On Friday, two men died.

One was Matthew Warren, the 27 year-old son of Pastor Rick Warren. Matthew died by suicide after years of struggling with severe depression. The other was David Kuo, 44, a gifted writer who worked in the White House during the Bush administration. He was a husband and father of four. David died after battling brain cancer for 10 years.

I had the privilege of knowing David for the last three years and in that time he became perhaps the most encouraging voice in my life. And while I didn’t know Matthew Warren, I can imagine the questions his family is asking right now. The questions so many of us have to sit with at different points in our lives.

I’ve lost two of my closest friends in the last four months. My longtime friend David McKenna was killed in a car accident in December. His unexpected death shook me and my community. This week, a different community faces the death of a different David. Two Davids with so much to offer the world, two men loved by many, their stories closed too soon. What do we do with the death of the young? What do we say to the enormous questions that come as loved ones go? We talk about “the end of their suffering” but what about the suffering of the ones left behind?

I spend a good amount of my life telling people their best days are yet to come. And I believe that. I really do. I believe there’s hope in the darkest places. I believe there are so many reasons to live.

But what happens when the best days are no longer coming? When death inserts its final word on a life? Messages of hope feel trite for the grieving. Visions of a better future seem to border on betrayal. I know how to offer hope to the living. I stand silenced in the presence of the grieving. When it comes to death, I seem to have only questions.

Perhaps there is room for the questions, and perhaps it’s fitting in a way, because my friendship with David began with him confessing some of his own.

In a room full of strangers—most of them early in their stories, many of them successful—David stood and spoke of living with cancer. With his wife Kim by his side, he spoke of the weight and the cost of their long struggle. He talked about their marriage and their children. He talked about his faith.

The strangers offered no easy answers and instead were invited to pray for David and Kim. I was moved and so I literally moved to be close to him. I don’t remember the words of the prayers but I remember crying and I remember wanting to be his friend.

That was November 2010 and we have been friends ever since. He was wise and hilarious and kind. He was sensitive and emotional and intentional and deep. He asked great questions. He asked the best questions. He was never in a hurry.

In our friendship, he was not the sick one and me the healthy. We both had our aching places. Mine could be called depression. My 2011 began with deep sadness—a broken heart after the sudden end of a relationship. I called David crying and he offered nothing small, nothing cheap or leading. He took a deep breath and said “Oh, Buddy. I’m so sorry. What a tragedy.”

David started another round of radiation that week. And yet on that Friday,  after his fifth day of treatment, he boarded a plane to come comfort me in Florida.

We sat on the beach, we watched movies, we ate good food, we fed manatees—David adored manatees and I happen to live in manatee mecca. We listened to U2 and Michael Jackson and we talked for hours. In those hours I felt invited to be honest; I never had to fake it around David. We always found a way to laugh—with David, the laughter came easily.

There were other trips—two to Las Vegas. I watched him eat sushi at his favorite place and he spent most of that meal with his eyes closed. Words were replaced by groans of appreciation. He had a gift like that. He was excellent at wonder.

I never had a solution to his cancer. I could never promise healing. When healing would seem to settle in for a season, I could never promise it would stay. It was all a great mystery to me. I didn’t have answers but I learned the privilege of meeting my friend in his questions. And he seemed to do the same with me. With presence and laughter and sometimes words, we reminded the other that he did not walk alone. With David, I was invited to know him and to love him. And what a gift to have those things returned—to be known and loved by this extraordinary man.

We break in different ways in this life, all of us eventually. Perhaps we were made for heaven. I can begin to accept that. But I can’t explain the suffering here. I don’t have answers to the questions that come with these men leaving when it seemed there was so much life still to live, so many people loving them and needing them.

