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People and Jesus-Keith Morgan, A Chesterfield Councillor (August 2002 edition of the Church Magazine)
We live in a secular world, full of materialism and losing contact with each other and our community. Individuals seek comfort in many forms; the worst possibly being drugs, the best is probably personal achievement and there are many others along that continuum. They all have in common a self direction which often excludes others. Service is forgotten-it is often seen as weakness. As a Christian, I believe that we cannot exclude others. Others are part of the complex world in which we live and they too, have their story. The ultimate in service, of course, is sacrifice and in this Jesus is supreme. Few humans can even walk in that shadow. But that does not mean that we don't under-stand what it is and therefore my humble service to children and the community is, I suppose, my way of giving back the generosity shown to me by God exemplified in a wonderful family, a fulfilled life, and a belief that it will not end with death. Keith Morgan People and Jesus-Alan Sheldon, Trade Unionist (October 2002 edition of the Church Magazine) How does my faith relate to my job? How do I show the love of Jesus to the folk I come into daily contact with? Do I portray the characteristics of Christ?
The print unions were very powerful (pre Wapping and Mrs Thatcher) but in the current industrial climate have had to be less confrontational and adopt a more reasoned and co-operative approach, a working partnership that benefits both the workers and the company. I personally see this as a good thing. We all know what "absolute power" does! I try to be fair and examine both sides of any differences, which can lead to me getting "flak" from both sides and feeling like the "piggy in the middle", but if good sense, justice and "mercy", to use a biblical word, come out of it I am happy. Blessed are the peacemakers they say; though my own peace is often none existent. I know I sometimes let God down, maybe an unkind or irreverent comment, loss of temper or just too busy or tired to care, and for that I need forgiveness. But on the whole I hope I show some qualities of the Lord in my workplace, and usually with a touch of humour... most important in our more unsmiling world. When I manage to help an individual in a personal or quiet way (perhaps a disciplinary appeal or a special need for an extension of sick pay provision), and they say thank you it all becomes worthwhile. Even with the many that don't say thank you, if I know I've done the best for the greatest number, I can be satisfied with that. My work is challenging and at times very stressful, and I need and receive love and support from those who share my faith at home and at church. We can all help to carry each other's burdens, which is what Jesus wants us to do. On my motor bike number plate I have a slogan that reads "What on Earth are you doing for Heaven's Sake?" Thank God that He never changes, as our turbulent times seem constantly and increasingly to do. Going back to my three questions at the beginning, I think I've answered the first two. You'd need to ask the folk at work about the last one! Alan Sheldon People and Jesus-Sue Wheeler, Midwife (December 2002 edition of the Church Magazine)
As a midwife I come into contact with people from all walks of life at a very exciting but equally vulnerable time of life. I believe that everyone has good in them and that they deserve respect, patience, kindness and acceptance just as Jesus gives us. These principles help me to care for people, particularly in difficult circumstances such as situations involving domestic violence or child abuse. Do I portray the Characteristics of Christ? I think that that is for some one else to judge. What I constantly have to remind myself is not to strive for the characteristics of Christ but to strive for Christ Himself. People and Jesus-Rosie Welch, GP (February 2003 edition of the Church Magazine) The phrase "what would Jesus do?" (WWJD) springs to mind as I think about how my faith affects my work, and I guess it applies to all of us, whatever our situation.
