah London after returning from a trip to India, where they became aware of the horrors of human trafficking while working with rape victims in the slums of Delhi and Kolkata.
 
Beulah London employs some of these women in India to create needlework for the products. “We’re trying to make sure that the production is ethical,” says Lavinia. “For us, it’s really key that we are transparent in what we’re doing. Our end goal is to have the girls involved in production.”
 
Lavinia and Natasha certainly look the part. But the fashion industry is not where they thought they would end up. Lavinia is a theology graduate, while Natasha previously worked at auctioneers Sotheby’s and for Al Gordon, worship leader at HTB.
 
Giving up full-time employment to start a fashion label was a daunting prospect, but, as Natasha explains: “We both had to be obedient and listen to what God called us into doing. It was incredibly risky and quite a scary thing to plunge ourselves into, but I think He’s really blessed our obedience in that.”
 
I’m surprised at how candid they are about their faith. They give glory to God for the business’s popularity and dotted around their office in Parsons Green are Bible verses and words of inspiration.
 
They are just as open with the secular press, who often focus on their Christianity in newspaper articles. It’s strange to hear about faith within fashion, but they are up for the challenge of being salt and light.
 
“We’re called to be in the world and not of it,” says Lavinia. “You can’t shed light in dark areas if you don’t go into those areas… People are really drawn to our difference and our faith is quite a conversation starter as people are always intrigued by it.”
 
The girls really want to bring hope through their fashion label. They have recently joined the UN’s Blue Heart Campaign against human trafficking and a proportion of the profits from each product they sell will go towards the initiative.
 
“Our whole aim is to make women feel beautiful both inside and out,” says Lavinia. Little touches, such as inscribing many of their items with, “Love like you’ve never been hurt, dance as though no-one is watching, sing as though no can hear you,” means they are doing just that.
 
—-

Beulah will be doing an interview at the 2012 Everything Conference.
 
This article has been copied with permission from Evangelical Alliance UK and was originally published in Idea Magazine.

However, in an increasingly sexually progressive culture, where there is more and more pressure for SRE (Sex and Relationships Education) to be a value-free/ unbiased/ neutral/ information only, activity, ‘religious’ teaching on sexuality can often be viewed as being intrusive, overly moralistic, ‘sex-negative’ and out-dated.
 
It is against this backdrop that, in 2005, a production company set out to see if doing things the ‘God-way’ still had any relevance, in a brave 3-part BBC series. They found Christian Youth Workers, Rachel Gardner and Dan Burke and together created and filmed the very first Romance Academy project for twelve teenagers from North London. It ran for five months, consisted of 2-hour weekly sessions and encouraged the young people to abstain from sexual activity for the duration of the project (through a joint pledge), in order to explore the value of relationships and each other.
 
The result?
 
Well, let’s just say that 6 years later, Romance Academy is still going strong. It is now a registered charity training and equipping other youth workers and working in different contexts across the country. We passionately believe that the world is built on the success and failure of our relationships, which is why our material is built around biblical wisdom for relationships: faithfulness, love and commitment – virtues that are vital for human flourishing. Whilst there is no explicit Christian teaching in our material, our faith still informs what we do.

As Sex Educators, we want young people not only to be informed but also empathetic: to think, feel and care about themselves and each other – to see the bigger picture. In order for us to do this even better, we feel that there needs to be a greater focus in wider SRE on the spiritual dimension. Sex is after all, more than simply a physical act.
 
Spirituality is about the cultivation of the inner world that encourages reflection, imagination, and the development of moral character. Whether religiously tethered or not, it engages young people’s creativity and enables them to deal with issues on a personal level – providing a framework for understanding the purpose and meaning of sex and opening up discussion about identity.
 
Editor of the Pacific News, Kathie Dobie, puts it like this: ‘‘Who’d have thought that teenagers talking about sex would end up talking about their souls…’cos that’s what they’re talking about isn’t it?  Not the adventure of skin on skin…but something bigger than themselves to live for.”
 