Though I find comfort in the thought of my friend no longer suffering—and Matthew finding peace as well—they leave much pain behind them. David’s playful youngest son will start Kindergarten in the fall. His bright daughter is only 8 years old. His amazing best friend Kim is now a widow. Matthew’s parents have to plan a funeral for their son who left too soon. His siblings lost their baby brother. Based on Rick Warren’s email to staff, it seems they did everything right. Counseling, treatment, medication. It seems Matthew’s pain was met with compassion and understanding. His mental illness was not ignored or prayed away. It seems they loved him well. Their son made a choice in the end. And again, based on his father’s words in response, the son’s choice was met with compassion and understanding, as his parents praised Matthew for staying alive as long as he did. “But he kept going for another decade,” Rick wrote.

I don’t know a lot but I’ve come to believe the following:

The world is broken. Our bodies break eventually. Our minds and hearts can break as well. We lose things in this life. We lose relationships. We lose people. And so a lot of folks live with a lot of pain. Much is mystery but God asks us to love, not just when it’s easy and not just when a certain Scripture fits. What does it look like to love someone when you’ve never been where they are? When there are no words? Or what about allowing someone to love you when you feel completely alone, like no one can relate?

Beyond that, maybe it’s better not to fake it, not to offer something cheap. For the rest of us still here, with air in our lungs and tears in our eyes, perhaps we are meant to simply meet each other in the questions. Though the price will be the heartache of loss—for we can’t control when or how an ending comes—what a privilege that God allows us to connect with other people in this life, to be known and to be loved so we do not walk alone. Perhaps friendship—the deep kind, the best kind—perhaps it is a miracle. Perhaps it is a taste of heaven.

My friend David lived that way. He lived a deep, intentional life. He listened and asked the best questions. He saw things and he said things and it made me feel like a million bucks, like maybe life could be rich, like maybe I was something good. He said “I love you, Buddy” and “Buddy, I’m so sorry.” David walked with dignity and grace in the face of enormous uncertainty. His cancer couldn’t make him bitter, couldn’t make him selfish. He asked great questions and he met me inside mine.

David Kuo gave me permission to be honest, permission to be me. He battled cancer and I battled depression and we could not fix each other. But what a gift to find a friend. What a gift for each of us—to get outside our heads and to see beyond our pain, to remind each other there was more to our stories. We were not simply broken things. He wasn’t only Cancer and I wasn’t only Sad. And of course we had the bigger story too, the one that unites us, the one that finds richness and wonder in this life and in the hope of heaven.

Last summer, in a Las Vegas hotel room (OK, it was a suite), in the presence of about 10 of his closest friends, David said this: “We will bury each other. If we get this right, it means we live life together and we love each other and we walk together. And in the end, one by one, we go home.”

I spent my Easter at a hospice house in Charlotte, with David and his family. As I drove to the airport that afternoon, there was a stretch where, on my right, the trees along the road held not a single leaf. On my left, a perfect row of dogwoods stood covered in white, their full blooms declaring spring. It was a picture that echoed the day, an Easter spent between two seasons—between life and death, heaven and earth—but something in me has to believe the dogwoods win in the end.

Posted on Q Ideas website

The last few days have definitely been historic. Even for those who aren’t Catholic, people of all faith traditions acknowledge the power and influence the Catholic Church has on society, culture and politics. So, when it’s time to choose a new pope, the world stops and takes notice.

For sure the Catholic Church has many shortcomings and much in its past to be ashamed of. But for all its faults, the Catholic Church can be admired for its fortitude. The church has not crumbled in light of its self-deception and sins—the Crusades, the Inquisition, and its most recent child abuse scandals, to name some of the most far-reaching. It has held together through that sordid history for more than 2,000 years and has attempted to be teachable and repentant along the way. The Second Vatican Council, which addressed issues between the church and the modern world, certainly reflects its ability to learn and grow.

The Catholic Church, with its glaring failures, reminds us there is hope for us. For each of us is not unlike the collective church. We too have sinned and fallen short. To try, and fail, and pick ourselves back up again, to journey in the way of faith, is hard enough on one’s own. Multiply that by a global congregation of over a billion members and one can’t help but admire the long-suffering and resilience of the collective.

Many people look to an imperfect church to be their perfect savior. But the Catholic Church was never established to save us. The church was established to point us to the one and only Savior.