It is 15 years since I was a GP registrar, and many things have changed, often leading to improvements. But, like many professions, there are many pressures, demands and administrative hoops to jump through, which cause considerable stress. I'm not the best person at change, let alone continual change. As a GP, you also have a lot of different roles and "hats to wear"; doctor, team member, partner, health promoter, employer, self-employed small businessman, gatekeeper, buck stopper, advocate, diplomat! each with its own demands. I am fortunate that some of my colleagues are Christian, so I have extra support. We are all answerable professionally for our actions, but I find it helps to remember that above that we are called by and answerable to God. My service to God underpins the focus of my work, hopefully keeping in perspective my priorities of good care and service. By keeping Jesus and his radical attitude to people in my heart, I hope to show His love in how I do my job. People and Jesus-Anneke Godfrey (June 2003 edition of the Church Magazine)
It took a while to settle, but eventually I made friends at St Thomas' and I have found that my religion is no longer routine to me. I remember reading Bible stories as a child in the same way as I would read a fairy story. I don't know when it was exactly, but I came to realise that the Bible is not a fairy story but a real, live story. Reading my Bible is something I do now with the help of "Daily Bread" - the Bible reading notes. I have to say that without the help and structure that these notes give me I would struggle (don't we all?) but as it is I can sit and reflect on the day, read my Bible and thank God for all the good things He provides. Of course it is important as you get older to carry on and to meet people, and my friends at St Thomas' are very special and caring. It is 9 also necessary to be needed - if you are on your own it is very sad not to be needed, and whilst I can still be of help then I will do what I can. For me, when I come to Church I like to thank God for his goodness, and for forgiveness for all that is wrong. Whilst I know there are many things wrong in the world, and there are many needs that we can bring to God, he knows about them already, but we must never forget to say "Thank You" for so many blessings." People and Jesus-Claire Simmons, Student (August 2003 edition of the Church Magazine)
I went along to our college Christian Union and discovered it wasn't particularly big (although the whole university CU is massive). But over the first few weeks I noticed that the people who went were really serious about being Christians and attempted to live transparent Christ-like lives in a world where everyone is watching. It was in those first few weeks of my time at Durham that I made a conscious decision to live as a Christian and not be half hearted about it. Our college CU has grown enormously over the past three years and sharing fellowship, being part of bible study groups and encouraging each other to share our 12 faith with friends has been a privilege. In my college the Christian Union is seen as part of college in the same way as any other society and we are very fortunate to be in that position. Throughout my time in Durham I've done lots of stuff with the main CU and now I'm working as the Evangelism Secretary on the exec. The CU has a very large membership so coordinating it is no small task. The things I've been involved in most recently were organising an Explore course, (a little like Alpha), following our mission and a new project called Hot Potato's which are fortnightly evangelistic lunch bars. Currently we're working on a programme for Freshers' Week including a jazz cafe in the student Union and a rather ambitious evangelistic CD project. We aim to be able to produce 3500 CD's, enough to give one away to each of the Freshers' arriving in Durham in October. The CD is already recorded all we need to go ahead is £2200. We hope giving away CD's will be a culturally relevant means of spreading the gospel in Durham. For now though, I'm back at home in Matlock for the summer, working at Nat. West, doing holiday club and most excitingly I'm going back packing in Europe for a month with my best mate! People and Jesus-Heather Johnson, Company Director (October 2003 edition of the Church Magazine)
Although I was happily married with two children, I began to worry about what would happen if someone close to me died. How would I cope? I had watched some friends go through the devastating experience of losing their son and came to the awful realisation that life is fragile and no-one knows when tragedy is going to strike. I had no contact with church and neither of the children had been baptised - a conscious decision - it would have felt hypocritical to make promises on behalf of the children if I did not believe or intend to keep them. I decided not to wait until a tragedy happened and began to seek out what God and church were all about. With the help of a friend I arranged to go with my husband and children to the next Family Service at St Thomas'. On the Friday before that Family Service, my husband came home absolutely devastated. He had been made redundant after 22 years loyal service. It was like a death to him. He was totally crushed. It was painful to see him lose every ounce of confidence and self esteem. Arriving at St Thomas' was the first ray of light and warmth we had experienced during that dark, sombre weekend. We were made so welcome and then the whole talk given by Robin Dawson was about redundancy - the devastation of it and how prayer could help. Amazing! But then the love of God truly is amazing. I knew then that God had meant for us to be there; that he had reached out to us in our hour of need and planned to set us on the right path of our spiritual journey in coming to know Him and Jesus. Since that time we have felt God's presence in almost everything that we do. He was there when we set up the business two months later and we looked to him for help, strength and guidance every step of the way. For all small businesses it is a struggle to keep up with the demands of ever-changing legislation, particularly Health and Safety issues and Employment Law. It can be very stressful, demanding, time consuming and a huge amount of energy is needed just to get through the day. I firmly believe in the power of prayer and speak to God regularly for help and guidance over difficult situations - and there have been many! God has helped us come through them and continues to do so but I never