For that reason, it is not uncommon to hear reports from some of our Christian RA leaders that conversations about sex have lead to conversations about faith. As we all know, life is a journey. At times we need to be told where we’re going wrong and at other times we need understanding and companionship for the road. Romance Academy wants to help young people towards a greater understanding of themselves and so has deliberately designed a project that facilitates big discussion and creates space for journeying and exploration. In a sense, meeting young people where they’re at and talking about issues to do with sexuality, will always mean that spirituality is never far behind, we just don’t choose to start there.

Fundamentally, RA believes that good SRE should be about the heart, as much as it is about the parts and helping young people have access to people, places and projects that alleviate some of pressure to be sexually active can be a lifeline. Good Faith and Good Sex both depend on this belief–that each one of us is free. Free to say no or yes. Free to be ourselves, free to love, free to have faith.
 
Romance Academy’s big vision is to break the cycle of damaging relationships. Practically, we would love to be in touch with/train more leaders to engage with the hot topics. We think it’s important that the church engages with this stuff and we’d love, one day, for every young person in the UK to be within 10 miles of an Academy. Since our re-launch in January 2011 we have licenced around 80 organizations to use our material, with 2012 looking set to be even bigger. We are passionate about partnership and believe that joined up thinking across the secular/sacred divide, can ensure that a generation of young people are able to embrace their self-worth, appreciate their interconnectedness and exercise their freedom to make choices that don’t damage themselves or others.

Read more on the Romance Academy website.

So Steve, you sell scarves, right? What’s the big idea?

TwoToo is about bringing some warmth and hope to those who need it most.  For every TwoToo scarf sold we give another one away to a homeless person who needs help to keep them warm.

TwoToo is the opposite of most designer labels. Instead of implying exclusivity and superiority it expresses support and identification with those in need - a touch of equality in an unequal world.

What a great idea! Have you always been a scarf salesman?

No! I’ve spent most of my life as a Graphic Designer and I have been running my own design consultancy for the last 26 years. I was one of those insensitive people who felt that homeless people that I saw begging on the streets should just go and get themselves a job. However, I felt challenged about my attitude and wanted to do something about it. My church, St John’s, Harborne, was involved in the Birmingham Soup Run, so I decided to go along and see what it was like. My attitude was totally changed through meeting and talking to the homeless people and hearing the many different reasons why they’d ended up on the streets.

I started volunteering there one Friday per month. In the autumn of my second year with the Soup Run I thought it would be good to find a way to give the homeless people that we met something extra at Christmas. I wanted to be able to give them all scarves as a way to make them warmer than they would otherwise have been and to show that people were thinking about them.

Your website says you initially thought you could probably sell 50 scarves in the run-up to Christmas 2007. How many did you actually sell?

We usually had about 50 people turning up at the Soup Runs for food each night and so I thought that if I could find a way to fund the cost to buy 50 scarves I could then give those scarves away to the homeless people. I researched the cost to buy scarves wholesale and typical retail prices for similar items and realized that I could sell a scarf at a very reasonable £5 and finance the cost of a second one that could then be given away. I could have just bought and sold plain, non-branded scarves but I wanted to give the whole process some identity and that’s where the idea of TwoToo came in! I presented the idea to our Soup Run team who loved the idea, then presented it to our church leaders to see if we could potentially promote it to the church members. The support was so great that we ended up selling just over 500 scarves instead of the 50 that I’d been aiming for! 

We’ve now given away around 1200 scarves, and are hoping to be able to donate 500 more this Christmas.

I think one reason for its popularity is that people can identify directly with the concept. If they buy a scarf and are wearing it they can easily visualise the homeless person wearing theirs. Also I think people appreciate that we’re not just asking for donations so that we can give scarves away, instead they are actually receiving something of value in return for their money as well as them contributing to the cost of the scarf that’s given away.

Who has received the benefit of all those donated scarves? 

Initially we were involved directly with handing them out to the homeless people we met on the Soup Run and they were genuinely pleased to receive them. They are often given secondhand items of clothing but they really appreciated that they were actually getting something new.