Catholics will be the first to acknowledge their church is made up of imperfect people. (And let’s be clear—the leadership of the Catholic Church is made up of imperfect, predominantly white European men.) Many Catholics would like to see the church grow and change at the rate of its individual members. But, of course, the growth of the collective whole takes longer than its individual parts.

And so we wait and we hold onto hope that continued growth and change is still possible for the church.

And then there’s the election of a new pope—just eight years after the last election. And so many of us look to Pope Francis with hope.

I had to leave home during the height of the anticipation surrounding the conclave. I was giving a contemplative retreat when I heard the news: an Argentine Jesuit elected pope. Amazing. Unprecedented.

History in the making. It’s been more than 600 years since a pope resigned, 1,300 years since a non-European pontiff was chosen; and never before has a Jesuit been elected.

As a member of the order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit), Jorge Mario Bergoglio represents a spirituality committed to contemplation and action in the world. And he represents a theology that acknowledges the salvific grace of impoverished persons. Many of the most renowned liberation theologians are Jesuits—and the Jesuit liberation theologians of Latin America have been a particularly challenging witness to church leadership.

And then he does the unimaginable. A member of the order founded by Ignatius of Loyola, he takes the name “Francis,” after Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order. In this choice, the pope embraces the prophetic spirituality of his namesake.

St. Francis willingly rejected wealth and status and chose a simple life deeply devoted to people of poverty. Pope Francis reflects similar commitments—refusing many of the luxuries and privileges ascribed to his standing in the church as archbishop and cardinal and now pope.

St. Francis was committed to interfaith dialogue long before there was an accepted consciousness for such a thing. At a time when the leader of Muslims and the leader of Christians were at war with one another, Francis risked his life to befriend the Sultan. The new pope has demonstrated a similar commitment to respect and to befriending people of other faiths—a necessity in today’s pluralistic world.

St. Francis was called to rebuild the church of his day—to cleanse it of the corruptions that had infected it. And the new pope is now in the most powerful position from which to do so today.

And so this Jesuit pope named Francis reminds us of our need for the so-called “other”—the poor one, and the one whose perspective on God and faith is different from ours. And in him we hope for continued church reform.

Will that anticipated reform meet all of our expectations? Certainly not.

Some will grow weary waiting on the government of the Catholic Church to progress in matters of social concern (while others will hope the church holds firm)—matters like ordination for women, marriage for the priesthood, birth control and gay marriage.

And others will lose hope that their church can be a church for them.

But we can take heart the Catholic Church has proven to progress during the course of history, on matters like freedom of thought, science and interfaith dialogue—albeit, too little too late for some.

And so, while many of us are heartened by the simple, humble new pope, others of us are struggling to hold onto hope.

May this historic event be a reminder that while we can look to individuals and institutions to be a source of hope for us and our world, individuals and institutions will always fail us to some degree.

But we do not have to lose heart because there is a God who never fails us, who is in the business of redeeming, reconciling and healing the world.

And so, we hope.

Written by Phileena Heuertz

Posted on Q Ideas website

So wrote blogger Susannah Breslin recently. Sadly, the sentiment is not hers only. In fact, too many Christians fail to recognize the importance of thinking. We live in a time when people are more concerned about images than words, when feelings are more important than knowledge. Today, subjective “reality” trumps objective truth. As Christians we need to consciously work at loving God with the whole of our being, and that includes our minds.

In Luke 10:27 Christ summarized the law and the prophets: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Love God and love your neighbor, Jesus says. But how are we to love God? Not only in the spiritual dimension, i.e. the soul. We are to love Him comprehensively: with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. 

The importance of the mind in the  New Testament is expressed in two ways. First, there are 40 distinct words employed for the mind, intellect, and reason. Second, these words are used over  1,500 times  An example of the importance of the mind in the Christian faith can be found in Romans 12:1-3 where we read Paul calling us to break with the world’s values and lifestyles, by being transformed “through the renewal of the mind.” These three verses use seven  of the forty New Testament words for “the mind.”

