I’ve been trying to understand the word 'Populism' recently. It's a term that has entered my consciousness of late and I'd struggled to grasp its meaning. Apparently, so have others because it can have a broad frame of reference. However, in its simplest form it refers to 'a range of approaches which emphasise the role of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against "the elite". [However] There is no single definition of the term, which developed in the 19th century and has been used to mean various things since that time.' Thank you, Wikipedia. Why’s this important, you ask? Because populism has woven itself as a word into politics to such a degree that it can’t be ignored and therefore must be understood. Understanding is the key to learning - which is very different to simply reading. Like me you've probably sat down to read a chapter from a book, or an online article only to get part way through to realise you have no idea what you've just read. Either your mind wandered - or you simply didn't understand it. That's why introductions matter. Introductions set the context for all that follows. If you're about to learn a new subject - read the introductions first. An introduction is an overview of the topic. An introduction to Genesis is a first step and much better than trying to jump in at a passage and make sense of it. Reading the introduction to: psychology, sociology, physics, the history of the Great War - or indeed whatever it might be is of great importance because it positions you grasp the subject as a whole. Think of it as a foundation - get that right and everything else in your learning will take shape. Overlook it - and you will struggle. Most of us can learn new things if we approach it in the right way - and that means not trying to run before you can walk. You can grow in confidence if you take the right steps - you can blow your confidence if you don't. It's important to start well with any new learning experience. Don't assume you know more than you do - and if you do then reading the introduction will simply confirm this and further cement your knowledge. Taking shortcuts is not the answer to accumulating good knowledge - and good knowledge is the real key to personal growth, career development and flourishing in your chosen field. It will also stop you being arrogant and save you from coming across as naive and immature. If someone has consistently delivered in their chosen field - there is a reason for this, Otherwise (in the majority of cases) they will have fallen through the cracks - because sooner or later the cracks will appear. And you want to avoid this. So, avoid jumping straight in. There is more to learn than your initial enthusiastic drive is showing you - harness that enthusiasm to enable you to make a proper start, it’s going to reward you tenfold five years from now. Be patient - it’s a virtue you need to succeed, and your success will be truly rewarding when you know you've paid the price for it. Forget celebrity - it over promises and under delivers. Work hard, rest well - and start at the beginning if you want to go the distance and have a great ending.
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The latest version of Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds is being filmed close to home, based at the Larkhills Retirement Village in Clifton and has hit our screens to great reviews. We watched Monday's episode under a warm glow as it portrayed all that is best when the young and old come together; humour, joy, memories and connection. Love just oozes out of the screen. The programme is a social experiment on what effect children have on the elderly - can it delay age related diseases and add to a sense of purpose and flourishing in old age? We will have to wait for the results - but the signs look promising. The programme is a further step in what we all know needs to happen in our nation - people need to come together and find hope and happiness in each other - yes, we all have something to bring to the party of life. As the programme aired this week Twitter was going mad at hashtag #oldpeopleshome4yo. @claireWhite55 tweeted 'A Dunkirk veteran who dances alone, little Scarlett who’s mummy died, badlass Lavina and Phoenix who ‘literally used all the stickers’ This programme is GOLD and I’m a mess!' @HonorCollins said '#OldPeoplesHome4YO has me crying some serious tears seeing the elderly people so happy with the 4 yr olds is so heartwarming.' There's something quite beautiful in a series that is pulling at the heart strings of the nation - it gives us a glimpse of what's possible which breeds a sense of hope. For many however the reality is different. Loneliness is at epidemic levels and not just among the old, a recent survey suggests that many of our young people are crippled by it too. Somewhere along the line our sense of community has been eroded and we're all poorer for it. iNews reported that 'About 200,000 older people have not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month, and three-quarters of GPs said they see up to five people every day suffering from loneliness.' Such is the depth of the problem that the government is about to introduce Social Prescriptions through our GPs. 