In the first winter we also gave scarves to vulnerable elderly people that the church had contact with, and a week later one lady said: “I haven’t taken it off yet, it’s really comfortable and warm!”

Since that first year we’ve worked to develop a network for distribution that ensures that the right people receive the scarves. Now that my wife and I are living in Poole, having moved in the summer of 2010, we have developed strong relationships with local homeless projects that really appreciate receiving and distributing the scarves to their contacts. These include Bournemouth BCHA’s St Paul’s night shelter ‘Sleep Safe’ Campaign; ‘Michael House, providers of emergency and longer-term accommodation to homeless people and Routes to Roots who provide Soup-Runs and a Drop-In centre in Poole. We will also continue to support the Birmingham Soup Run for homeless people and are working on finding other homeless projects around the country who would like to partner with us.

My wife and I moved to Poole in 2010 and joined Citygate Church in Bournemouth. It’s a great church, and we really identified with the work they do with homeless people and people in recovery from a variety of addictions. They work closely with ‘Michael House’ a local homeless hostel, which will be receiving TwoToo scarves this year. I’ve been promoting TwoToo through business networking events that I’ve been to and I’ve been really encouraged by the support that I’ve had from a number of marketing and PR people who have helped to get the news out at no cost to us at all.

How many staff do you have? 

Staff?! That’s just myself and my wife, Barbara. It’s been very much a ‘cottage industry’ so far with extra volunteers at busy times.

I would love to expand the business further and ideally on a ‘For profit’ basis, as I think that model is a better fit for TwoToo than either a Charity or Not-for Profit model. There is nothing unbiblical about making a profit and the main aim for TwoToo achieving a profit would be to able to give as many scarves away as possible.

What makes TwoToo distinctively Christian?

It is living out the call to help the homeless that Isaiah 58 best describes and Jesus repeatedly calls us to. However, the idea of TwoToo resonates extremely positively with non Christians and I’ve been surprised that a lot of the support that we’ve had has come from non church sources.

We’ve also always aimed to source our Scarves and T-Shirts from ethical sources. So far we have been buying from wholesale suppliers who profess to have ethical policies relating to their suppliers. If we can develop TwoToo to a larger business we’d like to be able to buy from source and therefore have more direct control on where we buy from.

There are a lot of people out there who have great ideas like this, but who aren’t sure how to act on them. What advice would you give them?

Being a creative person, running a design business and needing to have creative ideas on a daily basis, is a real privilege. The tricky part is deciding which ideas are the good ones!

In the same way that we need to have discernment in our spiritual lives, I find I need to have discernment of my creative ideas. If an idea comes to me and then is gone by the next day that usually means it wasn’t very good. TwoToo is one of those that wouldn’t go away! I had the thought of the original idea quite a few months before I shared it with anyone, and it kept coming back to me during that time. This is one of the signs of an idea that is worth thinking about! You need to have that confidence to push an idea forward as it does take a lot of time and energy as well as capital to start something like TwoToo.

Balancing TwoToo and the demands of church and family life can be difficult at times but I view TwoToo as a combination of my church commitment and everything I do, and I’m fortunate that I have an understanding wife! Rest is something that I’m not so good at but part of the plan in moving to Poole was to enjoy the area and I’ve recently taken up windsurfing, and Poole is the perfect place to start! 

Has there been a time when you wanted to give up?

Yes, I’ve frequently thought about giving up! Particularly when I’ve been putting lots of time in and not seeing results. Often people are really supportive, but when it comes down to it, nothing happens unless I do it!

As I mentioned earlier, a belief in what you’re doing is very important and in helping to keep your passion. Having confidence in the idea and that you’re doing the right thing is a very real help to keep me motivated. Since we started TwoToo in Autumn 2007, as each year has come around I’ve thought “Should we carry on?” So far the answer has been ‘Yes’ and this year I’m putting even more time and effort into it to push as hard as possible to see it there is a future for it.

Bottom line: what’s your big dream? What’s the difference you’re trying to make?

