12 • resources

THE BapTisT TimEsThursday, November 29, 2007

Why business thinking is not for churches

shaun LamBert

faith matters

THIS IS not my thesis, although I agree with it. It is the thesis of a highly intelligent non-Christian student of the business world called Jim Collins, who has written two best-selling books, Built to Last and Good to Great. One of the interesting facts about Jim Collins is that more than a third of his readers come from the social sectors - charities, churches, schools, hospitals etc. He has written a 35-page monograph about why business thinking is not the answer for them. His initial research was into what turned good companies into great companies. Social sector leaders then contacted him to say that although there was some common ground, they had to deal with realities that were different. His definition of a great organisation, compared to a good one, is that it delivers superior performance consistently over a long period. In the business sector, this is measured in

terms of financial returns to shareholders. For a social sector organisation like a church, performance must be assessed in terms of the mission relative to the resources at your disposal. This is much more difficult to measure,but not impossible. He used the example of the Cleveland Orchestra which set its goal as becoming one of the three best orchestras in the world. One of the measures it introduced was the emotional response of the audience: whether the number of standing ovations increased. Jim Collins argues that not measuring performance in the social sector is simply lack of discipline. All indicators of performance are flawed: what matters is consistent and intelligent measurement. Another key area of difference is in the structure of power. He uses the example of Frances Hesselbein who became chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts in the USA.

She was asked by a New York Times columnist what it felt like to be on top of such a large organisation. Hesselbein rearranged the lunch table into a set of concentric circles radiating outward. She pointed to a glass in the middle of the table and said, ‘I’m here.’ Her organisation had 100s of councils and 650,000 volunteers and she did not have the concentrated executive power so much admired in the business sector. Her comment was that you always have power, if you know where to look. She listed the power of inclusion, the power of language, of shared interests and the power of coalition. Jim Collins goes on to say that social sector leaders are not less decisive than business leaders generally, but that ‘they only appear that way to those who fail to grasp the complex governance and diffuse power structures common to the social sector’. After all you cannot fire volunteers in the same way you can fire employees. Having worked in both sectors I know that the power map in a local church is very different to a power map in a business centre run as part of a multinational bank. Within the Baptist context the leader is very much in the middle of the power map rather than on the top of it. One of the other key differences is that business

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executives can get the wrong people off the bus much more easily. They can also use money to get the right people on the bus. In the social sector it is much more difficult to get the wrong people off the bus, in terms of leaders in the wrong positions. But you still need to focus on getting the right people in the right places. These people are much more critical in getting the mission done, than having lots of money to throw at the problem. He argues that time and talent can compensate for lack of money, but money never compensates for lack of the right people. Business organisations that moved from good to great

Strategy Simply applying business solutions to the social sector does not guarantee results

adopted what Collins calls the hedgehog principle of three intersecting circles. These are: 1) what you are deeply passionate about, 2) what you can be the best in the world at, and 3) what best drives your economic engine. Social sector leaders said that the economic engine for them was not money but resources, time, emotional commitment, hands, hearts and minds – that’s what drove the church or other social organisation forward. People need to believe in the organisation, what Collins calls the brand. It’s clear, for example, that Holy Trinity Brompton has created a successful brand in Alpha.

Lastly he says that in all organisations there is no single defining action or miracle moment that builds a great organisation. It is more like pushing a giant flywheel, building momentum with a succession of small victories. Perhaps the early Baptists as they reflected on scripture in creating their unique shared power map really did hear from God. And perhaps the challenge God set Baptist leaders is what Collins calls the true test of leadership – true leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to. The Revd Shaun Lambert is the minister of Stanmore Baptist Church, Middlesex

prayer focus • open doors Remember Those In Prison

THE SIMPLE act of sending a letter can bring comfort, hope and strength to brothers and sisters who are suffering for their faith. For they know they are not forgotten and are being held in prayer. Maria (Asya Muhammad) is 15. Her father, Ahmad, came to Christ in Beirut and upon returning to Iraq in 2002 shared his faith with his family. In 2003, his wife, one son and Maria were baptised. Maria’s grandfather was enraged and her Muslim uncle, Sayeed, repeatedly tried to kill Ahmad. In 2006 Maria was working in her father’s shop when her uncle, grandfather and cousin arrived. Ahmad was out. Sayeed beat Maria’s mother and cut her face with a knife. He then turned on Maria and her younger brother. Struggling to free herself from Sayeed’s grip, Maria grabbed a kitchen knife and instinctively struck out. Sayeed died instantly. Maria is serving a three year sentence in juvenile detention in Iraq – but her grandparents are demanding her death and the payment of £25,000 blood money. Maria is the only female minor in the prison and often feels lonely. Her mother