'GPs will be able to refer people to social activities under new plans to tackle loneliness,' wrote iNews, 'Theresa May has announced. Instead of prescribing pills, doctors will be encouraged to use “social prescribing” to refer lonely people for activities including dancing, cookery classes, walking clubs and art groups. The article continued. 'Mrs May praised the late Labour MP Jo Cox, who had campaigned to end loneliness before her death. The Prime Minister said: “Jo Cox was absolutely right to highlight the critical importance of this growing social injustice which sits alongside childhood obesity and mental well-being as one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. “I was pleased to be able to support the Loneliness Commission set up in Jo’s name and I am determined to do everything possible to take forward its recommendations.”' (Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/health/gps-england-loneliness-theresa-may-nhs/) Of course the answer doesn't just lie at the Doctor's Surgery - it rests with each one of us. We all have the capacity to reach out, to offer some time - to give a listening ear. Each home, every church, club, activity group has something vital to offer - a sense of togetherness - the answer to our loneliness lies in the grasp of each of us. Let's not abdiacte what Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds appears to advicate that togetherness is the very essence of what it means to be human. The risk of trying something new is that you might fail and for some of us the fear of failure can stop us trying in the first place. I thought about this when I first started running; and again, when I picked up a canvas and applied oil paint to it; and again when I led our church to the purchase of a derelict building that needed more money to restore it than we could have ever dreamed of owning. The thoughts of failure around such things are palpable and they can paralyse us. The fear of failure can breed procrastination quicker than rabbits breed bunnies. The result of this is we settle. We settle for what we know and what makes us feel comfortable and safe. Which is fine as far as safe goes - but the problem with safe is it shuts us down to risk and risk is what we need if we ever want to live past being safe. Safe is good as far as it goes. There's great comfort to know you are in 'safe hands' if you have to go to theatre for an operation. Safe is less attractive if it prevents progress. That’s when safe has passed its' limits and instead of being about protection it becomes about fear and all of a sudden, we are shackled. The problem with living shackled is fear sets the boundaries of life and from there we start to adopt limits that are neither aspirational or joyful - we give in and eventually give up and that’s no way to live. So instead of fearing failure we should adopt it. We should see that failure is part of succeeding, evolving and attaining our potential. Failure instead of being seen as an enemy to be avoided should be seen as a tutor in the journey of living well. When failure becomes an educator rather than eradicator you enter one of the deepest learning circles available to you. If you can embrace self-criticism you open up the door of learning from every area of life including your failures. In this place of inner analysis, you ask yourself questions - lots of questions and when this is applied to an area of failure you open yourself up to exponential growth. Apply this to your life and things will start to change immediately. You will read situations, opportunities and people better. You will learn from your experiences - and this matters a lot especially in the areas of relationships and self-leadership. When learning from failure is part of the decision-making process, you are making a potential step into greatness - or at least progress. If what you step into fails - it doesn’t make you a failure, it simply proves that you are not prepared to settle for what you already possess. Learn from it - analyse it; apply self-critique; pray; talk to friends - but don’t stop. Brush yourself down, take some time out and then start again. Your failures are not the end of you – understood correctly, they are in fact the making of you. When Hillsong released their latest (excellent) album There Is More they included a song that had the potential to cause fireworks amongst the Christian fraternity and one can’t help feeling there was intention behind the decision. From what I can see Hillsong does very little without due consideration of the fallout for they know the eyes of many are watching - or in this case listening. So, when Joel Houston, Benjamin Hastings and Michael Fatkin penned the words and music to So Will I (100 Billion X) and included the line, 'a hundred billion creatures catch Your breath, evolving in pursuit of that You said,' they had decided to move forward the agenda about origins with both their mission and demographic in mind. Hillsong is full of Millennial's and Generation Z and their eyes are not on the debates of a past. Rather they are playing to an audience who are more likely concerned as to whether their jobs will be taken by robots and their kids born part human and part cyborg. It’s a changing world. For them - and indeed us all, we have to move theologically to a place where science doesn't cloud faith but confirms it, which calls for a shift from the old days of biblical literalism lest we are left to fight battles that have long