I am very aware that, on its own, giving away scarves isn’t going to cure homelessness. However it does create awareness of the situation and shows those receiving scarves that there are people who care about them. That in itself makes a real difference to a homeless person.

I would love to see the TwoToo concept being extended to other areas of need, it is very transferable to simply say ‘Buy x and we’ll give another x to someone else who needs it’. This concept can be sustainable as we’re not asking people to give us something with nothing in return. If they buy a TwoToo they are getting something in return for their payment.

Thank you so much for your time, Steve, your goal of donating over 500 scarves this winter is a pretty big one; remind us where we can go to buy a scarf and help the homeless.

Thank you for your interest in TwoToo. A full range of scarves for men and women are available and start at £5 + p+p each (which includes the cost of the scarf that’s given away).

She is confident, however, that they will flourish, and more than fulfill our summer fruit needs. I reminded her of last year’s crop; a measly three, sour as battery acid. Proud and undeterred she informed me that strawberry plants never produce much of a crop on their first year; the bumper crop comes in the second season. You have to take a long term view.
 
I was provoked this week by reading an article by Matt Perman, in which he quotes from the founding letters of both Google and Amazon. You can read the full article here. What challenged me was the fact that both companies have resisted the temptation to think ‘short term’, instead have taken a ‘long term’ view in order to maximise their effectiveness.
 
Perman opens his article by commenting:

‘It is noteworthy that two of the companies that have made the greatest impact over the last ten years, and continue to do so, have explicitly rejected the common approach of focusing on the short-term over the long-term.’

 
I am not naturally patient; I like to buy my strawberry plants one year old, or better still, in a punnet! Sometimes I struggle to see beyond the short term immediate benefits to the long term goal. That myopic view is why, according to Perman, many companies ‘fail to become great.’
 
Says the founder of Google:

‘Our goal is to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible. In pursuing this goal, we may do things that we believe have a positive impact on the world, even if the near term financial returns are not obvious… As a private company, we have concentrated on the long term, and this has served us well. As a public company, we will do the same. In our opinion, outside pressures too often tempt companies to sacrifice long term opportunities to meet quarterly market expectations… If opportunities arise that might cause us to sacrifice short term results but are in the best long term interest of our shareholders, we will take those opportunities. We will have the fortitude to do this.’

 
That challenges me. I don’t know about you, but I think Jesus’ instruction to be Salt and Light is a long term call. It’s not about momentary, flash-in-the-pan, short-lived random acts of saltiness. Rather, we are called to take the long term view, working to bring out the best in society in anticipation of God’s final, long-term (eternal!) goal: the renewal of all things.
 
This inevitably means that at times we will have to resist the temptation to pursue instant gratification and short term gain. We will need to invest in the long term, even when it seems more risky, more costly, and less intuitive.
 
Culture making is not a quick-fix solution, but a long term way of life; like growing strawberries. No wonder it all began with the call to cultivate a garden…

In this talk from the Everything stream at Together on a Mission 2010, I explore some of these questions, encouraging leaders to think through the day-to-day challenge of changing culture.

Click here to listen.

He proposed a grand plan for social reform involving painters, poets, philosophers and entrepreneurs. The list of people he wanted to involve is fascinating, but one stands out for me. Philosophers I can understand; poets, OK; entrepreneurs… sorry? How do they fit in with social reform?
 
Reading a list like that makes you wonder if we’ve lost something in our vision for business since the 1820s. Maybe we’ve made it too much about doing well and left working for good to charities and political pressure groups. But what if these two were brought back together? Imagine businesses that worked for the good of the community whilst turning a profit. That could be the start of something remarkable: a positive influence on the world that is sustainable, that can grow and develop.
 
Jeff van Duzer of Seattle Pacific University proposes a big vision for business. He suggests that, from a Christian perspective, business is first about serving by providing goods, services and employment. The goods and services serve the community and help it to flourish. And individuals need meaningful and creative jobs to allow them to express their God-given identity.
 
