Merry Christmas from London!

 Together with Ali I want to wish you an amazing Christmas time. We’re spending Christmas in London this year with our families spread all over the planet, but we thank God for a truly blessed year, and all that we can look forward to in 2008. I pray Gods richest blessings on you too…

Feedback is the food of champions…

Having done an interview during a Sunday Church service with Zimbabwe Cricket legend Henry Olanga, here’s some “feedback” I received anonomously in the week following through our regular Sunday Church service evaluations:

“I was speaking to 3 people on Sunday regarding Henry’s testimony and they really enjoyed it however felt like Wolfi spoke for most of it and didn’t really give Henry a chance to say much and felt it has happened before with Wolfi when he interview’s people.”

and

“Really enjoyed Henry Olanga and enjoyed him singing, but did feel the interviewer was not great and made quite a few mistakes which detracted from the interview.”

 

Here are some of my thoughts on “feedback”:  Once upon a time I was an officer in the South African Navy (1984, a year after I recieved Christ as my Saviour and Lord).  Rank plays a huge role in the military, and you had to mind what you said to those of higher rank than you. This often hindered the real issues to come to the attention of the officers, and therefore hindered their leadership.  There is a military term: “PERMISSION TO SPEAK FREELY, SIR” which anyone of lower rank could request of someone of higher rank, in order to say things which needed to be said, but “off the record.”  Where this was allowed into the culture, it paid huge dividends for morale and efficiency.

Over the past year at EN London we have been on a journey to try to create a new culture of feedback and “healthy conflict” in our church office (We have nearly 30 staff doing all sorts of things).  This included having “Facing-the-brutal-facts-without-loosing-faith”sessions where we gave (and got) a very honest assessment of how we were really doing in all areas of our church and staff life. (Quite an eye-opener for a leader!)

We also had some staff training on what it takes to have a “healthy culture of conflict” in order to work together without all the baggage that usually gets dragged along. The key here was TRUST.  I can only say that all this has helped us (and me personally) hugely, and the feedback I am getting is that its now a much better place to work…and I think we are getting a lot more done…and a lot more effectively.

Back to my interview feedback. Its never easy recieving ”constructive critical” feedback. In this case I though the interview had gone well, but in thinking about it I realised that I have NEVER done anything deliberate to prepare/equip myself to do these kinds of interviews, even though I do them quite often. My response was to do some research on what it takes to do great interviews, and to prepare myself much more. I had interviews lined up for the next two Sundays after that, and I am pleased to say that I received feedback that there has been a significant improvement.

Who gives you feedback?  If you are a leader, have you created a true healthy “culture of conflict” around you, or will you be the last to know that the ship is sinking? Permission to speak freely SIR!

Love Ukraine…

Yesterday a team of 11 people from our London church flew out to Poland, and then took a 5 hour coach trip (+ an extra few hours stuck at the border control!) into Ukraine to Lviv, where they will join up with our Every Nation Church there to take gifts to underprivileged families in the Carpathian Mountains. Over October/November we collected 600 gifts through our congregations in London and these have been shipped out to meet the team in Lviv.

 This is the season for GIVING, and what a privilege its been to pray with my kids that these gifts will bless and show love to some of the poorest kids in Europe. As a church we feel called to “remember the poor in Europe”, and over the next while our eldership is praying to have clear direction of what exactly that means for us practically over the next 5 years.

Thank you to all who contributed to this LOVE UKRAINE trip, and thank you to all who will do so many things around the planet to demonstrate love to those less privileged. Its true what Jesus said: “Its more blessed to give that to recieve”

“Purpose Post” – final

The End…but it’s just the beginning of a new life of purpose…

 

Today, Friday the 7^th, is “officially Day 40” of our purpose adventure at Every Nation London. You may only be on day 20 or somewhere in-between, but whatever you do, I want to encourage you to go all the way until you reach your personal “day 40.”  Evaluate where you are and draw up some sort of realistic schedule to give you a clear plan to complete the readings. Most of our lives are littered with unfinished business, good intentions, broken new years resolutions…and half-read books – don’t let this be another one of those!

 

This final week’s topic is: You are “Made for Mission” – do make sure that you don’t just speed-read through in order to finish the book on schedule. The “points to ponder” in the “made for mission” chapters are worth lingering over:

Day 36: “I was made for mission” (Have I embraced this?)

Day 37: “God wants to say something to the world through me” (Take some time to write down your “life messages”)

Day 38: “The great commission is my commission” (Send me…I am willing to go)

Day 39: “Blessed are the balanced” (Do not misunderstand this statement!)

Day 40…why don’t you go to your book and have a look at it again now?

Once you are finished, keep up the good habit of a daily devotional by setting aside a regular time to:

Ø      Read your Bible (maybe read a chapter a day, starting with the Gospel of John, and then read through the book of Acts.)

Ø      Meditate (Always ask the Application question: How does this apply to my life?)

Ø      Pray (Pray “ACTS” – A for Adoration; C for Confession, T for Thanksgiving, and S for Supplication/requests)

If you have the time, take a look at these two inspiring video clips:

• Man fulfilling his own life-long dream (4 minutes long)  

• Man living for Gods dream (6 minutes long).

Both of them get massive applause from the crowd, but which one will get applause/reward in heaven?  As inspiring as the Paul Potts story is, there is a greater applause to live for. I hope that these 40 days have helped you decide which you want to live for.

 Pursue Gods purpose – there’s no better way to live!  

My Springbok Rugby outing

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with a group of the Springbok rugby players for a Bible study/encouragement time here in London before their end-of-season game against the “Barbarians” side at the famous Twickenham stadium this afternoon.  These guys are obviously legends as the recent World Cup winners, but in their private lives they are just great guys who face the same challenges as you and I do, and who as Christians want to make as big a difference as they can.   We talked about the Spiderman quote that “with great power comes great responsibility“, and concluded that what God wants from us is first of all to “be” our unique selves growing in Christ-likeness (and not try to be like someone else or like others expect us to be) , and second of all to “be ready” to take opportunities which come our way. 

Officially I want to make my allegiance clear: I am an England supporter, and I also support any Christian player playing for any other team!  So go Christian Bokke! (but take good care of the Cup because the Sweet Chariot is just in for a major service and will be looking to bring it back home next time…!)

But seriously: My huge respect to those seriously talented but humble Christian men on the Springbok team who are trying their best with Christs help to be positive role models in a world where they are desperately neede… RESPECT>