tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83142898677372473832024-03-14T08:13:48.303+00:00Jeremy's JourneyLife, ministry and being an "Ordained Entrepreneur"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-14847100883823791062012-10-19T08:34:00.001+01:002012-10-19T08:34:07.135+01:00"Charge The Least" - How to put David Cameron's idea into action<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8gnRWRjcHk/UIDeJ8ZARuI/AAAAAAAABd0/hQiqExfOIMM/s1600/ReadingChart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8gnRWRjcHk/UIDeJ8ZARuI/AAAAAAAABd0/hQiqExfOIMM/s320/ReadingChart.jpg" width="134" /></a></div>
A wish by the UK Government that energy companies should be forced to charge customers the lowest price <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19986929" target="_blank">has been in the news lately</a>.<br />
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However, HMG seems to be rowing back, possibly motivated by the fear that energy companies will simply raise prices, as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19997139" target="_blank">some have apparently threatened</a>.<br />
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So things are going all blurry.<br />
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The latest I've heard is that energy price plans will get labelled with some kind of 'APR' style tag. This sounds complicated, and indeed silly. The problem is that competition isn't working - so the answer is either to accept that energy competition is lackluster and patch up an answer, or to provoke competition.<br />
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I have two simple suggestions.<br />
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1. Just do it! Bill the lowest price plan.</h2>
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By comparison with your mobile phone operator, energy suppliers have a very easy job billing you. In go meter readings (real or estimated, manual or automatic). They go through the logic of your price plan (for instance, this fixed fee and that price per unit). And there's your bill. Hey presto!</div>
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Speaking from direct and personal experience, I can tell you categorically (i) that every leading billing system out there has the ability to run billing data through as many plans as you like, for comparison or to apply 'best price' logic; (ii) every legacy system I've met can have this feature added quickly and cheaply, with the only appreciable long-term cost being the additional microseconds it will take to calculate each bill.</div>
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So the simple aspiration, "Charge the least," can be achieved technically, cheaply and quickly.</div>
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But there are two objections.</div>
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a) "But we'll just have to raise our prices."</h3>
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It's trivially the case that if energy suppliers had to charge the lowest price, and that most of us are on the wrong price plan, then their revenues will be hit. </div>
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But neither the government nor consumers need to care about this. There's no suggestion that new, lower prices should be introduced, only that the existing plans should be applied to the benefit of consumers. In other words, the complexity of pricing, lacklustre competition between increasingly vertically integrated energy companies, and consumer inertia have produced surplus profits.</div>
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An energy company can raise its prices to make good this shortfall. If the market is competitive, other players can choose <i>not</i> to follow suit - and gain a competitive advantage. And if all industry players act in the same way, the regulator and, if necessary, the Competition Commission can take action against such apparent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly" target="_blank">oligopilistic</a> behaviour.</div>
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b) You can't compare apples and oranges.</h3>
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It is true that, while the basics of energy billing are simple, there are potentially important differences. The two main differences are: how do you pay (e.g. with or without a direct debit); and how long do you commit (e.g. the contract is for a minimum one month, one year or two years - the kind of thing we have to decide for instance when we sign up for broadband services or pay TV).</div>
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Yes, this means that it's not 100% achievable for every consumer to pay the least every time. But no, this doesn't kill the idea.</div>
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In this and other industries, direct debit is viewed as a benefit to the supplier, that can be rewarded by (say) a £5 reduction. So it's perfectly easy (a) to calculate the best deal with and without DD and display both, (b) to apply the relevant offer based on the customer's choice to pay by DD or not.</div>
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Contract periods are similar, but the reward is often a little more complicated - a price plan with a monthly commitment may be quite different from an annual one. And in regulated industries, there's always a concern that powerful players will artificially inflate the difference, which creates huge barriers to entry for a competitor (think what it's like trying to change your mobile phone operator six months in to an 18 month contract - you're locked in, and competitors are locked out).</div>
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So an answer in this case seems to me to be:</div>
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<ol>
<li>Make the 'best price' logic apply within the customer's chosen contract period rather than to all price plans</li>
<li>Display the best prices under different contract terms</li>
<li>Require that any customer changing contract term with their supplier has a 30 day right to cancel and sign up with another supplier</li>
<li>Give customers a similar 30 day right to terminate a contract early and without penalty following any price increase by a supplier</li>
</ol>
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2. "Green Button" Innovation</h2>
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In the USA, President Obama introduced a voluntary (for the industry) scheme, motivated by the desire to help customers reduce their energy consumption. </div>
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The idea is that your supplier gives you access to your customer information (present and past energy usage) in a simple, standard way online. Which doesn't sound so revolutionary. The magic is the next step.</div>
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It's not just your right to access your data, but your right to let an app do the job for you. So instead of relying on the energy companies, for instance, to display the information to you in graphical form, to help you compare your energy usage to statistics for other similar households and so on - third parties can do that, at no cost to the utility.</div>
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We could do that too. </div>
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Now, guess what? A mandatory green button scheme in the UK would also allow people to create apps to compare prices - what you could have paid with any and every alternative supplier now and back through previous bills - and into the future, based on projected use.</div>
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So if the UK Government decides to back away from relying on energy suppliers to optimise pricing for consumers, the Green Button option might be even more powerful - because it would give consumers ownership of their own data, which we could then all use both for green reasons (cutting down usage) and to help us access a competitive market, with a simplicity and confidence that would overcome the confusion and inertia that leaves most of us out of pocket.</div>
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A Call to Action</h2>
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These aren't the only options. There's a host of possible regulatory changes, some of which may be more potent in the long term.</div>
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But I do like simplicity. So how to choose between these two? <i>Don't choose! Leave the choice to the suppliers!</i></div>
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Why not challenge every supplier to implement either automatic bill optimisation, or Green Button data access, or both by (say) April 2013? And require all operators to indicate in a standard way whether they have signed up to one, both or neither scheme in all advertising and on every customer bill. </div>
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Do you know what? I think this cunning plan might just work!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-32709425436902191612012-05-23T12:11:00.000+01:002012-05-24T06:41:54.888+01:00It's good to fail... fastA little under a month ago, some friends and I announced an offer to launch a free service - free to set up, free to use, free to leave, free of advertising. The service is a way of getting up and running with a modern, social web site - that's the technology - and a community of willing helpers collaborating to get better results for everyone.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AZFXyRGCwjc/T7yjMcUYcHI/AAAAAAAABXU/-lqs2rvS-0M/s1600/iStock_000018951814XSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AZFXyRGCwjc/T7yjMcUYcHI/AAAAAAAABXU/-lqs2rvS-0M/s320/iStock_000018951814XSmall.jpg" width="320" /></a>It was for a specific niche - UK churches. It was to address a specific, known problem - that (according to a recent study) the vast majority of UK churches don't have a current, active website at all. And of those that do, a small proportion are interactive as well as active - that is, most church websites are brochures to read rather than communities meeting and welcoming others.<br />
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We had direct experience (independently of one another) of some of the underlying issues. Many churches struggle making decisions involving expenditure more complicated than buying another box of tea bags. People with relevant skills often feel put upon, expected to do for free what they are normally hired to do, and faced with unrealistic expectations ("you do websites, don't you?" = "I don't care if you're a back end developer, a front-end developer, a designer or an account manager, just make my problem go away, now!"). And the "norm of niceness" that infects so many churches means that everyone knows what they <i>don't</i> want, few will be willing to turn their vague thoughts into definite ideas, and a dominant voice will effectively dictate the outcome.<br />
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We didn't think we wanted to tackle those issues - there are plenty of companies selling outdated, proprietary CMS-driven websites to churches, driven by their ability to navigate the particular buying and implementation processes. Good luck to them! Most are well-intentioned, at least, and a few are quite good.<br />
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Instead, we saw an opportunity. We're people who know how the technology works and how costs build up, and so we were able to define a technical solution that would cost a few hundred pounds up-front to create, a few tens of pounds a month to run, plus time and goodwill. We decided to build on WordPress, because (a) it works, (b) it has a vast resource base, (c) the software is free to take, use and adapt. We identified multiple ways to create the service, and looked at take-on (making it easy to get people from nothing to something nice-looking and actually usable) and push-off (making it easy to get people off our platform and onto their own or someone else's). And we did technical validation - yes, it works in practice as well as in theory.<br />
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So we got to the 'ready enough' point. We knew we could create the service, and we knew our way around the detailed options we would be choosing between. So we knew we could build a real, live service to meet the promise with a few more hours of work up-front, and a reasonable enough workload in terms of hours per week post launch.<br />
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So we launched. Sort of.<br />
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Specifically, we said we'd launch the live service if 50 UK churches wanted a website for free. To signal this, they had to tweet a hashtag, like a facebook page or fill in an online form. All of these things required a small amount of effort, and we didn't work hard on promotion.<br />
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We got into double figures, but nowhere near the 50. So we won't launch. (I predicted we wouldn't!)<br />
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We failed. We failed fast. It's <i>good</i> to fail fast.<br />
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You can't fail unless you try. Most people talk a lot about things they want to do, very few try to do them.<br />