• “… offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual [logikos: reasonable, rational] act of worship [service].”
• “… be transformed by the renewing of your mind [nous: the intellect, i.e., the mind].”
• “Then you will be able to test and approve [dokimazo: to test, approve, examine, discern, prove] what God’s will is…”
• “… do not think [huperphurneo: to esteem oneself over much] of yourself …”
• “… more highly than you ought but rather think [phroneo: to exercise the mind] of yourself…”
• “… with sober judgment [sophroneo: to be of sound mind] …”
• “… in accordance with the measure of faith [pistis: evidence, moral conviction] God has given you.”

In his book Fundamentalism and the Word of God, Bible scholar J.I Packer wrote:

The Evangelical is not afraid of facts … nor is he afraid of thinking, for he knows that all truth is God’s truth, and right reason cannot endanger sound faith … When confronted by those who … take exception to Christianity, he must … out-think them.

 Similarly, the great theologian J. Gresham Machen said:

It is a great mistake … to suppose that we who are called ‘conservatives’ hold desperately to certain beliefs merely because they are old, and are opposed to the discovery of new Facts. On the contrary … we welcome new discoveries with all our hearts … We are seeking … to arouse youth from its present uncritical repetition … into some genuine examination of the basis of life; and we believe that Christianity flourishes not in the darkness, but in the light.

In doing the research for my first book, Discipling Nations, I found a very helpful article on worldview and the Christian mind by Dr. Thomas Bloomer. Dr. Bloomer is a teacher, trainer, historian, and the International Provost of YWAM’s University of the Nations.The article, A Biblical Worldview, was part of his research into the Greek and Hebrew worldviews. In the article, Bloomer writes:

If the battle for the minds of their followers was the most difficult part of the ministries of both the Apostle Paul and Jesus … if the definition and meaning of the Gospel itself is bound up in the question, it is possible that the entire New Testament can be read as a history and manual of worldview transformation. 

To read Bloomer’s entire, thoughtful essay go here.

- Darrow Miller

To be clear, Matt wasn’t bagging church, but he carried a desire to see his faith expressed in a meaningful way in the world in which he lived. Many Christians like Matt faithfully attend church each week, but are left with the feeling that only those who work within the church or on the mission field are serving the purposes of God. The rest are like bystanders whose role is to support and finance the work of the church and its outreaches. One of the primary reasons for this is that many Christians perceive the local church to be the Kingdom of God. In their minds, the Kingdom advances only through what the local church does.

Here’s a story that illustrates this very clearly. A young lawyer named Sarah was asked by a friend what her ministry was. Drawing on all of the teaching she had heard over years of attending church, Sarah answered “I teach Sunday School on Sunday mornings”. What a travesty! In her mind, nothing she did during the week in terms of her passion for justice, compassion and equity within her world counted.

Here is what she should have said. “God has given me a passion for justice and I have the opportunity to express this every day in the work I do as a lawyer. I am so grateful for this avenue to express my faith and God’s call on my life. Oh, by the way, I also help out on Sunday at my local church as a volunteer in teaching Sunday School.”

To be able to respond like this, Sarah needs to see what the Kingdom really is. She needs to realise that being called to work as a lawyer is of equal value to being called to work in the church. Her work isn’t secular, it’s sacred.

So this book is written for Matt and Sarah. How can we help them realign their thinking so that what they do every day becomes a meaningful expression of God’s purpose for their lives? The key to this change of thinking is a rediscovery of the Kingdom of God. This isn’t a new message – it is the kingdom of God that lies at the heart of the teaching, life and action of Jesus and it is the kingdom that pervades his parables, miracles and passion. Jesus said the purpose He was sent to earth was to preach the Kingdom (Luke 4:42-44). Perhaps the most compelling point is that Jesus spent the last 40 days with His disciples speaking on one theme – the Kingdom of God. (Acts 1:1-3)