When we take this as our starting point, things start to get interesting. We begin to see why God might be interested in the details of a business plan. We begin to see that you can serve God with an enterprise that generates jobs and that honours workers; you can serve God by bringing to life ideas that enhance life for those around; you can serve God by providing for the poor in a way that is fair and respectful.
 
Which is a nice theory, but how does it work in practice?
 
One of the most famous examples is that of Arthur Guinness. Living in 18th-century Ireland, he was faced with a society in which the only alternative to the undrinkable water was gin. The problems associated with this were widespread. The Guinness solution was entrepreneurial through and through: he developed and marketed a healthier alternative to gin with a significantly lower alcohol content. And, of course, as well as helping society, he ended up creating what is now one of the most popular beverages in the world.
 
But the examples aren’t all historical. Take Don Flow, the owner of car dealerships in the USA. While most car sales involve some negotiating, his dealers work with a fixed price policy. Why? Because he discovered that negotiations tend to discriminate against the poor and less educated. Their weaker bargaining position means that they end up subsidising the better-off customers. By taking an alternative approach, Don ensures that everyone gets treated equally and fairly, whatever their background.
 
The growing social enterprise movement pushes this further as people look for business ideas that explicitly address social issues. Perhaps it could be finding a business case for a shop in a deprived area that others have abandoned. Or dreaming up a new way to provide jobs for the long-term unemployed. Or rethinking the way financial services are provided for the poor. The goal is to address social needs in new and sustainable ways.
 
Some such ideas have ended up creating whole new ways of working. Think of the success of The Big Issue in helping the homeless. Or look at the case of Mohammad Yunus. He found people who were stuck in poverty simply because banks would not lend them small amounts of money. Though they would have jumped at the opportunity of starting small businesses, they had no way of acquiring initial capital except from exploitative loan sharks. A little bit of creative thinking led to him develop credit facilities for those overlooked by the banking system. The resulting ‘micro-finance’ has now revolutionised self-employment opportunities in the developing world.
 
Gradually, we are rediscovering the potential for business to make a difference in communities and individual lives. It may be opening up brand new possibilities, or finding creative solutions to old problems. It may be rethinking old solutions to make them fairer. With a big enough vision, business can be a route for God’s grace into the world around us.
 
(For more on entrepreneurship and faith, have a look at the Ei Forum from Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York. For more about Social Entrepreneurs a good starting point is Martin Clark’s book The Social Entrepreneur Revolution.)

Jeremiah’s instruction takes place in exile. Our witness and work will always be contextual, taking shape in a specific cultural context, time and place. The Christian faith and worldview have the potential to affect every part of life. As the Dutch theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper said:

‘In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, “That is mine!”’

 
This calls for a Christian imagination, expressed in every sector of society, in which we witness to an alternative vision.
 
‘Shalom’ is used in the scriptures to refer to God’s creational intention. It includes peace, soundness, wholeness, security and fullness of life, in which our relationships with God, each other and with nonhuman creation are thriving. It is this vision that Jeremiah sets before the exiles.
 
The question of how we move towards a new horizon and experience the welfare Jeremiah had in mind requires a prayerful approach. Furthermore, it requires a long-term vision: Jeremiah inspires the people to settle in for the duration, in view of many generations.
 
It is to this end that I co-ordinate Forum for Change, part of a long-term strategy, facilitated by the Evangelical Alliance, to mobilise the Church in influencing culture. Our Culture Footprint email features stories of Christians who are working in the key ‘change drivers’ in our culture: arts, politics, media, sports, education and business; disciples who live out their faith in a secular context. It is sometimes funny, always interesting and often challenging.
 
Register here to get the Culture Footprint delivered to your inbox.

1. Identify what you want. Consider role, company, size, their values and internal culture.

2. Write a fantastic CV. There are loads of books out there to help you. Keep it to two pages, ensure the formatting is consistent, include a personal profile, emphasise what you actually did and your achievements. Get someone else to spell-check and read it.

3. Register with the specialist recruitment agencies for your sector. Be super friendly. Check-in with them weekly.

4. Be aware of how you spend your time. Whilst most of us spend 97+% of job hunting online only 7% of actual jobs are found in this way. Plan a varied approach including the more ‘traditional approach’ of looking at newspapers adverts.