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Until you fail, it's hard to learn. Most projects exist in a kind of twilight world, where the expectations and effort have gone down, but there's still a dream. By saying "we've failed - and we're moving on," you get to look at things objectively.<br />
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And when you fail <i>fast</i>, there aren't so many loose ends to tie up. There's no long, painful running uphill, draining your practical and emotional resources to the dregs. So the learning you achieved, you can apply. Or you can choose another venture. Either way, you start with a positive attitude and a bit of momentum, released by being prepared to say, "That's it. We failed. Now, what shall we do?" Well, almost every meaningful success has come off the back of one, several, many failures. The trick is to welcome failure, and fail fast.<br />
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Or, as Samuel Beckett said, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. <b>Fail better.</b>"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-44290197139648016102012-04-26T15:00:00.000+01:002012-04-29T07:21:26.345+01:00Churches, the web, social media, all thatWhy did books take off? You know books - those things where you make flat sheets of paper, bind them together - those things. Why did they take off? Well, at least one of the reasons was that they were a very good way to get to the Bible and its constituent bits - way more convenient than scrolls. And when printing made its way to Europe, what rolled off the presses? You guessed it!<br />
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Books weren't the only way the Bible moved round the world, but they were pretty important. And the Bible wasn't the only text that became widely distributed in book form, but it was a biggie.<br />
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So why are churches so far behind the times when it comes to the web, facebook, twitter, tumblr, even email? Er, good question.<br />
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And as far as I can tell, five of the leading answers are:<br />
<ol>
<li>We don't want to commit to anything too new: we already have an OHP, a church noticeboard and a hearing aid loop, and that'll do for now</li>
<li>Printed books are cool, especially when they have rainbows on them, but the Internet is Satan's sock-drawer, full of ne'er-do-wells and general naughtiness</li>
<li>We don't know how to do this, and all we hear are horror-stories of aged websites that make us look really, really stupid</li>
<li>We already have a website: here! (I wonder who uses it...?)</li>
<li>Haven't you seen our online presence? We have a search engine optimised website, all our rotas are online, our facebook page is humming. Behind? </li>
</ol>
(In the interests of disclosure, I'm an ordained minister in the Church of England, so you could say I have a professional interest. I would welcome any contradictory views on anything I say here.)<br />
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If you're in category 1, I suggest you go and ask half a dozen under 30 whether it's too early to risk this. If they all say 'no' then well done, you can bide your time.<br />
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If you're in category 2, then ask yourself, if Jesus rocked up to your town, would he be hanging out at the church bookstall, and if not, where, and who with? (For those of you reading this paragraph who are now going, tsk, this guy doesn't even know it's "with whom," I give up!)<br />
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If you're in category 3, then I have good news and bad news. It's simple... But it's not easy.<br />
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And if you're in category 4, then I have bad news and good news. You need to start again. But at least you have an idea, now, of what's good and what's bad.<br />
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Finally, if you're in category 5, then congratulations! Now, you have some work to do: help another church get (at least some of the way) to where you are.<br />
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Now, some friends and I are trying to do just that. Here's how.<br />
<ul>
<li>We won't spend very much money - we haven't got much to spend if we wanted to</li>
<li>We're building the whole system using WordPress (which apparently powers 8.5% of the whole Internet), so the skills people will need to have or develop are widespread, as are learning materials</li>
<li>We're making it easy for people to get started - our assumption is that everyone needs things to be super-easy</li>
<li>Our objective is to meet everyone's needs in getting off the ground - and we'll be happy when people outgrow the service</li>
<li>We'll make it easy for people to migrate away from our service</li>
<li>If 50 churches sign up for the private invitation, we will launch; if they don't, we won't</li>
<li>The cost to sign up is £0, the monthly cost is £0, the cost to take your site somewhere else is £0</li>
<li>We won't inject adverts into your website - it would be lovely if some people donate towards the running costs, but if they don't, we'll manage</li>
<li>If anyone wants to help, that's good too - we'll run non-profit, so your reward won't be ££££s</li>
</ul>
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Privately, I don't think we'll get 50 takers. Why not? Just a hunch. I can hear the scepticism already. "Nothing's free. There's a catch. Who are these people?" </div>
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(Why only 50? We know we can support 50 churches without having to buy anything we don't already have, we're confident that we can support 500 next phase, and we need to learn how to do this for 50,000 if we have to!)</div>
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So if you want to get involved, what do you do?</div>
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You could like the Facebook page at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/JdapYes/343711312359652">http://www.facebook.com/pages/JdapYes/343711312359652</a> (UK only, sorry!)</div>
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You could tweet using the hash tag #jdapYes (start at <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/jdap/status/195479387192311810">https://twitter.com/#!/jdap/status/195479387192311810</a>)</div>
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That will work whether you want to help or be helped.<br />
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<b>STOP PRESS... </b><b>STOP PRESS... </b><b>STOP PRESS... </b><b>STOP PRESS... </b><br />
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You can now also let us know you want to take part by going to:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.churchfreeweb.co.uk/">www.churchfreeweb.co.uk</a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-85507611109803350682012-04-23T13:10:00.001+01:002012-04-23T15:31:58.626+01:00Idea Transform - An Act of Co-Creation<div class="posterous_autopost">
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Speaking as an "ordained entrepreneur," both halves of me have a strong interest in acts of co-creation. The best things you (singular) can possibly be involved in making will be made by you (plural). And <a href="http://www.ideatransform.org/" target="_blank">Idea Transform</a> is an example of that in at least two ways.<br />
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First, <a href="http://camtechnet.info/">Mauro Ciaccio</a>, <a href="http://www.measuresconsulting.com/">Chris Measures</a> and <a href="http://jellyweb.co.uk/">I</a> have a strong and shared interest in events that help people with ideas become teams with running projects. We have very different backgrounds, personalities and styles, but we have lots in common as well. That led us to become local organisers of an event in Cambridge last year - which both proved that something everyone said Cambridge just wouldn't support could be massively successful, and that we could work together under pressure! And we found we had an ambition for more...<br />
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Idea Transform is all about making a <i>big</i> difference - and we all want that to become more than just an idea. Along the way, we found friends and supporters, and our ideas were improved by accommodating their insights. (In the case of <a href="http://www.obidosconsulting.com/">Jo Vertigan</a>, I think we've absorbed more than just insights, I think we've absorbed Jo along with them!) As I've found so often and in so many ways, a team willing to work hard and put their own reputations on the line will often find support from others giving what they can to support the vision - time, money, facilities, spreading the word. This is my own private blog post, so "official" team thanks come from elsewhere, but I have to say a huge personal thank you to the individuals: <a href="http://ideatransform.org/advisory-board/">Peter Cowley, Chris Lamaison, Allan Maclean and Shai Vyakarnam of our Advisory Board</a>, who magnified our vision; the <a href="http://ideatransform.org/mentors/">Idea Transform Mentors</a> (too numerous to name, but heroes of the weekend); the <a href="http://ideatransform.org/sponsors/">corporate sponsors and supporters</a> who made it possible to run a long weekend event in the middle of Cambridge yet keep the ticket price well below £100.<br />
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But all we created together was a context. From 5:30pm on Friday, 20 April until 51 hours later, together we provided a place where it would be possible for other people to come together, bring ideas, experience, talents and aspirations and form teams working together to make a definite difference in the world. And that really was an act of co-creation.<br />
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Like anything creative, there was friction as well as harmony. I'm a veteran of quite a few similar events, and I'm always disappointed when people sign up, but don't find, join and stick with a team. I remember an event a couple of years ago when someone came with an exciting vision, but every detail was non-negotiable. Frustrated when people didn't flock to join a team and become a free workforce, contributing nothing but work, receiving nothing but instruction, that person went away with a face like thunder. They would have got so much by staying, and either allowing the idea to be improved by sharing it with others, or by joining a team working on something completely different and building new knowledge and relationships.<br />
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Can you, truly, change the world in a weekend spent working together? Maybe not. But I believe you can change lots of things. Your own perspective, for a start. So many of the people I met wanted to change lives, and wanted to learn how. Whether the idea their team was working on will progress in its present form, who can say? From the feedback I've had already, each team built up a much clearer picture of how to validate that the problem they are working on is genuine, that the possible solution they have identified is valuable, and that they can make a step, then another, then another along that road. That may be a few days of work, but it may also be months, years or even decades.<br />
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So not every idea, not every team will continue in its present form. But the relationships, the experiences, the feeling of what happens when beautifully simple ideas meet the mess of reality - all those will persist.<br />
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And I have a sneaking suspicion that we have, as we wanted, helped at least one world-changing idea to make a decisive step forward.<br />
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For a few hours, people came together and suspended disbelief about all the impossibilities of life. We met as equals, co-workers, co-creators. And maybe, just maybe, millions of lives may be changed for the better by ideas transformed by encounters, transformed into works in progress.</div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge Old Addenbrooke's Site, Trumpington St, Cambridge, CB2 1AG, UK52.1999489 0.121573752.1902169 0.1018327 52.2096809 0.14131470000000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-53402235689378548682011-11-28T09:35:00.001+00:002011-11-28T09:41:05.387+00:00Preaching for Advent Sunday including Relative Sexual DysfunctionWell, I did. Which was kind of scary (especially knowing I would be giving the sermon twice), and kind of necessary (because I want to paint myself into a corner as a priest who wants to show people how positively Christians view sex, once you get past the shouting matches, culture wars and false dichotomies). I haven't decided whether this is a sermon to put online, but it's on an open Google doc link, so if you're interested, leave your email address here or else tweet me <a href="http://twitter.com/jdap" target="_blank">@jdap</a> and I'll send you the link.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-14360143383008697022011-11-12T20:13:00.001+00:002011-11-12T23:32:34.947+00:00Heathen's RegressYesterday the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alister-chapman/john-stotts-american-evangelicalism_b_1088924.html" target="_blank">American memorial service for John Stott</a> was held in Wheaton, Chicago. Stott, who many would claim put evangelicalism back in touch with intellectual rigour, famously recommended that Christian preachers should hold a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.<br />