If the Kingdom of God is the main message of Jesus, why is it we hear so little about the Kingdom in our churches? There are several reasons. Many evangelicals see the Kingdom message as part of a social gospel and have dismissed its relevance. Others have put the Kingdom off to the future, believing it will come when Jesus returns. Still others, as we have noted, believe the local church is the place where the Kingdom is expressed, so they focus on building the church, not the Kingdom. Jesus said ‘Seek first the Kingdom’ and ‘I will build the church’. We’ve done the opposite – putting the Kingdom off to the future and focusing on building our local churches – and no wonder why we’re confused about the Kingdom. E. Stanley Jones, the missionary statesman, puts it succinctly: “If Jesus made the kingdom of God the centre of his message and the centre of his endeavor, the greatest need of man, as I see it, is to rediscover the kingdom of God.” 1

While we are primarily seeking to inspire Matt and Sarah to be agents for the Kingdom, there will be much in this book to encourage local church leaders to look beyond the vision they have for their congregations. Local churches should demonstrate a Kingdom focus in their role within their local community. It is the role of the leader to facilitate and develop this vision. However, it’s equally true that much Kingdom activity will take place outside of these local church initiatives. Once a church leader sees the Kingdom, they will realise the incredible opportunity and responsibility they have as leaders to encourage their people to be agents of the Kingdom in every sphere of society. While called to lead and develop the ministry of their local churches, the local church leader will at the same time recognize that people in their congregations will influence people and spheres the local church could never reach.

Rather than unsettle a church leader, this should inspire them to realise that even if they have a small church, the influence of a community of believers could be profound. What an exciting prospect! Their challenge will be how to balance their enthusiasm to develop the vision for their local church with the recognition that the Kingdom is expressed and advancing in spheres outside of what the local church is doing. A Kingdom leader will encourage their people to pursue these expressions of being about the Father’s business.

So let’s begin our journey to rediscover the Kingdom. Our main purpose is to enthuse Christians to transform their world. So our approach will be simple, hopefully practical – not heavily theological. There are many excellent resources on the Kingdom that form the backdrop to this study and we will make the reader aware of some of these for their own study. But we will judge the success of this book by the way we are able to inspire men and women to be effective stewards of their gifts and calling in the many and various spheres within which God has planted them.

While driving down Nyezalyezhnastsi Boulevard to the international airport in Minsk, Belarus, we encountered a feast for the eyes, the just-completed National Library of Belarus.

An intriguing statue stood near the front of the beautiful building. A larger-than-life man from another era held a book high above his head. A man with a book is, of course, a very appropriate symbol for a library. But the contrast between the modern architecture and the statue was striking.

When I asked my Belarusian friends who was depicted by the statue, they told me it was Francis Skaryna (1490-1551) and the book in his hands was the Bible! They said that Skaryna, a contemporary of Martin Luther, was a Reformer who is regarded as the Father of Belarus.

I was shocked. The man who created a flourishing Belarus by means of the Bible has been honored by one of the last Stalinist dictatorships in the world. This radical atheistic government, trying to create a nation out of tyranny, recognized Skaryna for the contribution he made to the nation with the Bible!

I see a parallel situation in the United States. We recognize the founders of our nation. Yet we fail to realize that it was their ideas, the concepts they brought to these shores, that laid the foundation of one of the greatest nations the world has ever known.

Francis Skaryna was the first Belarusian book printer. His initial impression was the Psalter in 1517. Thus, the first Bible portion for the Russian-speaking world was published the same year Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the chapel door in Wittenberg. Skaryna followed with a 22-volume set of the Old and New Testaments in 1517-1519.

Skaryna was born into a wealthy merchant family in the historical Belarusian city of Polatsk. Like many of his day, young Francis was home schooled.  His reading primer was the Psalter. He likely learned Latin at the Catholic school. Skaryna graduated from the arts faculty at the University of Kraków in 1504 and was awarded his doctorate degree in medicine in 1512 from the University of Padua in Italy.

From 1517, Skaryna lived in Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. It was in Prague that Czech reformer Jan Hus (c. 1369-1415) planted the seeds of the Reformation. His followers, the Hussites, understood that the Bible was to shape public opinion and to nurture all areas of life.