5. The most effective way to find a job is through proactive and speculative applications, otherwise known as phoning up companies and asking if they have jobs and through contacts and friends. Yes it’s scary, but 50% of jobs are found this way. Have you drawn up a list of 10 companies you would love to work for and contacted them?

6. Make sure you tailor your CV and applications. Take their job specifications and job descriptions and repeat back to them what they are asking for and how you have demonstrated these skills.

7. If you are going to say you are an excellent communicator, team player and leader (blablabla…) please ensure you say how you have demonstrated these skills i.e. ‘led a team of 10 people on XYZ’ or ‘regularly delivered sales presentations to potential customers’. If you can find more skills unique to you, emphases these.

8. Before the interview do loads of research; their website, news releases, Companies House have financial data, even Google your interviewer and find some common ground.

9. Plan interesting questions to ask them i.e. ‘tell me about the culture of the team’ etc

10. Prepare your route, add an hour, never ever be late.

11. Be friendly to everyone, even the receptionist, it’s highly likely they will have input.

12. You have 5 seconds to make an impression. These stick. They will know in this time if they want to take you on. Unfair? Yes, but it’s the reality of life. Make your walk into the room confident and give a firm handshake. Offer it if they don’t. Smile.

13. Practice answering interviewing with family and friends.

14. Keep your answers relevant to the job. Sell yourself. Be very positive and enthusiastic.

15. Talk about what you actually do and did. Give them the basics then explain further, give details, statistics, figures etc. It’s highly likely they won’t have read your CV until you enter the room; assume they know nothing about you.

16. Close the interview like a sales person. For sales or ‘high calibre’ jobs consider asking them if they have any concerns about you… then you can address them. Ask them if they ‘could see you in the job’. Whatever job you’re going for, tell them you want it.

17. After the interview consider sending them a thank you email.

18. If it’s a no, ask for feedback but just listen, don’t justify your responses.

19. Keep a positive attitude. Keep doing it. If you’re job hunting full time, be happy with 4-5 hours a day and set yourself targets to apply for 2-5 new jobs a week. Keep the hunt a continuous journey despite being at interview stage.

20. Finally (actually firstly too) and most importantly… trust in the Lord and pray continuously for wisdom and favour.

But when the money starts to drain away, and the days between jobs turn to weeks or even months, it really starts to feel like unemployment. Therefore, here are some of my own recommendations for making the most of unemployment.

Think right
The most important thing I think I could say is that you really need to know your theology. God is Sovereign. That means He’s in charge of EVERYTHING. He’s in charge of your days and your time; when you’re working and when you’re not working. He’s in charge of everything. So trust Him, because He knows what He’s doing. Job 38 really helps me get the right size and perspective on who God is and who I am. Also Psalm 33 is a big one for me: “The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death, and keep them alive in famine.” When your heart is really trusting God, hoping in Him and knowing that He’s got you safe in His hands, going about making efforts to do all you can do, and letting God take care of the rest, frees you up from the pressure of “I must find a job! What if….” and allows you to ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3:5).

Pray
What if there was a way, where you just asked God to help you and He would, wouldn’t that make life so much easier, wouldn’t it take away all the stress and worry. Well there is and it’s called prayer. In the past six years of being a freelance film editor I can count on three fingers the number of times where my running around, striving to conjure up work has actually paid off. The rest of the time (99%) I’ve just prayed, trusted God, and work has rolled in. Not always as immediately or as soon as I wanted, but it always has. God provides. He really does.

Invest your time
You are now time rich. You may have more time than you know what to do with, but you are time rich. When you don’t have a job, your job is to serve God. When you do have a job, your job is to serve God. So in reality you’re never unemployed, as you’re still serving God. Try to stay in the routine of a 9-5 life if you can. Obviously you want to be looking for work, rewriting your CV, calling people up – doing all you can do. But in the midst of all that, think about ways to invest your time. Can you meet friends for lunch? (Hopefully they will pay – Thanks Tom!) Can you work for the church for free? Can you invest in learning new skills or refreshing old ones? Can you invest your time listening to sermons, reading the Bible and praying? Personally I find the more time I can spend helping others, being productive and generally keeping busy, the less time I have to worry about money, work, or the countless ‘what ifs…’ that like to crowd around the fringes of my brain.