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The Guardian's <i>Comment is Free</i> section is - in my view - becoming a leading site for thoughtful public debate on a variety of issues, with a wide variety of contributors and a lower-than-usual proportion of brawling and trolling in the user commentary. A few days ago Julian Baggini wrote <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/07/understand-my-religion-faith" target="_blank">this piece</a> as part of his series, "Heathen's Progress." In it, he's interested in the question of whether it's possible to debate between belief in God and atheism, for instance, without all such debate getting bogged down by the inconvenient fact of mutual incomprehension.<br />
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I've said more than once that I find myself attracted to the purest forms of atheism, on the grounds of a heroic willingness to stare down the abyss. I'm not thinking here of the fundamentalist wing - Dawkins cronies, whose contortions in defence of their hero's dismissal of philosophy in its entirety now that the pendulum in this discipline has started its return swing from adventures in ultramaterialism (the idea that there is no valid meaning beyond mere description, or that all 'why' questions must either be given a 'how' answer or be considered meaningless) would be amusing if not for what's at stake. But in the more intellectually credible accounts lies much I find attractive, if ultimately unconvincing.<br />
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But I digress. The sentence that stuck out in Baggini's article was this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Maintaining, for instance, that it is naive to read the gospels as literal history is – or should be – to maintain that the events it describes did not, or need not, have literally happened.</i></blockquote>
The syntax could be more helpful. (And yes, kettle, I <i>do</i> know I'm a pot!) I hope this is a faithful re-statement:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If you don't believe that the gospels are literal history, then you can't also insist that the events in those gospels took place.</i></blockquote>
This sounds fair enough - common sense, surely. But even an amateur philosopher like me will say, "if your argument rests on common sense, you had better either prove it logically, or at least demonstrate that the vast majority of people would agree with you."<br />
<br />
But actually, it's nonsense: logical nonsense, factual nonsense, historical nonsense. I stress this not because it's a stupid statement, but because as any logician knows, starting from a falsehood you can prove essentially <i>anything</i>. And the point has nothing whatsoever to do with any understanding of religions in general or Christianity in particular.<br />
<br />
So why is the statement nonsense? Let's get there in a few steps.<br />
<br />
You're told that a warehouse has been robbed. There's CCTV footage showing a clearly identifiable person - who has now been arrested - breaking in, and later leaving with a large and clearly labelled box.<br />
<br />
In this cut and dried case, the literal evidence of the CCTV is compelling. But if an expert convinced you that, contrary to appearances, what you were viewing was <i>not</i> in fact a faithful record of the events of the night in question - well, if this was the only evidence you had, you had better release your suspect. So far, so good.<br />
<br />
But now suppose that, instead of CCTV footage, we had several eyewitness accounts of events. They agree at many points and vary at others, and no single account covers the full sequence of events.<br />
<br />
Now ask yourself, is any <i>one</i> of these accounts 'literal history'? What about the collection? Or an account constructed by an investigator who had access to all the statements?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jk2X5xmNxIE/Tr8BNgYKUnI/AAAAAAAABMg/EQb1IeeH6Nc/s1600/536729_feuding_cups_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jk2X5xmNxIE/Tr8BNgYKUnI/AAAAAAAABMg/EQb1IeeH6Nc/s1600/536729_feuding_cups_1.jpg" /></a></div>
So, Julian, your "knock-down" argument fails at the very first hurdle. The key term, "literal history," is extremely hard to define. Ask me, "are the Gospels literal history?" then whether I answer "yes," "no," or anything else, it's hard to be sure what either the question or the answer might mean, harder still to be sure if your definition and mine would line up. And on the basis of your insistence that unless I answer an unequivocal "yes," then I must concede that I can't hold to any event of those Gospels, every court conviction resting primarily on multiple eyewitness accounts should immediately be quashed.<br />
<br />
But all this is more than hypothetical. In my experience, hearing a leading question like, "do you believe that the Gospels are literary history?" is rather a common debating gambit. Of course it is!<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>If I say, "yes," then next comes a bombardment: every discrepancy of detail you have detected or suspected between two Gospels, or indeed between two ancient copies of a single Gospel. Or else I'll be told I'm a fundamentalist - I just believe what I'm told, and that's the end of it.</li>
<li>If I say, "no," then I'm judged to have conceded that the events of the Gospel - and in particular the central points that Jesus lived, was crucified, dead, buried and rose again - ain't necessarily so</li>
<li>Any other answer, and it looks like I'm shiftily evading the question, or trying to trade a simple discussion for obscure technicalities </li>
</ul>
<div>
Now, I'm not accusing Julian Baggini of doing this. But as someone commenting specifically on the communication (and miscommunication) between atheists and Christians, his faulty logic on the point I highlighted makes me think that he might want to re-examine his sources. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The heathen's progress should, perhaps, go back just a step.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0Cambridge, UK52.2025441 0.131236852.1636181 0.05227279999999998 52.241470099999994 0.2102008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-3620640508673627982011-11-11T09:23:00.001+00:002011-11-11T09:50:57.962+00:00A smile for Remembrance Day, 11/11/11I love the English language. What I want is a word that suggests humour and irony, and there it is: "Wry." Not just <i>any</i> word, this is a three letter word. And as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Molesworth" target="_blank">any fule kno</a>, the short words in a language tell you most about its speakers and writers.<br />
<br />
So here's a wry offering for Remembrance Sunday, offered to you this Remembrance Day, in the hope that it will give you a smile at around the two minute silence millions upon millions will observe at 11a.m. It was inspired by Louis being asked to make this Sunday a day of young enterprise, making money selling junk at a car boot sale. Louis is a Scout, and he will (alongside many others from the global scouting movement) be attending a Remembrance Sunday service. I am an "ordained entrepreneur," and I love enterprise, aspiration, wealth creation and the "big society," firmly believing that work is not merely toil, but a celebration of the very nature of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So on that day I will lead the Sunday service with an Act of Remembrance at <a href="http://www.ely.anglican.org/parishes/cambridgestmartin/index.html" target="_blank">St Thomas's Hall, Cambridge</a> where I am privileged to minister.<br />
<br />
We remember the war dead not as tragic figures defined by death alone, but as those who <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields#Poem" target="_blank">lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved</a> - and, of course, laughed. So I offer you a wry poem, written on the small screen of my Android smartphone, somewhere between London Liverpool Street as I returned from collecting the <a href="http://conferences.theiet.org/innovation/categories/information/index.cfm" target="_blank">IET Information Technology Award</a> for the <a href="https://howareyou.com/" target="_blank">Cambridge Heathcare</a> team.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>On a Remembrance Sunday Car Boot Sale</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
In Flanders fields the poppies grew </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Between the hatching, straight and true </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
That marks our pitch - until our eye </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Fell on an Astra parked nearby </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
With garden shears of every hue.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We earn some bread. Some time ago </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We saw a boot sale near Heathrow, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Paid, and got paid. So we branched out </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
To Flanders fields.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Take up our offers so unique. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Roll up, roll up and take a peek </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
At all our wares. The value's clear: </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Cheap DVDs and Belgian beer. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We've proved that it was time to clear </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Those Flanders fields.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0Cambridge Central Library, CB2 3QD, UK52.204266623219823 0.1206994056701660252.201833623219819 0.11576390567016602 52.206699623219826 0.12563490567016602tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-87897021636924319942011-06-28T10:31:00.001+01:002011-06-28T10:31:21.580+01:00Ember Card, 2011<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-28/HobjqDsCtCHAnhzsgjfoeaBJhByCFjtccaIjzDaCCbmqpAfsFFDwzcHhCpkx/JDAP_Ember_Card_2011.png.scaled1000.png"><img alt="Jdap_ember_card_2011" height="425" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-06-28/HobjqDsCtCHAnhzsgjfoeaBJhByCFjtccaIjzDaCCbmqpAfsFFDwzcHhCpkx/JDAP_Ember_Card_2011.png.scaled500.png" width="500" /></a> </div> </p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-1720001527578630872010-02-28T19:00:00.000+00:002010-02-28T19:00:49.268+00:00“Stand Firm – Keep Going”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/S4qo7o9HQhI/AAAAAAAAA2s/hrqQ22y0CsA/s1600-h/snowsteps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/S4qo7o9HQhI/AAAAAAAAA2s/hrqQ22y0CsA/s400/snowsteps.jpg" width="145" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=philippians+3%3A17-4%3A1&t=tniv&t2=msg">Philippians 3:17-4:1</a></i></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">It’s all in the watching. Well, actually there’s more to it than that, but unless you’re watching really carefully then you’re lost. No, unless we are all watching really carefully then we’re all lost.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">We’re watching each other, of course, but mainly we’re all watching the one in front. While he waits, we wait. When he moves, we move. When he runs, we run. When he jumps, we jump. Then we all stop. We sit together. And that’s the exciting bit, of course. When we stick together, when we’ve run and jumped and sat together – that’s when we know we can get there, together. </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">It’s the running that people think about. Accelerating from a standing start, sprinting for all you’re worth. You could get lost in that feeling. But run for all you’re worth and unless you’re watching, really watching, then however fast you are you’re going to get left behind. Because the fastest you can ever hope to run on your own is about twenty miles per hour, and we need to do a hundred.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Have you been watching any of the Winter Olympics? There’s something about the four man bobsleigh race that I find really gripping. Maybe that’s partly because one of our favourite family films is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Runnings">Cool Runnings</a>, about how Jamaica came to field its first bobsleigh team for the Winter Olympics twenty-odd years ago. And it’s definitely also because the moments when it all goes wrong at the start – when one of the team isn’t watching the driver and misses the moment to get into the sled – can be pretty funny!</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">But when they get it right, it’s impressive stuff. They wait together, watching the driver. They run with him, they watch for the moment he jumps and they follow. And they tuck in for an incredible journey, noses inches from the ice as they hurtle down the run faster than motorway speeds in a metal tube only just big enough for them all to squeeze in.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Now, Biblical scholarship will never be complete this side of eternity, but I’m about as sure as I can be that the apostle Paul <i>wasn’t </i>thinking about bobsleighs when he wrote to the church at Philippi. However, it’s not a bad sport to have in mind when we try and understand what he was saying to them nearly 2,000 years ago, and what this may mean for us today.