With other Reformers of his generation Skaryna translated the word of God into the heart language of the people.  In doing so, he laid the groundwork for today’s Belarusian language.

In my mind’s eye I can still see Skaryna’s statue in front of the modern National Library. And I think about the disconnect pictured there. On the one hand are the man, his book, and the ideas that caused Belarus to thrive. On the other, the men and ideas that are shaping a tyrannical society today. They are blind to what is right in front of them. I am reminded of the Psalmists words:

Today’s leaders of Belarus are like the idols the Psalmist wrote about. They have eyes but do not see the truth, they have ears but do not listen.

And what about our own nation? We are a citizenship who no longer recognizes the root of the tree of liberty.

John Milton, arguably the best seventeenth-century English author, whose works include the epic poem Paradise Lost, spoke of the vision of education:

The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.

The Puritan founders of Harvard and Yale would have understood this. But how many of today’s educators would describe the purpose of education similarly? Thousands upon thousands of faculty and students walk by emblems like the one at Yale below without seeing what there is to be seen.

The Founders of Yale and Harvard, for example, were committed to understanding Veritas – Truth. They understood that truth was found at the intersection of God’s revelation through Creation, Reason, and the Word of God.

Molecular biologist, Dr. Georgia Purdom, has written a thought-provoking article on what happened at Harvard, i.e. the change in the vision of the university and the symbols that represented the original vision .

If you have interest in the role the Bible played in creating the world which we now inhabit, read Vishal Mangalwadi’s, The Book That Made Your World.

by Darrow Miller 

People often ask, “What’s it like working with your spouse?” My usual response is that working with my husband is easy; it’s living with my business partner that’s hard.

We started out as independent of one another as any two married people can be. José was, and still is, a designer—100% creative. Combine that with his ‘Latin-ness’ and you have someone who, as he jokingly says, ‘lives from his heart.’ As much as he lives from his heart, I live from my mind—a true and complete linear thinker. Never would either of us have thought our professional lives would end up so intertwined—running a business together, a non-profit together, and of course, a family together.

How does the merging of our lives in so many ways affect the individual plans and dreams we had/have for our lives? We started out like all couples with grand dreams for the future. Each of our respective careers took off, with José eventually starting a design firm and me following my investment-banking path to Wall Street. All the while we were each becoming more engrossed in our work, and less in our marriage. Thankfully, circumstances changed, José’s firm grew and we wanted children, so I left the Street to work with José, and things have never been the same.

I thought I was most ‘myself’ working in investment banking; it turns out I’m most myself in partnership with my husband. When there is more work to do than time allows, and one of us has to put in extra hours, there’s no animosity; we both know exactly what has to be done in a specific time-frame, and we have grace with each other getting it all done. Conversely, when there isn’t enough work and we are concerned for our economic wellbeing, we’re in it together, submitting our plans to God and trusting Him to provide for us. Or when household tasks fall to the wayside, there is no blame placed, just mutual pitching in to get it all done.

There is also increased opportunity for rescue. Recently, when the Atlanta rains caused a portion of a ceiling in our house to fall in and our daughter came down with H1N1, only to be followed by our son having the same illness the following week, I was at the end of myself. I had not been to work in two weeks, and was not enjoying caring for my family when it seemed work ‘needed me.’ My husband, sensing my stress and fear, stepped up to the plate. He went back to work that evening and stayed until 4 a.m., giving us a jump on projects that helped ease my fears and allow me to focus on caring for our son. He was a modern day rescuer in my hectic world, and I was thankful for a husband that cared about his family and wanted his wife to be able to focus on her child, and I was thankful for a business partner that cared enough about our work to do what it took to get it all done.

This story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the importance of prayer in our life together. Because we go to work together, we are able to sit in our office each morning and submit the day to God—for efficient and creative solutions to our projects, but more important, that He would be glorified in our relationships with our employees, clients and vendors. We rarely prayed together about work when we did not work together; now it is an integral part of our day.