become complacent and thank God for everything he has done for us. Although Philip's faith is not as strong as mine, I am proud of the way he deals with clients and employees. We are united in our belief that you should treat people the way you would like to be treated and the way Jesus would treat people. We both try to be respectful, honest, sympathetic, understanding and helpful. As Jesus said in Matthew 25: 31-46 "Whatever you do for your brother, you do for me." On the administration side I am very blessed in that we have 4 Christians working in the office. I am grateful for their honesty, reliability, efficiency and professionalism. It is a huge bonus that we can share our faith and support each other. Another employee, although not a Christian, displays so many qualities that we all admire - caring, hard-working, totally selfless, shows not a trace of envy and we rely on her greatly to help us keep ticking over. On the construction side we have had a fair number of employees come and go over the years. Hopefully as I have grown in faith my understanding of how to treat people fairly has grown too. I am very proud of our workforce and am delighted when we receive compliments about their workmanship and, equally important, their attitude - helpful, cheery, polite, respectful are often listed. I really hope that somewhere along the line Philip and I have helped to contribute a little something positive to how they feel about their work, and their dealings with clients and the general public. It is important that we show our appreciation of all our employees. We strive to create a happy working environment. Sadly we do not always achieve this - there are times when an employee is not happy or has a grievance or wants a change. I hate losing any of them, but I know that for some it is right that they move on. I only hope that whenever it happens we can part on good terms. We never know when we might need each other again in the future. Do I portray the characteristics of Jesus? I think I possibly show more tolerance, patience and understanding to the workforce than I show to my own poor family. Although I try my hardest to be fair at all times, I possibly still fail. I am continually asking God for forgiveness. But what I know in my heart and what God knows, because we can hide nothing from Him, is that I genuinely do care about and love all those around me. People and Jesus-Julie Barton, Head Teacher (April 2004 edition of the Church Magazine) For the last four years I have been privileged to be the head teacher at Matlock Bath Holy Trinity Church of England (Voluntary Controlled) Primary School. It is a small school with sixty pupils, ranging in age from five to eleven years and is located behind Holy Trinity Church, visible from the main A6 road through Matlock Bath.
Thank goodness for John Currin, the vicar, who helped me to negotiate a path through the controversy. We now have the quotation without "self control" as this was deemed to be against freedom of expression. Over the years I have tried to act in a Christian way to the children, their families, the staff and the governors, usually without overtly referring to Jesus but by praying for wisdom and the ability to always see how others may feel. Mine has not been an office based headship: I have taught the children for most of the week and I have sought to involve myself in church, community and family events. In return I have received the trust and care of a non Christian community. Many of the children, families, staff and governors have, over time, implicitly subscribed to the Christian ethos, which has been a joy to me. I absolutely know that God was looking after me when He gave me this school to nurture; He has supported me and enabled me to succeed in an environment where I have been cared for and I have been able to care for and help others: children, staff, governors and families "in Jesus name." I feel most humbled by that knowledge. When we are working through changes in our lives, especially when change is imposed, it isn't always clear where our Father God is in that process. It is often only with hindsight that we know that Jesus walks with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing. My current prayer is that Holy Trinity School will continue to grow in God's love and care as I leave and that I will be able to share 'The Love of God' in my new post, in a different community at John Hadfield House, where I take up a post as a Literacy Consultant after Easter. People and Jesus-Phil Michell, Driving Instructor (June 2004 edition of the Church Magazine)
One to one evangelism is out of the question - people are paying me good money to teach them to drive, the last thing they will want is me using up valuable lesson time telling them about Jesus. After all, they can come to church and hear about Jesus for free! I suppose I could put the times of services on the back of my business cards - but they might think that was a bit odd. How I conduct myself might be a way of witnessing to God's love. If I'm always patient, kind, gentle, self controlled and humble in my teaching, then I am showing part of the fruit of the Spirit. I do try to show those characteristics - but I sometimes fail - particularly when my patience is tested to the extreme. Anyway, I'm sure many other instructors show the same qualities without claiming to be a Christian. Do I pray for my pupils? I do sometimes - particularly on test day. There may also be other things going on in their lives which I can pray for. When you spend a lot of time in a car together, relationships are formed and all sorts of things can come up in conversation. I can also tell if something is wrong by how someone is driving. If their driving is out of character there is often something or someone who is troubling them. If they want it, I offer a listening ear so they can get it off their chest and I then try to remember to pray for them over the coming days. People have shared about an illness in the family, the suicide of a close friend and work problems. Most of my pupils know I go to church and if something is really troubling them, I'll offer to pray for them when I get home. Most people are happy for me to do so. God definitely gives me strength to do my job and I've often prayed mid-lesson that he will give me wisdom to tackle a certain situation. I get the occasional opportunity to share, but not very many. Hopefully people will take me as they find me and if they see something of God's love in the way I speak and act - then I'm happy with that! |