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">This passage could be pretty confusing. If you have a Bible to hand, let’s look at a few verses to see why.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">A little before our reading, in <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=Philippians+3%3A8&t=tniv&t2=msg">chapter 3 verse 8</a> Paul speaks of how he has been willing to give up everything to gain Christ. In <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=Philippians+3%3A12-14&t=tniv&t2=msg">verses 12-14</a> he presents this as a kind of race – he’s pressing for the finishing line, and not there yet. And in<a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=Philippians+3%3A16&t=tniv&t2=msg"> verse 16</a> – the verse just before our reading – he asks that he and his readers might at least “live up to what [they] have already attained.” And to that end, (I’m summarising the reading very briefly here), he encourages the Philippians to look for Christian role models and follow them, to beware of people he calls “enemies of the cross of Christ,” and that as they wait for this same Lord Jesus Christ to return as saviour and transform them to be like him, they must stand firm.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">And I have to say, this seems a crazy kind of race. Hello, Paul, are we meant to be standing firm or racing for the finishing line? Are we meant to fix our eyes on Christ or on you and on each other?</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Well, as I said, I doubt that the apostle Paul was thinking about the four-man bobsleigh. That seems geographically and historically unlikely, to say the least. But maybe it will help us.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">There are three things about that sport that could give us a way in to this standing race of Paul’s: how we can keep our eyes on the finishing line, how to race without running, and the challenge of standing firm.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">So first, how can we keep our eyes on the finishing line, if the goal and end is Christ?</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">We Christians have a terrible habit of speaking in shorthand. Sometimes we can say things that sound very proper, or very pious, or very profound – not realising that the shorthand we use can confuse people who need to hear us speak clearly, or discourage people whose urgent need is for reassurance.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s an example, “keep your eyes on Jesus.”</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">I think I know what that’s meant to mean. I don’t think it’s a wrong thing to say. And I’m pretty sure I’ve said it myself. But it is shorthand and it can be confusing.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">At the most basic level, it’s impossible! If I want to keep my eyes literally fixed on Jesus, I’m going to have to do without him in person. I’ll need to make do with… what? A picture, perhaps. Jesus, looking slightly ethereal but also powerful, probably with a very western European face, a neat beard and a lovely clean dressing robe. That Jesus always seems so reassuring, but he’s not real. He’s not even realistic. And if I saw someone looking just like that heading straight for me in the Grand Arcade I think I’d duck into John Lewis.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">And the Philippians had a similar problem. Culturally, Philippi was worlds away from Jerusalem. It was a Roman colony, fiercely loyal to the emperor. If you want to look at a Lord and Saviour, you look at the nearest statue of the emperor. And you have good reason to do so. Because the emperor is clearly your Lord and master, and as everyone in Philippi knows, he also represents salvation. You see, the city was given to disbanded troops by an emperor who had defeated them in battle in a time of civil war in the Roman Empire. There was every reason for them to expect death – but they found they were given a new life. The victorious Lord they had betrayed chose to trust them, to forgive and restore them.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">And so, just imagine how it felt to be one of those people coming to faith in Christ. They already knew a story of salvation and new life. Perhaps that helped them to understand the Gospel. But the good news of Jesus Christ is a topsy-turvy kind of story. He’s a Lord – but he was executed in the Roman way – that is, in the deliberately barbaric way the Romans executed people who weren’t Roman citizens. Though he has already come, in <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=Philippians+3%3A17&t=tniv&t2=msg">verse 17</a> we are reminded that we do not see him but we do eagerly await him. And he’s a Saviour, but the daily experience of this salvation may have seemed like its opposite: from fitting in with society to standing out from it; being treated with suspicion; risking hardship by turning away from the cult of the Emperor. </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">“Keep your eyes on Jesus” sounds very good, but how? Jesus is the goal, the end of the race. But you can’t actually see him from here.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">If you’re in a bobsleigh team you have the same problem. You can’t see the finishing line, but you can see the driver. And you watch him – closely. When he runs, you run. When he jumps, you jump. That’s how you reach the end of the run - together.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">And that’s Paul’s practical suggestion of <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=Philippians+3%3A17&t=tniv&t2=msg">verse 17</a>: “follow my example and keep your eyes on those who live as we do.”</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">It would be very easy to misunderstand this. In fact, there are many people today – and there were many people at the time – representing Paul as the one who hides or even distorts Jesus, his life and his teaching. Isn’t this a prime example? “Look at me,” says Paul, “Copy me. Don’t worry about Jesus: to follow him you just have to follow me.” But no, you really can’t argue that from this letter. Firstly, Paul is encouraging the church at Philippi to study the whole Christian community, not just himself – and he spells out that he is on his way just as they are, he hasn’t already reached his goal. And secondly, Paul keeps on stressing that Christ, Christ alone is the centre of the Christian faith, and that if our eyes become clouded we should fill them with the cross of Christ.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Not every Christian leader is reliable. And we don’t always find our brothers and sisters in the church the easiest people to be with, to work with, to worship with. So it’s hardly surprising if our constant temptation is to break away, believing that we will follow Christ better alone, or in a different community, or under different leadership.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s be careful. The strongest runner must be in the bobsleigh to have any chance of finishing the race. It is together, as one team, as a body, that we have been selected. And our joy will be in running and completing the race together for the finishing line.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Now for my second question, how can we race without running?</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_Cathedral#Honorary_Canons">Stephen</a> gave this talk the theme, “Stand Firm – Keep Going.” And there’s the same puzzle. We can stand firm, or we can keep going. How on earth can we do both? How can we race without running?</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Paul is encouraging to the church at Philippi to see their Christian life as moving and active, dynamic, having a direction. It also has an end – but the end is not yet.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time he is warning the church to beware of changing direction. He is warning that there are many who “live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” And from the context, he’s clearly <i>not </i>warning them about people who don’t believe or present themselves as believers. He’s warning about people who are in – who may even be at the heart of – the church. And he has some very strong words to say: they are ruled by their appetite, they make a virtue of their vices, they want a faith that evades the embarrassment of Jesus crucified and they are headed for destruction.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">They probably started well, but they have gone off-course. And by compromising the heart of the Christian faith, they have found their lives have improved. Perhaps they are now seen as intellectually respectable. Perhaps doors to success have started to open. Perhaps they have simply found an easier life: their route-plan to salvation takes the ring-road around Calvary. These people haven’t stopped, they’re speeding up. In fact, they look like life’s big winners. They seem to have found a balance between body, mind and spirit.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">But they are running out of control. They’re on the course, hurtling down the ice at breakneck speed, because they’ve taken the brakes off, they’re letting the bobsleigh steer itself. They may well break the course speed record, moments before they career off the track.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">In bobsleigh racing, there’s a time to run and a time to sit. Sitting isn’t sleeping. Being part of the team, contributing weight to stabilise the bob, watching in case of problems ahead and being ready to call out – this part of the race isn’t about physical fitness.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">It’s so easy to write off those of our brothers and sisters who aren’t visible, who aren’t up front, who aren’t starting new things, who don’t have the time, the energy, the health and strength to do all the things we may want to see happening in our churches.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s be ready to see one another with new eyes, to see as Christ sees. Those who have run more of the course than we have ourselves are no less important. Faithful prayer, a watching eye, an encouraging word, a word of caution – these are indispensable. Those who run and those who are no longer able to run are pressing forward together to the goal.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, then, I would like to conclude with just a thought about the challenge of standing firm.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">I wonder if, this winter, you have had any run-ins with the snow and ice? You’re very fortunate if you have made it through the season with no bumps or bruises – and not everyone has been as lucky.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">So think for a moment of those runners on the bobsleigh course. They’re running on ice.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Think of the moment before they start – and remember what it feels like when you’re standing, barely holding your balance, on a sheet of ice. Imagine if you started to run. How long before you would land with a bump?</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">If you want to compete in the bobsleigh, you need very <a href="http://bit.ly/bobspikes">special shoes</a>. They have loads of tiny, sharp spikes – enough to get a good grip, not enough to get caught. And wearing them, you can stand firm, ready to run when you need to, and even to jump when the driver jumps.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">In another of his letters <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=Ephesians+6%3A13-18&t=tniv&t2=msg">[Ephesians 6]</a>, Paul talks about the need to have our “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">We live in a world that moves fast: we stand on icy ground. It’s tempting to anchor ourselves – to dig through the ice and find rock beneath our feet. But that’s not the Christian calling. We can find comfort by protecting our culture, by looking to preserve everything as it was. The world is changing, and we protect ourselves in a kind of Christian bubble.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">But that’s not the Christian calling. We have not been called <i>from </i>the world. We have been called <i>in </i>the world, we have been called <i>to </i>the world, and we have been called <i>for </i>the world. We haven’t been given a snow-plough, we have been given Gospel shoes. If we put them on – and only if we put them on – we will be ready to stand. And as we stand firm, we will be ready for our race: watching, ready to move, ready for the race ahead, ready to bring others too into this team, where they and we will be captained by Jesus Christ and received by him with joy at the end of our course.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="color: #444444;">Preached at <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Suez+Rd,+Cambridge+CB1,+UK&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=52.192772,0.150869&sspn=0.004788,0.00839&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=52.192583,0.149521&panoid=iQ4Zf8McKKZgAm6F-TEBWw&cbp=12,87.62656399999996,,0,-8.448383&photoid=fr-1490826061">St Martin’s Church, Cambridge</a> and then at <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=52.191786,0.156973&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=19&sll=52.191803,0.156979&sspn=0.001197,0.002097&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=19">St Thomas’s Hall, Cambridge</a>, 28 February, 2010</i></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-82774818782413664292010-02-22T09:43:00.002+00:002010-02-22T09:47:50.284+00:00Clear Your Desk!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/S4JRaFsCpaI/AAAAAAAAA2k/FRda1rkrjeE/s1600-h/clearyourdesk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/S4JRaFsCpaI/AAAAAAAAA2k/FRda1rkrjeE/s320/clearyourdesk.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';"><a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=Luke+16%3A1-12&t=tniv&t2=msg#">Luke 16:1-12</a> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">“Clear your desk!”</span> <br />