We are no longer on two separate tracks—we are on one together, where every decision is made together, with an eye toward our future and God’s plan for us and our family. Only now are we seeing the beauty of a ‘greater collective dream.’

by Jose and Nikolle Reyes

Posted on QIdeas

How many of us feel our careers are devalued or misunderstood? How many see our jobs as secondary to mission and struggle to have a vision for how Jesus can use us in our sphere of influence?

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.

by David Stroud

Posted on Everything

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Is this true? Is this Darwinian approach to competition the only rational solution by which entrepreneurs can be successful and transformational change can occur? Could there be another way?

Social Entrepreneurship Defined
In Stanford’s Innovation Review, dated 2007, the authors say that “Social entrepreneurship signals the imperative to drive social change, and it is that potential payoff, with its lasting, transformational benefit to society, that sets the field and its practitioners apart.”

So, if this historical approach to entrepreneurial competition is the only way to success how do you explain the following leaders of social entrepreneurship?

Take Scott Harrison, for example, who is the social entrepreneur who began Charity Water and is arguably one of the most effective leaders for social entrepreneurship in the world. Using his background in marketing and design, Scott transformed the way we visualize and understand providing clean water. With over 6,000 water projects serving nearly 2.5 million people through partnerships and collaboration with 20 countries and over 25 local partners. Blake Mycoskie started a little shoe company we affectionately refer to as Tom’s. He built the concept of “one for one” and made it the go-to model for social entrepreneurs around the globe giving away over one million pairs of shoes and partnering with key NGOs and charities already established and working in these countries. Tyler Merrick, former dog food executive, started a company called Project 7 that uses products that are sold in Walmart, airport stores, coffee shops, and more to provide revenue to solve 7 major areas of need across the globe. Each one of these social innovators is finding success by working to bring together the necessary parties to ensure a greater level of success.

Meighan Stone recently wrote an article for the Huffington Post titled “Collaboration is the New Competition” and the premise of the article came from the idea that by working together we can create the best possible solutions. Maybe that doesn’t mean we start our own venture or we create a venture that leverages the people, tools, and resources around us. What if we were to join forces for the purpose of the “social good”? What all could we accomplish if we pooled our efforts for the greater good?

Harry S. Truman was once quoted as saying “there is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.” This is a complete paradigm shift in thinking. What Stone talks about in her article on collaboration is that young entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs understand and live out the idea that collaboration is more powerful and effective than competition. She sees social entrepreneurs as innovators who do not view other organizations as competitors but rather as innovators of change.  There are two central things to these groups’ success: an endemic commitment to collaboration and a refusal to accept the small audience theory. The New Guard, as Stone calls it, shares without hesitation knowing that collaborating creates a better model, knowing that they can make a greater difference and contribute to true transformational change.

If these pioneers of innovation and social change are champions of collaboration, maybe there is something to idea of working together to provide even more opportunity.

In a 2011 article in Inc. Magazine titled “How to become a Social Entrepreneur,” the author discusses some key solutions for being successful in social entrepreneurship. Some of the key takeaways include:

•    Know Your Issue
•    Build A Brand
•    Think of It as a Business

People like Blake, Scott, Tyler, and many others have done a great job of doing this. But none of them have done this in a vacuum. They work together and with others to drive that change, to build these organizations, and through collaboration, they make their organizations greater than they could ever have been on their own.

As we think about how we can be effective agents of social entrepreneurship and social good, let us focus on how we can learn from and work with others at the tables around us. The true victor in social entrepreneurship is not just the innovators and founders of these incredible organizations but even more so are those whose lives and well being are made better through the process.

I commend you, my fellow social entrepreneurs, for all of your hard work, for your focus on something bigger than yourselves, and to a cause and legacy that will far out live any immediate change you can enact. Continue to dream big and execute with excellence. Fight the conventional territorial attitude that most visionaries have to “own” or “control,” and create solutions that use the broader worldview of contributing to and participating in social good. Collaborate, innovate, and develop ideas that can truly change the world.

Posted on Q: Ideas for the Common Good

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.

Posted on Everything Conference