Description
In This Issue… John Lovatt sets the scene by assuring us that everything we do, even our failures, God will one day make whole and complete. For readers overcome by the messiness of business, be encouraged by ‘The technician’s prayer’ at the end of the article. This is followed by Ian Randall’s review of one of the 20th Century’s most successful Christian businessmen and philanthropists, Sir John Laing, who lived out John’s ‘Whatever you do…’
There’s much practical advice. Phil Hanson and Terry Young suggest business excellence needs not only the ‘pace’ of the immediate and the ‘space’ of strategic thinking but also the ‘grace’ that turns a great business into a kingdom business. Marjory Mair reviews Fiona Brennan-Scott’s Breathtaking Communication, which gives us tools and techniques for speaking with clarity, conciseness and conviction. Richard Higginson interviews Fiona, who unpicks the ‘waterline’ in audience-impacting communication: it’s relaxation, connection and resonance, all of which rely on breath control. In a message to preachers as well as business leaders, Fiona takes Jesus as our model: treat your hearers as equals – and love them wholeheartedly.
Ben Nicka’s article encourages us to do business within a Moral Ecology that is deeper, more objective and more real than either Shareholder or Stakeholder theories. Photos of Milton Friedman, Kenneth Goodpaster, Oliver O’Donovan and Pope John Paul II take us to the people who have shaped the concepts and frameworks that underlie our thinking about the purpose of business. Richard Higginson then looks back over nearly three years of Faith in Business prayer letters and gives us five snapshots of contemporary needs, from Covid to the present, that prompted God-centred prayer.
From local we go global, first to learn from Richard Smart about grass-roots business in rural Uganda. Is it sustainable? What are the issues that prevent or achieve success? Richard sets the scene; a future FiBQ article will tell the results. Jerry Marshall reviews Ram Gidoomal’s My Silk Road, subtitled The Adventures and Struggles of a British Asian Refugee. Not just a successful businessman overcoming the odds, Ram is a Christian who has discovered ‘riches of greater worth’ than any business can offer.Bridging the continents between Africa and the UK, Steph Walker encourages Christian businesses to support specifically Christian charities in the UK and worldwide, which do the same work as much larger secular charities, but with a kingdom perspective.
Finally, Peter Heslam urges us not to begin the week on a Monday. Start from the true sabbath, not merely by resting from work, but by working from rest.
The Editors