<div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">Those are words to knot your stomach. We all want to feel irreplaceable, but in business it can’t be so. Do you think the manager in Jesus’ story saw it coming? Was he lazy or greedy, dishonest or incompetent? The boss isn’t happy and this time it’s the chop – he just has time for a handover of the paperwork.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">And there, that time for a handover, there’s just that little bit of wriggle room. “I’m losing my job, my income, my home. There’s no chance of a reference; there’s no safety net. I don’t have the muscles to be a builder, I don’t have the talent to be a busker and I don’t have the humility to be a beggar. But I need a pension plan, like, now.”</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">He thinks fast, he plans fast and he moves fast. Grabbing the file of invoices, he calls in all the debtors – everyone who owes something to the boss. In they come, one by one. Here’s the man who works the olive grove. He owes a share of the output – thousands of litres of extra virgin olive oil. At £4.99 a litre in Tesco’s that’s a tidy sum. “Tell you what,” says the manager (because he still <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-style: italic;">is</span> the manager, even if not for much longer), “Tell you what: I like you; you like me; we understand each other. You work hard, and maybe we’re asking too much. So here’s the deal: you can pay half, how does that sound? OK, we’re agreed. Yes, I’d <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-style: italic;">love</span> to come round some time for a meal. You can thank me later, I have a really busy morning.”</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">And so on through the queue: worried faces coming in, happy ones going out. He’s spent these last few hours when he’s meant to be putting the books in order buying favours by spending his boss’s capital. It’s not <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-style: italic;">exactly</span> stealing: he can’t be accused of having his hand in the till. He’ll be out on his ear, but he won’t be out in the cold, not with all those smiling friends who’ll be glad to see him, all those people who now owe him a big favour.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">The boss gets wind of what he’s been up to and hauls him in. He’s been taken for a ride, but for whatever reason he decides to grin and bear it. “Well done,” he says to Mr Dishonest. “If only you’d been half as sharp on the job…”</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">And do you know? – because here’s the Sunday School teacher in me kicking in – God’s a bit like that.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 2pt; text-transform: uppercase;">What??????</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">Thank you, <a href="http://twitter.com/maggidawn">Maggi</a>, for inviting me here tonight. You asked me to speak as the ‘ordained entrepreneur’ I call myself, and gave me the chance to look at what you and I agree is an outrageous story. It’s definitely one I need to make sense of, because I really want to know if I’m going God’s way.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">If you’ll forgive me, I’d like to start by telling you some of my own story.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">I’m a reluctant Christian. I was a happy atheist before I ran out of reasons to disbelieve that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. That was in my first year at Oxford, and it took me to nearly the end of my third to actually do something about it, to add a consenting heart to an assenting head.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">I’m a reluctant vicar. I spent very nearly 20 years running away from a clear sense of calling to ordained Christian ministry before I became raw material for one of the vicar factories in Cambridge. And even then, I jumped off the production line leading to house and income and went ‘self-supporting,’ becoming unpaid curate of St Martin’s and keeping my family fed and housed by throwing myself into the business startup scene here at a time when our finances were rock bottom and the economy was subterranean.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">But I <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-style: italic;">am</span> a happy entrepreneur. I <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-style: italic;">love</span> knocking down doors and opening up opportunities; spotting gaps and jumping into them; putting people together and seeing what happens; taking risks I think I can manage better than other people; celebrating the successes and bouncing back from the flops. And I fit my own definition of entrepreneur which is: someone who finds what they need to do what they want. </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">So if I am an ordained entrepreneur, most of my ministry is well off the beaten track of churches and the churchy. I’ve chosen to live with everything – faith included – at risk. And, getting back to the story, I’m bound to identify at least a bit with the opportunistic manager, if not in his ethics, certainly in his weighing up of a situation leading to rapid action to seize the main chance.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">If that dishonest manager gets a thumbs-up from the boss, maybe I do too. Although I need to remember he got the sack, so I have to be a <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-style: italic;">bit</span> careful of getting smug. </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">Is God a bit like this boss? Well, there is something of grace about him – cheated by his outgoing staff member, he chooses to appreciate rather than incarcerate. When Jesus explains the story – OK, that’s an exaggeration, he leaves enough of a puzzle for generations of scholars and wearers of odd collars to sweat over – he says that “the children of this age are shrewder in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">So this is a story for a mixed economy. There are “children of this age” who are thoroughly worldly and at home in the here and now, and there are “children of light” who are in a way visitors to or voyagers in the world as it is, who look to the world as it could be, to the world as God willing it will be. Thinking back to the Christmas season, we recall how in the birth of Jesus Matthew tells us that “the people living in darkness have seen a great light.” Those who respond to this light become children of light. They now shine in that same darkness with the reflected glory of the one true light – that’s not their job, it’s a kind of spiritual physics.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">So is Jesus really telling us that shrewdness is a no-no for his people? Here comes the great reckoning, how’s your eternal balance sheet? Shrewds to the left – no credit, all crunch; prudes to the right and amply justified bonuses all round? No, I don’t think so. This parable comes in a block of teaching that begins a chapter before: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">Jesus is offering a new perspective on living, and it’s the pious who don’t like it one bit. Those who take their religion so very seriously think Jesus is like the cross-eyed teacher who has no control over his pupils. He has absolutely no respect for them, and no apparent scruples. There he sits, surrounded by the faithless rich and the faceless poor. If a person is known by the company they keep, this Jesus is just another crowd-pleaser, careless of the rules. At best he’s misguided, wasting his time, talents and teaching.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">And so Jesus tells this story. And it <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-style: italic;">is</span> meant to provoke that response of, “<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial'; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 2pt; text-transform: uppercase;">What??????</span>” It’s a challenge as direct as you could want to the complacency which so easily sets in to all of us who start to think that when we become Christians we hand over responsibility to God and cover ourselves in an insulating layer of respectability. It’s not that we don’t want to see others find what we’ve found, of course. I’m sure they’ll see us, pillars of respectability, and some will be inspired by our radiance to become just like us. </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">Just think what’s been put into our trust: the riches of heaven, to know and be known as friends of God, and perhaps material prosperity as well. And what have we done, what are we doing with all this that has been entrusted to us? How are we using all we’ve been given? Secretly, as a private hoard, stockpiled until we need it? Perhaps we’re pooling our resources, sharing with others who are like us. Perhaps we even take the risk of putting this wealth on display. </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">But the call to follow Jesus is different. It’s a call to risk being misunderstood – especially by Christians. It’s a call to meet people as they live in the misery of the world’s broken promises, and to greet them not with words of condemnation but with words of hope and friendship. It’s a call to trust God that if he should be calling us to give up all we have, whether riches or reputation, then we will be welcomed into eternal dwellings – welcomed into a new life that is not merely endless but <i>boundless</i>.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">This story is outrageous because the Gospel is outrageous. It’s a reminder that faith is a risk. Gospel lives aren’t safe, but they are secure. They aren’t stable, but they are anchored. And Gospel goods aren’t for keeping – we need to act to share what’s been lavished on us or else either it or we will be spoiled. Gospel clothes are worn with humility: they are always worn at the knees. Gospel people are always ready to move – and always ready to be moved. </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">This Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels, is a chancer, seizing the moment. He’s a risk-taker, putting everything at stake when that’s what it takes. </span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">I wonder if one day you may hear his call as I have? It’s a call that thrills my soul just as it knots my stomach.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';">“Clear your desk!”</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: 'Calibri','Arial';"><i style="color: #444444;">Given at Robinson College, Cambridge, Sunday evening 21 February, 2010</i> </span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-77053164800063053712009-09-18T07:52:00.005+01:002009-09-18T11:32:32.185+01:00Learning to crawl<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-playing-baby-rimagefree4859484-resi350802"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 327px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SrMwix9I5-I/AAAAAAAAA0g/Caa3glNcWj4/s400/dreamstimefree_4859484.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382699353721333730" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><p>It's strange after all these years finding myself with new eyes for the world that disappeared while studying, and new legs that haven't yet learned to stand.</p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">What have I learned in this new life as an ordained entrepreneur?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">That I am finding unexpected common ground with all kinds of people outside the church... and suspicion from unexpected people within.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">That it's hard facing up to the meltdown economy, but <span style="font-style: italic;">good</span> to share that experience with so many.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">That there are people attempting amazing things that I would never have discovered unless I had found this nearby and altogether less heroic path.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">That people are hungry for meaningful connection and that the church has largely lost the reputation of being a group that does just that.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">That however it may have felt during the curing, cutting and canning process of theological education, the insights and instincts of twenty-odd years in marketing are back and busy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">That I can - just about - crawl.</span><br /></p></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-25195567669178472792009-07-12T08:30:00.004+01:002009-07-12T09:15:15.557+01:00Ordained Entrepreneurship<a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/jdap/hnzu68Y8ZLDGOCCwyEuDCnwY9oUPypIfr1111ocwpThpzutq5754DjYCFO7c/12072009732.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/jdap/zuVizgeTDN8DvH05LacJo85WaeLeXhkKVYvJfbySgUgAmQeAKkqsejqlom8D/12072009732.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="375" /></a> <p>Matt Jamison, impressively confident and capable radio presenter at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, on his Easy Sunday programme today. I was there for an interview about being an ordained entrepreneur (Thanks, Matt! Thanks, Heather! Thanks, Vanessa!). </p><div><br /></div><div>A short while before there was a piece about churches dealing with the challenges of buildings to maintain and assets to protect. Or the opportunity of bringing the community into the church and finding everyone's best ideas of how to make best use of what we have to offer... </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm hoping that kind of challenge and the stories of churches that have tried different approaches will be exactly the kind of thing we'll be featuring on <a href="http://www.churchcafe.org.uk/">churchcafe.org.uk</a>, the free national podcast series launching in September. Not so much from people with ideas, but from ordinary people (including ordinary ministers!) who've tried things that have worked and things that haven't.</div> <div><br /></div><div>I'm also hoping to connect with someone as passionate as I am to give Cambridge entrepreneurs an opportunity to connect with the entrepreneurial Church (and that's the only kind we've got, however often we forget it).</div><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://jdap.posterous.com/posterous-re-my-ember-card">JDAP posterous</a> </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-24425201432911250202009-06-20T09:05:00.001+01:002009-06-20T09:05:51.057+01:00My ember card