Defeat fear
When I do worry – it usually happens when I’ve looked at my bank statement (again), tried to figure out how I will pay all the bills, and I’ve got lost in the midst of the real numbers – faith suddenly evaporates, all of my Job 38 thinking has gone out the window and panic sets in. This is normal, but the response is critical. Memorising a verse like Hebrews 13:5-6 really comes in handy: ‘Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence. “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”’

God has said He’ll never leave me on my own, or turn away from me. He’s always with me. If I look to Him, He will help me. So I know I have every reason to rejoice and no reasons to be afraid. Given who He is, and what He’s done for us, wouldn’t it be foolish not to trust Him?

Remember who you are
As Christians we all know our identity in Christ is who we really are; that God is our Father, that He loves us no matter what because of what Jesus has done, that we can’t earn His love or approval, we’ve already got it unconditionally. So we know God doesn’t think less of us when we’re unemployed. But it’s easy to know that and say it when we do have a job, and then suddenly when we don’t have work our espoused theology and our functional theology start playing chicken on the motorway of our thoughts. Do I really matter to God? Am I really valuable and important? I haven’t been outside today, I’ve not seen another person. All I’ve done is stay inside looking for work on the internet, worrying. Maybe I’m a massive failure. I’m sure God must be disappointed in me. LIES.

Tim Keller once said something that really helped me and I’ve paraphrased it for myself. “Those who are made righteous by being a good film editor will die. But those who are made righteous by Jesus, shall live” (Romans 3:22-28). I’ll never earn God’s love and approval by being good at what I do. Jesus has been good enough. He’s already done for me all that I could never do. I am loved. I am approved. Living this out in your heart is probably the hardest part about being unemployed, but also the most useful lesson to learn.

Listen to God
Be ready to hear from God, for wisdom, direction, for whole new God adventures that you never thought of before. God always has a plan and a purpose. Could becoming unemployed really be the best thing that ever happened to you? Could it give you the freedom (and the time) to evaluate where you are going? What do you want to spend your life doing? What do you love to do? What are you most passionate about? – Go after those things.

Talk to people
I’ve never heard many people talk about being unemployed, but I know a lot of people who have been at one time or another, or are right now. It really helps to be talking to your friends, asking people for advice and being encouraged by their testimony of God’s activity in their lives. God is always doing something. Even if you can’t see what He’s doing, you can trust Him that He’s always doing good. 1 John 1:5 says “God is light: in Him there is no darkness at all.” You can always trust His heart, even if you can’t trace His hand.

Have you ever visited St Blazey, Cornwall? It’s the home of The Eden Project, has a population of about 6,600 people and used to be a prominent mining town for copper and tin. I’ve never been there. I’m not even sure I’d heard of it before today.

In the 1970s, a chap called Alfredo worked as a postman and window cleaner in and around St Blazey. Did you know that? I didn’t think so. I suppose if you don’t know the name of your own postman, and you’ve never visited this miniature west country parish, it’s highly unlikely you’d know about Alfredo… And yet, I bet he has graced your TV screen in the past few weeks without you even knowing.

You see, Alfredo Cooper was born in Chile, and relocated to Cornwall with his family in the 1970s where he worked as a postman and window cleaner.  To be honest, I know very little more about his story than that. I don’t even know if he was a good window cleaner! But I do know this; in January of this year, Alfredo was appointed Chaplain to the President of Chile.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you about the thirty three miners who were trapped underground for two months in Chile. I imagine many of you will have watched the emotional footage of the miners emerging, finally rescued after their incredible ordeal. And alongside the Chilean President, offering hope, prayer and spiritual counsel stood Rev Alfredo Cooper.