since been deserted. Not that Hillsong are alone in placing faith in a construct that allows for science and spirituality to co-exist. In the latest release of the Alpha Course it's notable that in bringing some of their quotes up to date they have chosen to draw on Francis Collins the award-winning geneticist behind the Genome project who is both a committed Christian and Theistic evolutionist. I imagine all of this is quietly intentional as steps are made of offer a robust Christianity fit for the 21 Century. It's all a long way from where my own faith started, in youth groups where pastors and youth leaders taught literalism as the only true biblical hermeneutic. Nowadays, with the Pope affirming the role of both science and faith sitting happily together and now the positioning of some of the most significant voices in evangelicalism breathing validity to other understandings of the creation narrative we are re-positioning our voice in the market place. Such steps breath credibility to the ancient stories that need to be told since from them and within them we discover who we are - and that's too important to leave behind because the emerging world may fall adrift from its moorings without such a robust, mature biblical exegesis - and that's important for a billion reasons and more. Douglas Murray recently asked in his article for UnHerd, ‘Are we ready for an irreligious future?’ He noted, ‘That countries such as Britain are becoming increasingly atheistic can hardly be denied. For instance a British Social Attitudes survey published last year found that 53% of British adults described themselves as having no religious affiliation. Since the figure in the same survey in 2015 was 48%, this showed not only that in 2017 for the first time most British people had no religious affiliation, but that five percent had abandoned it in two years alone.’ He has a point of course – one that we would do well to note. So what is going on? On the same day, the current Archbishop, Justin Welby was asked in an interview for the Guardian, ‘Would disestablishment – the separation of church and state be a disaster?’ His reply was, ‘No, nothing is a disaster for God.’ Indeed not. The question is posed on the eve of the archbishop presiding over the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel in Windsor tomorrow. The main thrust of the interview was framed around the question of privilege – and whether that should continue to bestowed on the Church of England in our ever increasing pluralistic society.. So, is there any place for the church in the modern world? Can she hold her own amongst a plethora of alternatives? As a practitioner rather than a parishioner I believe the answer is yes – but she will have to work for it. And why not? The presumed role of Christianity can no longer be presumed. Respect is not something bestowed but earned. It’s not bad thing to have to build from a place of conviction rather than convenience – people tend to own what they’ve worked for. For all those no longer affiliating with the established church there is a different story to be told. For sure the church will have to re calibrate and what will emerge is something very different to what we are leaving behind. Of my own community where I’ve served in ministry for the last two decades the church will look very different – smaller, leaner – but not of necessity less effective. What we will have is a rebirth of faith borne of people who belong to it because they believe in it. Such reality will allow its vibrancy to be felt by others because it won’t exist to serve its own agenda but rather the agenda of the community of which it’s a part. You see this happening all the time. Community initiatives are breathing life back into localities and collaboration is allowing projects to flourish that would otherwise die. Will the church be as large in the future as in the past? Well I must be careful how I answer such a question! Will the church have numbers gathering for gatherings sake – I doubt it. Will it have a voice into the complexity of the modern world – on this matter I have no doubt. The question raised by Murray as to whether we will have a irreligious future is worthy of note – but regardless, we will have a future that contains mystery and where mystery exists spirituality thrives as a key factor in untangling the wonders of the universe for as Werner Heisenberg said, ‘The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.’ And on that note I must leave since the Christians of my City are gathering to pray as part of the Thy Kingdom Come initiative this evening and the event has sold out, that’s 1200 people going along to pray. It is true that there are less numbers of people attending churches – but of those that remain there is a passion to work out this faith in practice as is proven by the believe that faith can still bring positive change in lives and communities. This Sunday will be our annual Google Sermon where we look at what have been some of the most searched for subjects over 2017 and ask what this means and says about our world. It was the great Baptist Preacher of the Nineteenth Century, Charles Spurgeon who taught his students to preach with a Bible in one hand a newspaper in the other. Today, he would have perhaps told them to still hold the Bible in one hand but substitute the newspaper for Google. In