<a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/jdap/iSTeMEFOHECkgCGBe8J3FFECTlROKs7ovQln0ujfaBKXbbDHEtxYX1wEgPPJ/jdapEmber.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/jdap/nHlfGY0DKF0TqeXmUMGZHXj4ULlKkchy4btannYGBIgc5nCA1XoTsBB9WomZ/jdapEmber.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="375"/></a> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://jdap.posterous.com/my-ember-card">JDAP posterous</a> </p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-45529813625287181782009-05-10T08:57:00.001+01:002009-05-10T08:57:46.035+01:00Internet Mousetrap
<img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/jdap/Xkb8QwbjAwPl4x16IwuaLihIoKcUizwNxR53Fq4q738PHKtgfauD5VJJPbLc/jdap_shadow.jpg" width="200" height="150"/> <p>Do you remember the game 'Mousetrap'? It involved fitting pieces onto a board, so that when a mouse was in the right place, a sequence of weird and wonderful events meant it got trapped - <span style="font-style: italic;">if</span> every piece was set up properly.</p><div> <br /></div><div>So here I am with my board set up, and here's what I think the sequence will be.</div><div><ul><li>I am emailing <a href="mailto:post@posterous.com">post@posterous.com</a> - which, by the way, is all you need to do to get your own account.<br /> </li><li><a href="http://www.posterous.com">Posterous</a> will add an entry to my mini-blog at <a href="http://jdap.posterous.com/">jdap.posterous.com</a> and send it to <a href="http://blog.parsonses.co.uk">blog.parsonses.co.uk</a> </li> <li><span style="font-style: italic;">After some time, </span>that new blog entry will get picked up by <a href="http://twitterfeed.com/">Twitterfeed</a>, which will generate a tweet beginning '[blog]' from <a href="http://twitter.com/jdap">my twitter id</a> </li> <li>The <span style="font-style: italic;">twitter</span> app on <a href="http://facebook.com">facebook</a> will fetch this and, as long as I haven't been tweeting too much, use it to update my status</li> </ul><div>Now, there's every chance one of these steps won't work. And, excitingly, there may be a loop somewhere that will gradually fill the Internet until it bursts.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not suggesting this is a sane, or even a useful, sequence. But it's interesting!</div> <div><br /></div><div>When I say 'my blog' I really mean the blog at <a href="http://blog.parsonses.co.uk">blog.parsonses.co.uk</a> that is really a (Google's) <a href="http://blogger.com">Blogger</a> free app. I can post to this by logging in or by emailing, and it gives me fine control. I'm not sure how (or whether) <a href="http://www.posterous.com">Posterous</a> lets me access controls such as tags, that group entries. The blog is my space (and indeed, I migrated it from <a href="http://www.myspace.com">Myspace</a> when that place began to irritate me too much). Even though it isn't really.</div> <div><br /></div><div>I use <a href="http://facebook.com">facebook</a> as a semi private space. I use it to host photos (with some control over who sees what) and for private conversations. I rarely go there spontaneously - it wants to be my home space but it's just too bloated, filling up with more junk every day. But I respond to email notifications - I've had a message, someone's commented on a photo or status update.</div> <div><br /></div><div>It took me a while to get the measure of <a href="http://twitter.com">twitter</a>. It's a very public social space, with text-like (SMS-like) tweets. The core is minimal - in fact, not terribly good as a user experience. But it's wide, wide open. Unlike <a href="http://facebook.com">facebook</a> (or <a href="http://www.secondlife.com">second life</a>) it doesn't declare itself to be the whole universe, and invite developers to work inside. It offers its capabilities raw to anyone, so that all kinds of interactions can have twitter as a component. I don't feel I'm missing out if I don't keep up to date with what's going on there. (Want to peep? I suggest <a href="http://twistori.com">twistori</a> as an interesting window into the more blog-like part of twitter; but to see the conversational aspect maybe <a href="http://twitter.com/stephenfry">Stephen Fry</a> is as good a starting place as any, if not quite normative. Or to see who's seen as interesting, try <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23followfriday">this</a>.)</div> <div><br /></div><div>I've watched <a href="http://posterous.com">posterous</a> mainly prompted by <a href="http://twitter.com/sdrb">twitter.com/sdrb</a>, who switched there from another site that could be used to feed photos to twitter. And now I'm dipping a toe in the water... My first impression is that it has aspirations to sweep up a lot of the value of all the above, without becoming bloatware like <a href="http://facebook.com">facebook</a> . And it does have an impressive range of connection capabilities: it looks a much better starting point than twitter if you are mini-blogging to feed other services, though it's not as satisfying an environment as <a href="http://blogger.com">Blogger</a> , <a href="http://wordpress.org/">Wordpress</a> or a host of other full-on blog/website services. What it is, is delightfully easy. Starting from that home page, it's one click for most people to start the blog, for instance if you use <a href="http://gmail.com">gmail/googlemail</a> that click is <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&to=post@posterous.com&su=jdap+helped+me+make+this+blog&body=Replace+the+email+subject+and+text+with+your+first+comment+and+hit+send%21+Include+pictures%2C+an+mp3%2C+or+anything+else+you+want+to+share.+It%27s+just+that+simple.&ui=1">this</a>, or for hotmail it's <a href="http://www.hotmail.msn.com/secure/start?action=compose&to=post@posterous.com&subject=jdap+helped+me+make+this+blog&body=Replace+the+subject+and+text+with+your+comment+and+hit+send%21+Include+pictures%2C+an+mp3%2C+or+anything+else+you+want+to+share.+It%27s+just+that+simple.">this</a>. Or maybe you use a mail program, in which case <a href="mailto:post@posterous.com?subject=jdap helped me make this blog&body=Replace the subject and text with your first comment and hit send! Include pictures, an mp3, or anything else you want to share. It's just that simple.">this</a> is the way to get started.</div> <div><br /></div><div>Go on. You know you want to. And if you are still on the edge of the world of social media, you know you <span style="font-style: italic;">should</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div> But, of course, all this falls down if my mousetrap is missing a piece.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here goes... If you find this, perhaps it even worked!</div></div><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://jdap.posterous.com/internet-mousetrap">JDAP posterous</a> </p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-24119273561343589922009-03-08T15:51:00.004+00:002009-03-08T16:44:27.956+00:00Finding my Voom!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SbP1gQTlVVI/AAAAAAAAAyM/WBiuMtF2CTQ/s1600-h/teamworld.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 202px; height: 152px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SbP1gQTlVVI/AAAAAAAAAyM/WBiuMtF2CTQ/s400/teamworld.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310858320081671506" border="0" /></a>There are lots of approaches to understanding how people relate to one another: there's every chance you've come across a few.<br /><p>One of the most useful in practical situations is Belbin's Team Inventory, which gives insights on how people work together (or how they don't!).</p><p>In this, I turn out to have two very strong peaks: top is Shaper (also called Driver), next is Plant.</p><p>Here's <a href="http://www.srds.co.uk/cedtraining/handouts/hand40.htm">a nice page</a> giving some succinct definitions.</p><p>Shapers like to make things happen; plants generate ideas. Now you already know quite a lot about what I do best: take an opportunity or a situation and generate new creative ideas; take someone's idea and turn it into reality.<br /></p><p>That's not a usual combination - in fact most definitions of Shaper suggest these are the last people to generate ideas. And most definitions of Plant suggest those people tend to be a bit removed from the practical 'how-to.' But I have a suspicion that 'type infinity' maths people may often show this combination: being able to do maths means plucking inspiration out of the void, then relentlessly haring down the answer.</p><p>An ideal team needs all the roles: the tool helps to build balanced teams and to understand the dynamics when people are operating out of their optimal team role. It's helped me to understand how to seek out individuals whose strengths lie in the other critical areas so that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts rather than less, which is the default for teamwork.<br /></p><p>By a fluke for which I can claim no credit at all, I've spent my whole working life either in or connected to startup businesses or companies considering major change. You won't be too surprised if I tell you that in my experience, startups don't start up and certainly don't succeed without someone being the shaper. You might be surprised that although it's my natural lead role, I don't particularly enjoy being the overall boss: my technical skill area is marketing and I'm happiest in the Marketing Director role where on the Board I lean to my Plant side - looking for new opportunities and new ways of seeing situations - while day-to-day I love to lead marketing operations.</p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SbP1fxGNwuI/AAAAAAAAAyE/df8D7ZeXDR4/s1600-h/chessmove.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 365px; height: 364px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SbP1fxGNwuI/AAAAAAAAAyE/df8D7ZeXDR4/s400/chessmove.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310858311704101602" border="0" /></a>For similar reasons I secretly enjoy working a way down the organisation with teams that have something great but maybe not the political clout to deliver. (And in this context I take secret delight in turning finance people into effective sales pitchers: more than once that's been the secret weapon that's got projects resourced and executed.)</p><p>It also helps explain what can also seem like a contradiction: I'm a tactical strategist. The maths thing again seems to deliver without much conscious effort insight into big strategic issues; then the shaper kicks in to act.<br /></p><p>So you can ask me what Voom! is. It is, of course, what Dr Seuss's Little Cat Z produces from under a hat to sort out the mess. And it's that bit of me that I've had to hog-tie in college, because it's always straining to make things happen, and frustrated when people set their sights too low and achieve even lower. </p><p>I'm enjoying letting my Voom! out again, if only for short bursts.<br /></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-16710475252826617472009-03-01T15:44:00.006+00:002009-03-04T05:49:09.207+00:00Faith as risk<p>I've been training towards C of E ordination and a full-time paid curacy. Now that's in question. Here's the story, or its bones at least.</p><p>Selection is understood as a process of discernment - the object being to understand if the sense of call to ministry is experienced by the individual and recognised as appropriate and timely by the church. My call came in 1984. How it came and how I was on the run for over twenty years is a whole other story. Buy me a beer and I'll tell you.</p><p>Right in the middle of the selection process, as a family we decided we were going to move to Cambridge. Our timing couldn't have been worse in so many ways: it was a costly move in a lot of ways, but also one which we experienced as totally right. This felt like a calling too - and not just to me individually this time.