BBC Radio Five carried an interview with him this week, in which he explained his part in the story:

“I am a chaplain in the presidential palace and so we had to quickly put together an emergency prayer meeting and it was with all our hearts because to imagine these thirty three men a kilometre under the earth not knowing whether they were alive or what was going through their minds… Seventeen days we prayed and then the miracle came when the boring machine glanced off a rock and hit them – hit the cavern they were in – and of course we just erupted in praise. The second service the president called for was a praise meeting so we had a thanksgiving service and then of course we’ve had constant prayer. And this has been one of the interesting factors for folk like us to notice. Many of the miners went down as atheists or unbelievers or semi-believers and they have come up to a man testifying that they were not thirty three but that there were thirty four down there – that Jesus was there with them and that they had a constant sense of his presence and guidance.”

Remarkable.

This is pure conjecture, but ‘conject’ with me for a moment. Do you think during his time in England Aldredo ever questioned the value of what he was doing? Do you reckon he ever longer for greater ‘job satisfaction’, as many of us do? While he washed windows in the west country, do you think he ever dreamed big dreams, which he felt were out of his reach? Dreams of changing culture and doing something extraordinary for God? I can well imagine that as he traipsed up and down the streets of St Blazey, he had not the slightest idea of how God would choose to use him in the future.

But God sees the end from the beginning, and has an astonishing ability to connect un-connectable things. He teaches shepherds how to rule nations, and prisoners to advise kings. Even the Messiah spent decades learning the trade of a carpenter. He teaches and prepares people through even the most mundane experiences. He takes postmen and window cleaners and raises them up to tend to the faith of a nation.

We’ll probably never know the full story of how Alfredo got from a mining town in Cornwall to the presidential palace in Chile. But I think we can learn this from his example: God calls us to work hard wherever we find ourselves. Be faithful. Dream big dreams. Take opportunities when He gives them to you. Don’t discount yourself. Don’t despise the day of small things. And get to know your postman.

It is tempting to see a divide between church and our work. But I am increasingly convinced that we need to be people who shape culture, and if this is to happen, we dare not devalue our jobs! We need to see our workplaces as mission fields and ask the question ‘what does Jesus want to do in my workplace?’

A businessman, soon after coming to faith, told me he was dissatisfied with the recruitment industry in which he worked. He was put off by the cut-throat attitude that cared more about profits than the welfare of their clients. In January he established his own recruitment agency, with the vision of seeing the whole industry changed, based on the principles of fairness, honesty and customer care. Within eight months their reputation had spread and he had relocated from his mother’s kitchen to an office in a prime location.

I am thrilled by examples like this; men and women who have a vision for their employment, and see it as a key part of the Church’s mission. Shaping culture is not just about planting churches and leading individuals to Christ, as vital as that is. It’s about promoting the common good; benefitting everybody by creating better environments in which to live and work.

There is great potential for affecting change through positive influence. If we promote beauty, truth and goodness, everyone benefits. Christians are too often known for campaigning against the negative aspects of secular culture. I’m for creating rather than complaining. We need to seek opportunities to promote positive culture; helping Christian artists to exhibit their work and businessmen to operate ethically. What’s more, if Christians are seen to be having a positive effect, we will gain credibility and a platform to speak on many issues.

Josiah Wedgwood is a prime example. In 1787, this well-known and influential businessman created a range of hatpins and brooches for fashionable women. They bore an emblem of an African slave in chains and the provocative slogan ‘Am I not a man and a brother?’ Within three years, thousands had been distributed. Wedgwood’s contribution to the world of fashion became a significant factor in raising public awareness for the Society for the Abolition of Slavery.

I am passionate about equipping Christians to make a difference in whatever area they find themselves. Psalm 24:1tells us that ‘The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’ Everything. Not just the so called ‘sacred’ elements of culture, but our work, study and leisure as well. Everything belongs to God and as His people we are called to get involved and have a positive influence on society. As we commit ourselves to impacting culture by being faithful in whatever area God has placed us, I am excited about the many possibilities that will emerge.