and brothers can only visit once a week. But messages from Christians abroad are being translated to her. Abraham Bentar, 55, an evangelist in Indonesia, was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment in 2006 for defaming Islam and Muhammad. He confessed under great pressure, with threats being made against local churches. Recently Abraham was in hospital for over two months. He suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure; he is slowly recovering from a stroke that impaired his right arm. He continues to battle against discouragement and fear. He has lost six teeth as a result of abuse from several unwanted Muslim ‘visitors’ attempting to reconvert him. He shares a cell with four others, but has a daily quiet time and shares fellowship with a few Christian prisoners on Sundays. His wife Waty and daughter live 340 miles away and are very concerned about him. They appreciate receiving letters, and share them with Abraham when they visit him. Hadas (not her real name) lives in Eritrea with her three daughters. Her husband, a pastor, was arrested in 2004

during the government’s clampdown on unregistered evangelical churches. At first Hadas received monthly reports about her husband, but under the increasing persecution, they became infrequent and then stopped. Sometimes Hadas feels overwhelmed by her family’s situation. Then, she says, ‘God reminds me of his promises, and I am encouraged.’ She works as a hairdresser but providing for her family is a constant struggle. Open Doors helps by paying the girls’ school fees. Pastor Rohit Ranjan, recently acquitted of false charges in India, says ‘I remember sitting in the prison, reading every beautiful note, and praying for God to bless the person who had thought of me at a time when I was very low.’ Open Doors is strengthening and supporting persecuted Christians in around 45 countries, providing Bibles, Christian literature, training: standing with those who suffer – practically, spiritually, prayerfully.

n Visit www.opendoorsuk.org/write for guidance of how you can write to encourage fellow Christians.

What’s on

November 30, Kent Making God’s love visible in the Middle East This is an opportunity to hear how SAT-7 uses Christian satellite television to reach out to millions in the Middle East and North Africa. To be held at Crofton Baptist Church in Kent, starting at 7.30pm. For further information please contact SAT-7’s Chippenham office on 01249 765865, or email: respond@sat7trust.org

December 4, Reading and December 5, Essex It takes two A special event to help couples focus on their marriage. Richard Hardy and Katharine Hill take a look at marriage as it really is and discuss the need for cooperation and commitment. The event runs from 7.30pm - 10.00pm and tickets cost £6 per person. To order call: 029 2081 0800 or log-on to www.careforthefamily. org.uk/ittakestwo.

December 13, Waterloo Housing Justice Christmas carol service Featuring the choir of St Angela’s Ursuline School, with contributions from Streetwise Opera as well as the more traditional lessons and carols. The service will begin at 7pm at St John’s Church, Waterloo.

December 15 & 16, Coventry Quinton Park Baptist Church 50 year celebration The celebrations start on Saturday 15 December at 4pm with an afternoon tea and exhibition of life at Quinton Park Baptist Church over the past 50 years. On Sunday 16 December at 10.30am there will be a thanksgiving service with special guests the Revd Neil Hall and the Revd Roger Woodward. For further details please contact the church secretary, Barry Cocks on 02476 503911 or www.quintonparkbaptistchurch.org. uk

poem

Approaching Advent

Weekdays, workdays, wet days, won’t get up days, London’s distracted humanity coils, underground, soldiering on, unthinking worker ants who pack airless carriages crammed with soul-starved news-thirsty nobodies raking the dry leaves of spin from mealy-mouthed mandarins.

As Winter considers her icicles Advent approaches to offer Hope.

A dessicated dreariness hides Hope and Peace, for politicians pontificate pointlessly, while open-mouthed orphans peer with naked eyes, accusing us from expensive plasma screens; while furious fathers kill their young, and wasteful wars drain youth away.