this ever-changing world where data now has a much higher worth than oil we can see a paradigm shift happening around us. How we move into that shift and adapt to a new era is a great challenge for us all. This year’s Google Review is built around a series of 'how's'. It speaks both to the curiosity of people and extends to the compassion of the human race which is often seen at its best when life is at its worst. Of course, the macro view of billions of searches can leave us all wondering: so what? What difference does this make? In life society is moved not by the lone voice but the collective voice - when people gather together and become a movement for change. It is these trends that we are looking at in the Google Sermon. We are asking what they are - and what does it mean for the Church and its distinctive voice. The role of the church is to bring context to life. It is to give understanding to feelings; transcendence to fear and interpretation to experience. We are here to listen, not judge - to allow people to be heard and then help navigate those experiences through a Christ centred worldview. When the lady in the video says of her experience of the Solar Eclipse, 'It's emotional, I can't explain why but it is.' We have a voice into those emotions—we can speak wisdom into the experience. Too often we impose questions onto people that they no longer ask—what the Google Sermon does is look at what people are asking and then bring a pathway that helps navigate and make sense of those questions. For those unable to attend Hope this week we will be Live Streaming the Sermon at 11.25am. You can join us on our Hope Church Nottingham Facebook page which you can find here - @hopechurchnottingham - be great see you either in the room or in our digital space! Some journeys are defined by their destination - they are taken with one aim in mind, to get there. But such a view can be really short-sighted. If everything is measured by the end game - what joy is there to be found in the journey itself? What's more we short circuit the process that the journey is meant to teach us which in truth is where characters are formed and forged. Take Mary and Joseph for example. After the visit of the Magi and the agitation of King Herod's jealousy they are warned in the dream to flee. 'When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.' I'm sure that fleeing to Egypt was the last thing they wanted to do with a small child in their care - but the journey needed to be taken. It needed to be taken to protect the child - and all the child represented. Journeys matter for lots of reasons. Here's a few that come to mind.
Some people never change. Things change around them but they stay the same. Same conversations; same perspectives; the same old and tired arguments. There is something quite dull about someone who views the world as if it was till 1975 don't you think? Where's creativity, the imagination - the passion? Where's the drive to engage with a world that is ever evolving and changing? The problem? They've never taken the journey. And here's the thing. Change doesn't happen inside a vacuum, it happens in the process of a thousand small decisions, each made as we navigate our way from where we are to where we need to be. On the journey we morph into a new version of ourselves - and dependant on how we make those decisions determines the people we become. Bitter or better; brittle or broken; beaten or newly born. There is a sadness about a person who has rejected the journey. A sense of loss as to what might have been - of the new horizons gained leading to new perspectives and possibilities. I'm a great believer in the need to take the journey - and what's more the Bible is on my side in thinking this way. Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets - to cite just the Old Testament is proof enough of its value. I'm not sure how you view the past year - or how you will approach the coming one, but whatever that means for each of us may we embrace the journey and the mystery and joy it offers. At some point in life we all suffer from self-doubt. Even the most confident have moments when they question their ability, it’s just not everyone is prepared to show it. And it’s this lack of visibility which at times can make you think you're alone with your fears of personal competency or what you feel is a lack of them but, as R.T. Bennett said, “Don’t let others tell you what you can’t do. Don't let the limitations of others limit your vision. If you can remove your self-doubt and believe in yourself, you can achieve what you never thought possible.” Not that we always feel this. The rhythms of life and good practice will lead to growing confidence which leads to better performance. But self-doubt doesn't live amongst the familiar but rather the new. It's in the area of growth where the gremlins of self-doubt do their work. It appears to me those who struggle least with self-doubt are those who have little to doubt over. The person who has mastered a 5k run has little to doubt himself until he tries to conquer a 10k run. That's where self-doubt kicks in. It bites harshest when we commit to improvement- when we decide to step out of the status quo, when we attempt something new, or bolder or bigger than before. So, if you are in a season of self-doubt - take heart for it probably means you are stretching yourself in a new area or taking on a fresh challenge. So here are my five steps to conquering self-doubt
