| | By Mick James
A friend of mine was
once invited round to
watch the Wimbledon
final on TV by a girl
he’d just started
dating. Not a tennis
fan, he nodded off
halfway through, and was
woken to be told he’d
missed a triumph by
Agassi.
“I can’t stand
Agassi,” he declared.
“He’s a born again
Christian, and in my
experience they’re
either fools or
charlatans.”
“Actually, I’m a
born-again Christian,”
was her reply. He told
us all this story later
in the pub, and after
the laughter had
subsided, a quiet voice
said: “Actually I know
how she felt. You see,
I’m a born-again
Christian as well.” A
few days later, I
received a terse message
on my answering machine:
“Gaffe cubed.”
But I couldn’t help
feeling some sympathy
for him. After all,
shouldn’t it be obvious
from everything a person
does if they adhere to a
powerful faith like
Christianity? In fact
you can know – and
particularly work with –
someone for years and
not know their
religion.
It’s an issue that
has been exercising a
lot of Christians in the | |
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| | business world, who are
uncomfortable with the
idea that the practice
of religion should
somehow stop on Sunday
evening and not carry on
into the workplace. A
recent conference at
Ridley Hall has now led
to the relaunch of a
Christian consultants
group, which will
examine how Christian
consultants can link
their beliefs to the
practice of their
profession.
The original idea
dates back 10 years to
an earlier conference on
that theme at Ridley
Hall.
“At the end people
said, wouldn’t it be
nice to meet again,”
says Calvert Markham,
who gave the keynote
address at the relaunch.
“But the format of the
meetings tended to be
very ephemeral, dealing
with current issues that
were happening to
individuals at the
time.”
With no knowledge
capture, discussions
tended to periodically
recur, and the efforts
of the group never
reached a wider
audience.
“My concern with that
was if we were to claim
the title “Christians in
Consultancy” we should
have a much bigger
scope,” says Markham.
“When the original model
ran out of steam I was | |
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| | keen, with others, to
relaunch the group with
an enlarged agenda.”
The Christians in
Consultancy group was
relaunched earlier this
year at another
conference at Ridley
Hall, with a three
pronged model of
maturity, ministry and
mission.
“Maturity addresses
the issue of how to
build up a body of
knowledge of how you
live your life as a
consultant,” says
Markham. “It’s not just
a question of ‘thou
shalt’ but of thinking
things through and
making our deliberations
public.”
Ministry addresses
the ways members can
support each other as
consultants who are
Christians, helping with
the daily dilemmas they
will face.
Perhaps the most
interesting aspect of
the model is mission,
which is about
developing a distinctly
Christian viewpoint on
consultancy issues.
“You might tale some
predicament such as
downsizing, and ask,
what’s the Christian
viewpoint?” says
Markham. “Or
alternatively you might
take some part of
Christian teaching and
apply it to
consultancy.”
The group’s ‘mission | |
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| | statement’ is ‘redeeming
the world of work
through the profession
of consultancy’ but
Markham insists that
this is not about
overtly proselytizing in
the workplace, and
potentially alienating
others, more about using
one’s faith to add
value.
“Anyone can have a
code of ethics; it
doesn’t matter what
religion you are,” he
says. “But Christian
precepts go beyond those
moral precepts, and one
of those is about doing
a good job. They’re not
trying to convert me,
but if they do a rather
better job and say,
that’s because they’re a
Christian, that might
pique my interest.”
Markham adds that a
lot of Christian
precepts have been found
to have a sound
psychological basis:
people who show
gratitude have better
mental health,
forgiveness is good for
you and so on.
“I’m working on a
piece on this topic
called ‘God proved right
after all’,” he says.
Not that the group would
claim to have all the
answers to issues such
as which clients should
you not work for.
“These are
non-trivial questions
which maturity demands
are give some | |
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| | reflection,” he says.
“But the journey is
often as important as
the destination, the
process arising is as
important as the
conclusion you reach.”
These troubled modern
times have led us to be
profoundly uncomfortable
with overt displays of
religion. So we ban the
crucifix in the office
or the headscarf in the
school, as if we were
worried the Crusades
might suddenly break out
again during the coffee
break. It’s true
there’s some
spectacularly bad
behaviour associated
with religion – but it’s
usually very
un-Christian behaviour
by Christians,
un-Islamic activity by
Muslims and so on. If
more people actively
lived out their beliefs
in their day-to-day
lives, the world might
not such a bad place.
If you’re interested
in learning more about
the Christians in
Consultancy group, visit
the Crucial Insights
website:
http://www.crucialinsigh
ts.org.uk/1.html
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