Revisit Advent and light the cease-fire of Peace.

Remember the promise of the Prophets; A new king will come to us: Love made flesh, Love Incarnate, and unconditional. Let Love’s tears raise a Spring of forgiveness from the frozen ashes of Ground Zero. Fire up Love’s iceberg, bring meltdown To Titanic terrorist cells.

Advance Advent, Abut new meaning to old Love.

Love is in,

The talk of the political Right Joy is out, No longer trend-setting hip or cool. Joy is like a forgotten Christmas gift Driven to dishonour in the attic; Like a treasured toy left out in the cold when the fog is thick as coconut milk.

Sip the Gluhwein deep Open up to Joy. Spread Advent’s offerings On London’s seamy streets, Lift the ASBOs from the Hoodies, Drain dry the gutters of silted shame, And show the glory of the Christ Child.

Linda Ang, Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
THE BAPTIST TIMES Thursday, November 29, 2007

Comment • 13

Ministers make waves in chaplaincy

Laurence Dopson looks at the role of a Naval chaplain

NAVAL chaplains are more valued by Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel today than ever before. This was the finding of research for the recent Naval Chaplaincy Review, approved by the Naval Board. The Review calls for more chaplains and for the development of chaplaincy at the sharp end, with chaplains going to sea more regularly. It comes when the Revd Ian McFarlane, minister of Bookham Baptist Church, Surrey and secretary of the Navy, Army and RAF Chaplains Board, reports a ‘surge of interest’ among ministers in joining the service. ‘It’s an interesting and exciting ministry, for the right person,’ says the Revd Roland Wort, 52, the longest serving of the four Baptist chaplains at present in the Royal Navy. The others are the Revd Tudor Botwood, currently with the Royal Marines in the Plymouth area, who was awarded the MBE for his service in HMS Ark Royal in 2003; the Revd Richard Ellingham, chaplaincy leader at the large training establishment, HMS Collingwood, Fareham; and the Revd David Roissetter, based in Portsmouth and working with minor warships. At present some 40 per cent of the 63 naval chaplains are in operational billets (serving at sea, with air squadrons and with the

Royal Marines), but the Review states that increasing operational requirements mean more should serve alongside Naval personnel deployed on operations. Naval chaplains occupy a unique spiritual place in the service. ‘We are the friend and advisor for all,’ says Roland Wort. ‘The chaplain is a critical friend, not part of the hierarchy,’ says the Rev Ian Wheatley, staff chaplain, Chaplain of the Fleet’s office. Chaplains in the Navy are commissioned, but do not have rank - unlike those in the Army and RAF - and the Review reaffirms that this should continue. Traditionally the naval chaplain takes the rank of whoever who he is talking to, so both speak on equal terms. It is a very different role from what a minister would undertake in an ordinary pastorate. ‘As a Baptist minister most of my time would be spent dealing with people in the local church,’ explains Roland Wort. ‘We are very much a gathered community, whereas in armed forces chaplaincy most of my time is spent mixing and mingling with people outside the church – though I do have a role to support and encourage Christians in the Navy. On a ship I am everybody’s chaplain, whether they are church going or not.’

And clearly among chaplains, a Baptist chaplain is in a minority. ‘Being a Baptist does not come into it,’ states Roland Wort. ‘We are a very ecumenical branch. For instance the Chaplain of the Fleet is chosen on merit from any denomination. ‘You are chaplain of the ship, regardless of denomination. We have a commitment to all personnel, regardless of faith, gender or ethnicity. If you are going to make your mark as a chaplain, it is down to your gifts and your skills, and your ability to relate in a down-toearth level with everybody.’ Naval chaplains’ functions aren’t limited only to serving personnel. ‘The chaplains who - like me at the moment - are in a naval base have a pastoral responsibility to naval families,’ Roland Wort points out. ‘We have married quarters but a lot of people in the navy live in their own homes.’ Naval chaplains are also important in training establishments, where the Navy has in loco parentis responsibility for 16- and 17year-olds. The Review sees this as part of the ‘extended front line’ for chaplaincy services. Chaplains join the Navy rather later than other people. After spending time in local church ministry, they often enter chaplaincy in their thirties or even forties. The Review states that prospective chaplains should ideally be under 39, but could potentially join as late as 49. So they can offer experience of life and ministry.

