It has been a very long time.
Sorry about that.
I have been thinking recently. You may have heard the whirring sound from my house.
As you may or may not have noticed, our nation, in fact the entire western world is struggling economically. Our CAP centre is having to turn away on average one family a week because we just do not have the capacity to help them. The Basics banks are busier than ever because more people are struggling than ever. The Southampton City Council has come to the church begging for help because they do not have the resources to even stand still, let alone cope with the increased demand.
Strange days we live in.
At the start of this recession, when it was still being called a credit crunch, I spoke about how everything in me was defaulting to a stance of “batten down the hatches”, tighten up and ride it out. However, at the time I felt as though God was saying that this is exactly the time for the church to do exactly the opposite. The people around us need the church to stand up and demonstrate the love of Christ, more than ever. We are literally at the point in many areas of social concern, with local authorities having to cut back in so many areas, where if the church does not do it then no one will.
Over the last few months I have felt that God is wanting to release kingdom focussed entrepreneurs. Social enterprises, businesses run with different values, businesses centred around love, businesses built around people and not profits.
I firmly believe that there are many of you out there with seeds in your heart that you have always wanted to see grow but have been too scared. Seeds and passions. Hopes and dreams. Madcap ideas that just seem ridiculous if you say them out loud. Things that are too barmy to pursue. Things like Cadbury’s was when radical quakers set up a factory on ethical principles back in the day. Things like innocent smoothies. Things like the National Health service.
Maybe too crazy to even contemplate.
Unless, that is, God is calling you to do something crazy.
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