</p><p>It meant a jitter in the selection process, but Ely Diocese (Cambridge is part of Ely from the C of E's point of view) put me back just a couple of steps, not right back to the beginning. I was selected, and accepted at Ridley Hall (theological college) and by Sidney Sussex (matriculating college), hallelujah! </p><p>Also costly, though. A couple of years of minimal (but still generous - who else pays people to train these days?) financial support, another tranche of downsizing. But we knew, at least, that at the end would be a curacy which would provide a family home and an income (stipend in church-speak - money paid to enable ministry, not technically a salary).</p><p>A seismic moment came last July, <a href="http://blog.parsonses.co.uk/2008/07/mission-is-possible.html">when I learned that that curacy wouldn't be in the Diocese</a>. On reflection, this was an opportunity to rethink things that might have saved some trouble. Oh, the joy of rear-view mirror vision! However, after a couple of false starts I found and agreed a curacy: if you're on our Christmas card list you've had the details.</p><p>And now, after serious reflection and what I would again describe as call we have now agreed not to take that up. It's possible that something else will come up that meets our circumstances, but it's an unlikely possibility.</p><p>Where does that lead? Very probably it means finding work outside the church for the near-term. Lots of wise friends and associates are contributing to that decision; the key choice is something we'll have to make this month.</p><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/Saq4V2jU-pI/AAAAAAAAAxE/GV0XppyS4Dw/s400/Aglow.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 307px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308257796370004626" /><p>I'm excited and alarmed in roughly equal measure. I have strong marketing credentials and a passion for business, but now isn't a great time to be getting back into the market, especially after a two year break. </p><p>My thinking at the moment is that I'll rebuild my portfolio career - combining work with small and startup businesses with projects for larger businesses in the technology space. And I know there's a great deal of risk in that. So here's my own challenge of discernment - is embracing <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">that</span> risk together with the risk of faith in Jesus Christ where God is calling me?</p><p>Somehow even the thought is energising, nourishing. And, yes, scary. Not very much like the comfortable talk of 'living on the edge' in lecture rooms. That would be a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">good</span> thing.</p><p>Putting this on my blog feels like a big risk in itself. Because we've swapped tracks from a route where things are clear and safe from any outsider's point of view, to one that has a whole lot more questions than answers. Honesty is potentially rather costly.</p><p>So if you're the praying type, do feel free to adopt the Parsons family as a cause to place before God. And if not, well, say one anyway, what harm could that do?</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-55367329494658658682009-02-24T13:41:00.003+00:002009-02-24T17:32:29.278+00:00The Church of England says Tweet, Tweet, Tweet<p>I'm (we bloggers are...) asked to post a link to <a href="http://twitter.com/c_of_e">the C of E's Twitter page</a> so, loyal type that I am, here goes.</p><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SaQvFTxQBxI/AAAAAAAAAwM/EldRpa8Wieg/s400/twee2.JPG" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 66px; height: 73px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306418029201983250" /><p>For those of you who haven't peeped out of your virtual nest and tweeted yet, maybe this could get you there. I'm encouraged.</p><p>The request came as follows:</p><p></p><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">May we ask all those of you who blog to mention our twitter url. We want to have a big community of people helping others this Lent.</span></blockquote><p>to which I tweeted back<br /></p><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">@c_of_e yes... what form will this community take? (did I miss something?)</span></blockquote><p>but I'm still waiting for a reply. So it may be that this is slightly less of a dynamic entry into the twitterverse than it appeared.<br /></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-91680418469331900132009-02-22T09:09:00.006+00:002009-02-22T09:31:17.067+00:00Proposal for a new word: Implanation<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SaEaIJerDYI/AAAAAAAAAvs/TEGP8eFR5C4/s1600-h/Copy+of+IMG_0128.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305550563305000322" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 235px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SaEaIJerDYI/AAAAAAAAAvs/TEGP8eFR5C4/s400/Copy+of+IMG_0128.JPG" border="0" /></a>The air is full of politicians offering <em>implanations</em>. They call for 'more responsible lending' - sorry, where's this irresponsible lending happening today??? - and contend that (if already in power) we would have avoided problems if only we had followed their principles; or else (if they are not presently in power) their insight would have prevented the crash. <p>So my proposal is this:</p><p><strong>Implanation</strong></p><ol><li>The act of identifying in current events vindication for past or present political policies, programmes or principles.</li><li>An implausible logical sequence that fully exonerates the speaker</li></ol><p>I encourage you to try this for size in conversation. </p><p>See you in the OED appendix.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-59433309297644793522009-02-19T06:49:00.003+00:002009-02-19T14:17:40.098+00:00Making an Impact<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SZ0D_tQY-6I/AAAAAAAAAvc/_6_aKCz-Sz0/s1600-h/Copy+of+R0030051.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 193px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SZ0D_tQY-6I/AAAAAAAAAvc/_6_aKCz-Sz0/s400/Copy+of+R0030051.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304400329127295906" /></a><br /><p></p><p>I am packed and compact, as moment melts to moment<br />For I live in minus-time. I own the countdown,<br />Know its cause, anticipate its result,<br />Even exult in the confident uncertainty <br />Of acceleration.</p><p>Yours is the aim, yours the goal, yours the eye:<br />What shall I say? That trust is past or promise lost?<br />By no means. I expect and do not fear<br />To be flung and tumbled free into such air.<br />But I <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">do </span>fear the recoil.</p><p></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-56431746660636187512009-02-16T07:44:00.009+00:002009-02-16T08:45:27.224+00:00Bring on the asset-strippers, really<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SZkm3gxdGyI/AAAAAAAAAvU/aaY5rmWe2mo/s1600-h/JPside.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 147px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SZkm3gxdGyI/AAAAAAAAAvU/aaY5rmWe2mo/s400/JPside.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303312771337493282" /></a>Through a series of fortunate events, I had my first taste of a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">startup</span> business between school and college. I was the first paid employee of a software business in 1983. I'd taught myself to program from books in the days you didn't see computers, hand coding, hand running and testing, and put that into more practical use when Acorns turned up at school. Three of us sixth formers had even set up a tiny enterprise selling game and utility software we'd written to people at computer shows. Then I found myself surrounded by experienced computer people, something of a dream come true.</p><p>So I saw and got involved in innovation without ever naming it as such. We sold other people's software and developed our own. Before Windows, before the direct forerunners of the PC, there was no guarantee programs would work properly. One of the things I used to do was to debug other people's programs, for instance finding out why one spreadsheet was a memory hog, why another word processor messed up the screen display on the systems that were our focus. Debug meant running them in a debugger, step by step with no access to source code. Usually I tracked down the problem, I'd write a bit of fixing code, find somewhere to insert it and update our software masters. And that was one of the reasons we got a reputation of selling the same software you could buy from three bigger distributors for higher prices but with better value.</p><p>My job title was support programmer; I felt the problems from customers and took action to fix them at source. There was no-one else to do it, so I did it myself. I was given freedom to do this, and the wiser heads of my bosses found ways to turn these skills into differentiation. Lots of things to do, so few of us to do them, and the urgent daily need to sell things and keep the door open. Hunger makes good kitchen. I moved into marketing when I realised (was helped to realise) that my core skill was practical strategic insight.</p><p>Through a corporate career, I consciously tried to keep that thinking going, and whatever my day job I sought out people with small businesses or new ideas who would like fresh eyes. And I developed a reputation for being someone whose advice was worth having and whose plans tended to work, even if (typical mathematician) my reasoning was sometimes utterly unintelligible.</p><p>I was - and remain - excited that large enterprises have the resources to achieve amazing things; I was - and remain - <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">convinced</span> that most large enterprises tend to continually self-organise to prevent this ever happening. The best results can come from skunk-works: semi-authorised, resource-strapped, teams ready to be audacious and take risks. I've done some; and I've had to terminate some that haven't delivered.</p><p>Excuse the I-fest. This is intensely personal experience.</p><p>In times of turmoil, what we can be sure of is this: what used to work may fail; what used to define excellence may have become toxic; what can't be done can after all, perhaps.</p><p>The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Gadarene</span> banking swine, possessed by a spirit of - well, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">you</span> choose - galloped off the cliff. The UK Government caught them in fall, with the result that Legion is now free to rampage.</p><p>So we the people have become leading shareholders in banks. The Government wants no part in day-to-day operations, lacking the expertise, so we have incremental change and business-as-usual. Banks don't lend, because the model is the same. They loved their own astonishing risk-taking because they either misunderstood it or calculated that personally it was a win-win, even if (as it has) it all went wrong. And now they hate everyone <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">else's</span> risk, because what used to be the heartbeat of their operation, the local banking team, is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">de</span>-skilled and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">disempowered</span>.</p><p>Breathe deeply now. Are you ready?</p><p>The Government needs to get the best asset-strippers in the country (and yes, we do have some of the best in the world) on the case on our behalf. </p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">They</span> are the people who can make good decisions about how to deal with organisational structures, remuneration policy and junk operations. </p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">They</span> are the people who will find the profit opportunity on the ground - the opportunity that derives directly from the risk in small and medium-sized businesses and their need for borrowing. <br /></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">They</span> are the people who will rewrite the rules and reshape the products to deliver on that opportunity.</p><p>'Business as usual' seems to be shaping up as the worst of all possible worlds: printing money to prop up failing monoliths, with loose change left over for gesture politics, and the reality of surging unemployment. 'Wise heads' nodding that this is what it means to make the best of a bad job.</p><p>We need an economic surge. And that must come from the real resource - people freed to think and act creatively, to collaborate and share (redundant) skills. Dragon's Den in every coffee bar. And a benefits system that recognises that this is no worse, and may be infinitely better, than sending off yet another CV for a 5% chance of an interview.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-86835141346798277632009-02-05T14:28:00.006+00:002009-02-05T15:35:34.050+00:00Social media: being and doing church in public<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SYsFY8DKMiI/AAAAAAAAAuc/sZI5f-SFweI/s320/Copy+of+Friendly+Crowd.JPG" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299335312525898274" />Here's a great article, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://davefleet.com/2009/02/8-questions-to-ask-your-social-media-expert/">8 Questions to Ask Your "Social Media Expert"</a></span><p></p><p>Now, <a href="http://blog.parsonses.co.uk/2007/11/to-communicate-is-to-make-oneself.html">I've already commented about a year ago</a> in response to a negative view of blogging amongst churchy types. Funnily enough, I'm more hopeful that the same fear response won't be repeated in the social media space.