Picture: N avy News

Valued - A chaplain leads a shipboard service. Many of those attending will not be regular churchgoers

One aspect of Service life the chaplain shares with other personnel is travel. Roland Wort has been to the Far East, the South Atlantic and the West Indies; he’s served in the Gulf, the Mediterranean, and with the US Navy for a month on a base in the Indian Ocean – and the list doesn’t end there. Obviously that has implications for family life, but he adds, ‘On a few occasions when I have been on deployment my wife was able to come out and join me half

way through the deployment.’ He also has a very public role on occasions: ‘I was the Free Church chaplain representing the Navy at a Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in the Albert Hall,’ he recalls, and he’s taken a service at a First World War cemetery in Northern France. Following the Naval Chaplaincy Review, full time service will not be the only opportunity for ministers to serve the Navy. The Royal Navy Reserve chaplain’s branch,

disbanded in the 1980s, is being resurrected. It involves a 14-day full-time commitment a year, and possibly weekly visits to a Reserve establishment.

Ministers can enquire in confidence about chaplaincy from: The Revd Ian McFarlane, Secretary, Navy, Army and RAF Chaplaincy Board, Bookham Baptist Church, Surrey, KT23 4DH, email: ianmcfarlane@ bookhambaptist.clara.net.

Serving Christ the healer

HAVING explored last week the first lines of the Hippocratic Oath in regard to the doctor’s relationship with God, I want to go on to consider some of the implications of the Oath for patients. The relevant clauses follow in italics:I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. Few today would deny the relevance of this. Obesity on the one extreme, and anorexia nervosa on the other, involve the doctor in engaging patients in looking after themselves with regard to what and how much they eat. This is all part of keeping them from harm. Injustice is also a frequent cause for consultations with issues ranging from bullying at work to refugees threatened with deportation. Ill health often results from far more than disease. I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favour of such men as are engaged in this work. Though this clause harks back to the differing skills and origins of physicians and barber-surgeons (which is a cause of ongoing rivalry even today), it is an important

reminder to doctors to recognise their limitations. The pace of advance in medicine in both basic research and clinical application is so fast that noone can keep pace with all of it. Recognising one’s limitations and knowing when to refer on are not only important for the safety of the patient but help to prevent stress and burnout in the doctor as well. Whatever house I visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with female and male persons, be they free or slave. Trustworthiness is an indispensable quality in the doctor. Whilst philosophers of medical ethics, such as Professor John Harris in Manchester, may suggest that sexual morality does not exist, it is essential that medical practitioners have clear boundaries in this arena. Patients are in a vulnerable role and, though occasionally one encounters patients who make it known that they want more than professional attention, doctors should keep well clear of sexual involvement with patients. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to

trevor stammers

moral medicine

trustworthiness is an indispensable quality in the doctor

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Sacred - Doctors are required to protect all life

this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. It is this clause of the Hippocratic Oath that has led to many attempts to modify it to be more palatable to our post-modern society, which has already accepted abortion and is repeatedly seeking to legalise euthanasia also. In our culture in which human rights and personal choice have displaced virtually

all concepts of duty and selfsacrifice, we demand instead, the sacrifice of our unborn and infirm. Though the renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead made no Christian profession, she did recognise a core distinctive of the Hippocratic tradition which we jettison at our peril. She wrote of the Oath, ‘For the first time...there was a complete separation between killing and curing. ‘Throughout the primitive

world, the doctor and the sorcerer tended to be the same person. He with power to kill had power to cure, including specially the undoing of his own killing activities... With the Greeks, the distinction was made clear. ‘One profession, the followers of Asclepius, were to be dedicated completely to life under all circumstances, regardless of rank, age, or intellect - the life of a slave, the life of the Emperor, the life

of a foreign man, the life of a defective child... [T]his is a priceless possession which we cannot afford to tarnish, but society always is attempting to make the physician into a killer - to kill the defective child at birth, to leave the sleeping pills beside the bed of the cancer patient... It is the duty of society to protect the physician from such requests.’ The duty of followers of Christ the Healer is surely no less.