Baptism

Joel announced a couple of months ago that he had decided to be baptised.  He (as always) came to the decision on his own one day, but had decided not to do anything about it until he’d chatted to his best friend at Church to see whether he wanted to be baptised at the same time.    So it was with a lot of joy that Joel was baptised at the end of November.  It turned into quite a family affair with Charis reading a Bible passage and Lesley praying for him (with Paul looking on with a hugely proud grin on his face).

I thought you might want to read his 'testimony' that he'd written out:

"When I was 5 my sister and I sat on my bed and she showed me a presentation called knowing God Personally that was all about how to become a Christian and after she went through this I wrote a prayer to ask Jesus into my life but it wasn't till I was older that I realised that there might be more to being a Christian than that for me.

 

I was brought up in a Christian home so naturally my parents wanted me to become a Christian and it's fair to say that it was a rocky road to where I am today. In fact, if you put it on a graph it would look something like this (at this point, Joel showed a powerpoint graph of static growth in his Christian life until he was 13!)- I don't think my faith really grew for quite a number of years between being 5 and 13.  But a couple of years ago while I was at a Christian conference in Estonia I decided to really follow Jesus. (at this point, Joel showed a picture of him standing on one hand, street-dancing in Estonia!)  This all came about one night when my sister and a close friend of ours decided that they would go to the prayer room and I decided to hang out with some friends. When I came back to the place we were all staying I walked past the prayer room and I wasn't intending on going in but I felt something telling me to go in anyway and when I came back out of the prayer room after praying I felt something which must have been the Holy Spirit .I had to choose to follow him and no one else could make that choice for me.

 

Even then, although I chose to follow him I didn't really show it as much as I should have. And getting baptised is publicly saying that I believe in the father the son and the Holy Spirit and that I intend to follow Jesus for the rest of my life so that's why I'm getting baptised."

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, it was such a fantastic event.  There were a total of 5 people baptised and balanced with the spiritual delight of the day, cake always makes a significant physical addition to the occasion.

 

 

 

 

Bringing Yourself to Work

It's 8.30 on a Wednesday morning and I'm with three others at the front of a conference room, ludicrously high up in the all-glass KPMG building in Birmingham city centre.  It's KPMG's "Inclusion week" and I've been asked to be part of a panel that addresses what "bringing yourself to work" looks like, from a Christian perspective.  The other three sitting with me are a friend from church, Jon, and two KPMG employees who represented other elements of diversity within the company.

The event was one of a week-long series of events addressing various diversity issues within KPMG.  The idea of "bringing yourself to work" was discussing how we can be true to who we are as we come to work - a rather interesting topic for a large company that understandably wants a corporate image and culture amongst its employees.

The room was filled with quite a cross-section of managers and the discussion was good and robust and flowed between issues of race, sexuality and gender as it related to recruitment and development.  I must admit I was impressed at their commitment to move from the current employee stereotype ("male, pale and stale" as someone quipped) to a wider representation. 

One of the problems with HR's "best practice" relating to diversity in recent years has been to focus on the "business case" for diversity in employment.  It's good to be able to prove that having a diverse work force is good for the bottom line of a company but, unfortunately, if an organisation's sole rationale is built on the business case then as soon as someone can come along showing why its better for business to employ just middle aged white men or attractive 20-somethings women, then you lose that battle.

One of the subjects I was able to bring into the discussion was the need for an ethical basis for our decision making in this area and John Maxwell's idea that you cannot separate out personal and business ethics - acting ethically is about who you are not just what you do.  Resisting the urge to jump up, slam a Bible down on the table and start preaching (OK, not much of an urge really) I did get an opportunity to talk about the link between their own values and my favourite verse:  Micah 6v8 and the need for all of us to act justly and love mercy in all our interactions with people as well as trying to figure out what walking humbly with our God might involve.

It was an amazing opportunity to have.  A local organisation called Chaplaincy Plus had made the connection to have me invited.  My part was just to hopefully kick-start some of the conversation, but KPMG are keen to have Chaplaincy Plus increasingly involved within their company as a city-centre chaplaincy to the business community.  I'm very excited to see what might emerge from this.  

The Iranian Experience

Did you miss me?  I know I've been gone a while.  Anyway; down to the chat:  The Iranian Experience.

A week or so ago, Lesley and I hosted an event at Cranleigh Baptist Church for folk to hear about the Work of our "First Acts" team.  A team of mainly Iranians who work here in the UK amongst Farsi-speakers from Iran and thereabouts. 

Sometimes I just have to pinch myself that I get to work alongside such phenomenal people.  The evening was quite a mix:  a bit of background chat from Lesley, me doing my "MC" thing and a video that explained the work of the team, but for me, there were three elements that you just had to be there to really fully appreciate.  By definition, therefore, I am about to do them an injustice:

Farsi worship.  It is a common-known fact (certainly amongst Iranian Christians) that the language spoken in heaven is Farsi.  Even catching a whisper of it here on earth, sung enthusiastically by Iranian believers is just awesome.  A few of us tried to join in with the words phonetically written out, but just standing and enjoying and being caught up in their praise was the best part of it.

Iranian food.  They don't claim their food is what's eaten in heaven, but you never know.  From an organisational point of view, I should have learned to translate what an Iranian means when they say "we'll just provide a few snacks".  Platefuls.  And in a scene reminiscent of the feeding of the 5000, I think there were at least 12 basket-fulls left over.  It was gooood.

Persian stories.  They are all very humble and matter-of-fact about it all, but the truth is, the more you hear the stories, the more you just get amazed at how God shows up in incredible circumstances.  From the very practical aspects of the stories of how most of these folk ended up in the UK, through to the incredible tales of how they unexpectedly tripped over the love of God and came into a relationship with him, I was gripped (and I've heard a few of these tales now).  It makes me thankful to God for the ease in which I came into a relationship with him and thankful for the way he reached out and grabbed these folk in unexpected ways.

If you are involved in a church and would like a touch of the Iranian Experience for yourselves, do get in touch.  We might just be able to help with that!