</p><p>Why am I more hopeful? Five very good reasons.</p><p></p><ol><li>Contemporary social media is<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "> so alien</span> to lots of people, but also<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "> so natural</span> to lots of others, that it's becoming just another one of those things like cricket, beer and dyed hair - some do, some don't, where's the beef?<br /></li><li>Churches are pretty much by definition dispersed communities that struggle with issues of internal communication. Social media can - and increasingly does - fill that gap beautifully. Square peg, square hole.</li><li><a href="http://twitter.com/alantlwilson">At least one Bishop</a> is active on twitter - hallelujah! [And if you want to follow me and dip just a single toe into twitdom, sign up and follow alantwilson]</li><li>"In Christ" is a great place to be: it's my experience that relationships between Christians tend to form faster, go deeper and mix wider than in any other context. But. The coin has a flip-side - it's easy not to notice that churchy friendships have squeezed out the other ones. Good news! Social networks are great places to chat with anyone and everyone, especially if you're willing to put up with a bit of rib-poking about being so unhip as to think Jesus is da man ;)</li><li>Social media can be a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">truly humanising </span>place, where people can flourish through distinctiveness, relationship and communication, whoever, wherever and however they are. It's a C21 trinitarian story. No, really.</li></ol><p></p><p>So what's the connection with the article? </p><p>Well, one of the ways that people misunderstand what it is to be church is the horrendous norm of niceness.</p><p>That's why we don't know how to say, or how to hear, "I don't think you know what you're talking about." It's a place where all too often people who want to claim expertise often can and do exactly that.</p><p>So in spite of being optimistic, a nagging voice says: no. The church is in the business of communication, and is royally bad at it in public media at every level. If we let the wannabe experts be the opinion formers in the social media space, God help us.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-14723163283203190602009-02-01T17:55:00.004+00:002009-02-16T09:04:58.182+00:00Atheist bus revisited<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SYXjRrGOkCI/AAAAAAAAAtM/EhVHf_IQ0sM/s1600-h/athbus-02.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SYXjRrGOkCI/AAAAAAAAAtM/EhVHf_IQ0sM/s400/athbus-02.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297890429437382690" /></a><br /><p>Thanks to <a href="http://bishopalan.blogspot.com/2009/02/relax-enjoy-personalised-atheist-buses.html">Bishop Alan</a> for the <a href="http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/">link</a>!</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-82182690159438854142009-01-28T10:11:00.006+00:002009-01-28T10:53:01.678+00:00Telecom Twit-tering<div>One strictly for telco or business types, if this isn't you then may I suggest visiting <a href="http://catoftheday.com/">this site</a>?</div><div><p>Here's a quote from a telecom analyst, Sharifah Amirah reported in Total Telecom:</p></div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"While I appreciate that a lot of services still exist in silos, operators need to use consumer analytics tools to provide a personalised experience, including location-based services with what we call proximity-based marketing," she explained. </span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Amirah also said the recession will enable telcos to refocus.<br /></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"The downturn provides an opportunity for large operators to streamline their businesses, and re-evaluate their strategies," she said.</span></blockquote></div><div>Sometimes it's great to be long in the tooth, and I mean no disrespect - I've seen and read a lot of similar stuff recently. And I know this is what operator managers are saying - that's why you're saying it too. But even where it's not platitudinous it's wrong-headed. <p>Here are some telco thoughts for recessionary times:</p></div><div><ol></ol></div><div><ul><li>In a recession, beware yesterday's great idea. I was at the Telecom conference in Geneva a decade ago and saw loads of location-based service hype, generally turning into the excitement of 'proximity based marketing'. One day something like this will happen, maybe, but just because it sounds novel doesn't mean it's life-changing. And if it <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">is</span> life-changing, it's going to be hard to do. Meanwhile life <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">has</span> changed, but not much in mobile world.<br /></li><li>In a recession, the winner is the one who makes stuff better and better. Trim out the fat, for sure, but that's not the starting point. The starting point is how can we do more for our customers, give them a better experience. Next step is how can we organise ourselves to deliver those positive changes. And a natural by-product of step two is what can we stop doing, do less of or do more efficiently.<br /></li><li>In <i>this</i> recession, developed world operators get the chance to work hands-on in <i>the</i> important area: how to grow profits by serving the poor. We're all a lot poorer all of a sudden. Practise on us. Because that's where the main growth opportunity sits.<br /></li></ul><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SYA35BR4DnI/AAAAAAAAAs0/1CprfiY4N5c/s320/Please+Think+Creatively.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 314px; height: 235px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296294614523186802" />And here are some thoughts for mobile operators.<br /></div><div><p></p></div><div><ol><li>Fix the basics.</li><li>Fix the basics.</li><li>Fix the basics.</li></ol></div><div><p>Imagine a world where picture messaging just <i>works</i>. Where internet browsing just <i>works</i>.</p><p>You pretend it does now, but it doesn't. Unless 95% of people are confident that it really does work and you don't have to think about it, it doesn't work. What's the figure now? Nothing like that. Why not? Because yesterday's experience persists into today. Because the truth of the matter is you're not making it work. Because you're obsessing so much about churn avoidance that you've sacrificed a good consumer experience now for the warm glow you experience from thinking how lousy you can make it for the consumer or handset that goes to another operator. Because you're so desperate to think of everything that's not P2P phone calls and SMS as 'added value' when most of your market is ready to turn that on its head. </p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Always connected </span>is the big story, and phone calls and SMS are the least interesting bit of that. You know that's true for you. Why do you assume it's not for your customers? Are you using email? facebook? twitter? and blogging? Any or all of the above? If not, go try. If yes, stop looking in the mirror and start thinking how to get out of your customers' way when they want that stuff by making it easy and value-priced. </p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Forget anticipating or shaping their needs until you've proved you can serve the ones you're missing right now.</span></p><p>Then while your competitors are busy thinking how to minimise revenue loss, you can look after your customers and move on to theirs.</p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-68111068531971704172009-01-24T22:23:00.003+00:002009-01-25T01:02:38.160+00:00A Worm's Eye View<p>Better late than never... (Or not, you judge.) One of the things we are meant to do at least once in training is preach a short homily to the college at Morning Prayer on a Thursday. My turn came on 27 November last, when the set readings were <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2041:8-20;&version=72;">Isaiah 41:8-20</a> and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2016:12-20;&version=72;">Revelation 16:12-20</a>. (We generally use the New Revised Standard Version, some of the references may be more obvious from there. If you like, you should find the exact text <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=99836352">here</a> and <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=99836454">here</a>.)</p><p>There are some interesting discussions on the precise translation of a couple of the words in the Isaiah passage in commentaries, and common Bible versions take slightly different lines. Nothing very evidently at stake theologically, and I resisted every temptation to get involved in that...</p><p>Here's what I said:</p><p></p><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>There’s nothing glamorous about a worm. If they’re famous for anything, it’s their propensity to mistake almost any vibration for rain, bringing them to the surface. The world record for charming worms – bringing them to the surface by thumping a garden fork with a lump of wood – is 511 worms in a three by three metre area in thirty minutes. So they’re <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">not</span> famously intelligent and they’re<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> not</span> celebrated for their value in battle. “<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A worm, a worm, my kingdom for a worm.</span>” I don’t think so.</blockquote><blockquote>“Do not fear, you worm Jacob,” says the LORD in the Isaiah reading. Well, it’s hardly flattering, is it? At a time of great political change, when empires are on the move and nations are falling, Israel is small, weak, pathetic, divided, irrelevant, a worm. Perhaps that’s how they are being made fun of; perhaps that’s how they’ve started to think of themselves.</blockquote><blockquote>Perhaps that’s how we’ve started to think of ourselves: “You worm, Ridley. What can you possibly achieve, huddled in here day after day with your prayer books? No-one wants you, no-one is listening to you, you aren’t going to command wealth, or power, or even respect. You worm.”</blockquote><blockquote>It’s in the moment of desolation that God’s voice speaks most clearly. “<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">I have chosen you</span> and not cast you off... I will strengthen you, I will help you... Do not fear, you worm... your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,” says the LORD.</blockquote><blockquote>It is because you are of no account, because your pride in who you thought you were or who you thought you would become has been shattered by the bitter experience of reality, because you have given up the illusion of importance, that God will once again choose you, that God will comfort and change you, that God will strengthen and use you. </blockquote><blockquote>This spineless worm in God’s hand will crush mountains, and will see the thirsty drinking from clear streams, and the dispossessed dancing as the desert bursts into life.</blockquote><blockquote>“I am a worm, not a human being,” says the Psalm that begins “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When it seems to all the world that the promise has failed, that your hope is hopeless, be patient. In a little while – a hundred years, or a lifetime, or three days time – God will turn everything upside down.</blockquote><blockquote>When that happens, when that surely and certainly happens, when after days or after years or after a lifetime you see the desert flowering before your eyes, nobody will be able to say it was because of you. </blockquote><blockquote>No. They will marvel on that day. They will curse or they will bless God, but they will see and know, they will consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.</blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Amen</span></blockquote><div><br /></div></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><p></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314289867737247383.post-35917628283185928912009-01-17T23:51:00.004+00:002009-01-18T00:03:19.696+00:00The University of Cambridge and the Diocese of Ely are 800 years old<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SXJvmzs9QII/AAAAAAAAAso/9FWK-zt1dL4/s1600-h/R0029469.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 178px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T3nob9kyz4M/SXJvmzs9QII/AAAAAAAAAso/9FWK-zt1dL4/s320/R0029469.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292415224618238082" /></a><p>On the first Saturday of Lent Term there was a ringing of bells and a light show to mark the start of the 800th anniversary celebrations</p><p>Actually we went to an event (a lecture on the 'Horrible Science of Cambridge') before Christmas that was also the start. Well, it's a big occasion, why not start a few times...</p><p>More photos are <a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81566&l=6e83b&id=670216802">here</a> and there's a video to give you more of a feel of what it was like <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cZLOUnTFWtE">here</a>, then there's University stuff <a href="http://www.800.cam.ac.uk/">here</a> and Diocese of Ely stuff (founded at the same time) <a href="http://www.ely.anglican.org/news_events/media/press/details.html?id=101">here</a>.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15778324760673446156noreply@blogger.com0