As Vincent van Gogh wrote, “If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” And silencing the voice is the first step to overcoming self-doubt. For some people all that matters in life is that something works. What it looks like has no bearing on it. Beauty is but a poor relation to function. I have some sympathy for such thinking - but also live for a different cause. 'You can have any colour you like, as long as its beige.' Is a oft quoted saying that amplifies the point. Function we understand - beauty, well does it really matter what it looks like. Indeed beauty itself is subjective and as they say, 'is in the eye of the beholder.' Yet beauty is all around us. God is the divine architect and the ultimate artist so little wonder if there is a yearning in the heart for more than just magnolia. Art is the language of the soul which is why we are moved by music, poetry and paintings. It's why we find expression in language that is cultivated rather than calculated. Appreciation is a gift imparted from the divine - it reminds us we are more than the culmination of our chemical parts. The Genesis story tells us that God created the world and after each day of creation he stops, looks, and concludes that what he sees is good. Goodness borne of beauty - the artisan at work. Yet its so easy for beauty to be crushed by the need to perform - to meet deadlines, to put food on the table. And in such a demanding world beauty plays second fiddle to basics - we all have to eat, after all. Fast food prevails and ready meals supply our needs but are we missing something of real value? What are we teaching our children if we don't have time to play - don't have room for art, to cultivate a life where beauty is harvested and celebrated. There is something therapeutic about plucking the strings of a guitar, of penning the thoughts of the heart, of applying the paint to a canvas. And the beauty is not in what is created but in being creative. It's in the letting go and creating time. Of letting the mind wander and letting the soul go there. There is a reason why the arts become the companions of healing a broken mind. If God was not an artist then we would bereft of colour, limited in scenery, and restricted in what our eyes can see. Beauty comes from God because God is beautiful - we see this all around us. It is true that a war is waged against this beauty and at times hate prevails and bland controls but I can't help feel that when my soul is stirred by beauty I walk a step closer to God. Guilt is the worst type of motivation. Think about it - when has guilt ever borne good fruit in your life? It may have moved you to act - but from what basis? It might have got a job done, but at what cost? And yet in so many ways we have become masters at either making others feel guilt or bearing guilt ourselves. When we bear guilt ourselves it often springs from inadequacy. We put expectations on our shoulders that are poorly managed which leads to stress and frustration. Like when we fail to leave enough time between meetings to catch our breath or reflect on what has been said. No sooner have we stepped out of one thing and we are walking into the next - no space in between. No head space - just heart race. It leads only to guilt. Of course, we can try and get over guilt by projecting it onto others, but it rarely works, certainly over the long term. Otherwise we bear it - and it gets us down. We must do better if we want to thrive. Then we use guilt to motivate others - which is even worse and we can all be (excuse the pun) guilty of doing this. How often do we want to get someone to do something and we use guilt, often subtly, as a motivator to action. The job gets done - but at what cost to that person? Not that we ever say that - we just speak in terms of the consequences of inaction which leads to fear of not responding which gives birth to condemnation and condemnation as the word suggests just weighs people down. No good news there then. From a Christian perspective using guilt as a motivator to action is both poor shepherding and bad theology because Christ has come to lift us up. Sadly, we often interpret the good news though this lens. We call people to Christ through fear rather than love. We offer the commandments as rules to be obeyed rather than showing them as boundaries for human thriving. And the truth is the modern world has caught up and is no longer captured by its tone. Am I saying that and guilt no longer matters? No, of course not, when it is used to bring about justice. But what I am saying is that if we use guilt to drive people to fear in order to get them to act we have missed the point. The Christian story is one of God winning hearts and minds - and a heart that's won is a heart that surrenders to the one who won it. Christ came to lift us up not drag us down. People have enough guilt without the Church adding to it. We are here as liberators to set people free from guilt not to drive them through it. As the apostle Paul wrote, 'There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.’ It's a great story and one that needs retelling well if the church is to reshape its mission of creating true hope for the modern world. |
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