Myspace & culture

I’ve spent a lot of time talking with friends on shaping culture, the cultural mandate and how the gospel includes our interaction with culture. Tuesday night I’m leading our small group 2nd study in the Society Room study, this time looking at how culture can be impacted by the church if Christianity is around for the next 1000 years, and what it would mean for the church to think long term, rather than just assuming Jesus will return in our lifetime (as the church effectively has been for 2000 years - there are some exceptions, e.g. Navigators). One of our small groupers has been blogging his thoughts, which are very interesting. Kevin Kelly of wired magazine is the author of the article the study is based round.

So in thinking about all this, I was amused last night to hear a song by Scouting for Girls (am ashamed to say I’d never heard of them…….culturally aware I am not) called “you looked fitter in your myspace picture“, which is about a guy who met up with an old school friend on myspace, thought she looked great and so met up in person, only to find out it was a false picture. What blew me away, apart from the amusing lyrics, was that myspace and facebook are making it into music jargon, and are already shaping culture. And they’ve been around how long? It just demonstrates how rapidly things are changing.

4015 days thank you very much

Saturday May 10th was my 11th wedding anniversary. We spent the day watching Hearts versus Kilmarnock and then driving 150 miles round trip to see my sister and brother in law before they head back to Australia. So I didn’t blog about the anniversary then (not because they were more important!), but this one’s for Kathy.

Getting married has just about been the greatest choice I’ve ever made, and Kathy has been a great best friend and joy to me, as well as the perfect partner for life. She’s quiet, humble, wise, godly and has a real heart for helping and caring and opening up our home to others and sharing in her baking! I love being married, and after eleven years we find ourselves finishing each others sentences, and working out when the other is about to play a practical joke just before we carry it out The best part of coming to Edinburgh has just been being able to spend more time with each other, and to share our dreams and life experiences. We have some big things ahead of us in coming months (India, potential job changes etc) but what’s exciting is we can do them together.

So thanks for eleven years Kathy, I love you loads.

New lists and new people

I’ve been changing the list of people’s blogs I read (on the RHS) and adding some other sites I find of interest. You’ll find the ones from North America have changed the most, but I’ve also taken out a few from the UK (including Edinburgh) that were not getting a lot of my time, or have stopped being updated. Hopefully no offence caused!

It’s great to hear who reads this - current stats are around 80-100 visitors a day (albeit I had 255 on Wed when I was blogging around the job cuts…..) and whilst I know some, I don’t know who (or indeed why) all of you are. I really appreciate the time you take to read this, and to participate in the conversations. One of my hopes for the blog this year was that there would be more dialogue, more sharing and more feedback - that’s starting and so thanks for that. I think the next year will see some interesting changes.

It would be great if you’re one of the readers to just leave a comment with your name, where you are from in the world and how you ended up here. Even if you have never ever commented on a blog before! Just write it in the comments box and press submit. It’s something I do every now and again, to see who visits.

Thanks again for reading, and do check out the people on the right, there are some very thought provoking people there.

What food crisis?

This is a sandwich I was served in the US. Absolutely insane.

Shane Claiborne - a new book

Today I received in the post a copy of Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne’s new book written in collaboration with many others. I’m looking forward to reading that, and it was a real surprise to be sent a free copy. Another Shane-esque individual highlighted by Jamie is Jarrod McKenna in Australia. All three live life in a way that I find personally very challenging and makes me wonder why I seem/am so non-committal.

Anyway, check out their blogs and take time this year to read Shane Claiborne’s book.

Agent versus owner

In a context of job cuts and restructurings and downsizings, it’s appropriate to consider what the role of a manager of a business is. Current business thinking looks differently at those companies that are managed by their owners (privately held) and those listed on the stock market where there is an agent (the manager) who looks after the business for the owner. There are significant impacts in times like these as to how an agent will behave versus an owner.

The agent

The agent’s job is effectively to execute the interests of the owners. This obviously involves obeying the law, complying with regulation, and maximising the value of the company. Anything else (such as compassion, corporate and social responsibility, long-term thinking) may all be held personally by the agents or incorporated into the corporate culture. However, these all must come second to the interests of the owner - after all it is their company, their capital and their right to direct the operations of the manager.

The owner

The owner can usually take a longer term view. However, if the owner is an institutional investor, such as a pension fund, then they have to take into account their mandate to their investors or savers, which is to maximise the value of those investments or savings. So it all comes back to people who invest in ISA’s, or pension funds, or take out insurance. And do you (as those are you in general) actually demand an ethical policy, or non value maximising criteria written into your policies and savings documents? Don’t blame fat cat bosses, when the root of the problem is often at an earlier stage of the capital market process.

So to me, a lot of the problem stems from the agent/owner separation. This is always going to happen on public markets. It leaves the agent having to maximise profits and hence value, unless the investing institutions give a new mandate as to what their interests are.

• Is it fair to not blame the bosses?
• Have you ever invested in a socially responsible way? I expect few have.

Welcome to wandering: wondering

Would just like to highlight a new blog. Anna is a student and I met her through our local community of Jesus Followers over the last year when Kathy and I were helping out with the college students. She’s Irish and musical and is new to the blogscene. Do something nice and pop over, say hello, and add her to the blogroll.

The blog is entitled wandering: wondering which is a great name.

Good to see more and more people in our faith community getting into blogging. This very point has been raised by my good friend at DISCPL (I don’t disagree on the sentiments albeit I was somewhat embarassed to be described in that way by mbc as I don’t deserve that for my unconsidered ramblings…. - not sure you can have considered ramblings….).

The job cuts begin?

According to Forth One, a local radio station, my employer has begun job cuts. The story is here below and can be found at the Forth One website:

Forth News can reveal Edinburgh financial giant Hbos is axing 90 jobs across the UK. Around half the affected positions will go in the capital. The cutbacks are in the bank’s corporate division which employs around 1,000 people. It is part of an on-going review. A spokesman for the bank said: “Like all debt providers, Bank of Scotland Corporate constantly reviews its operations to ensure that it has the right level of staff to meet the needs of the business. We have decided to reduce the staffing levels by around 90 posts in various locations across the UK. The relevant teams have seen significant growth in recent years and currently employ around 1,000 people.”

It has been a strange day at work. If you get made redundant, or put at risk of redundancy, a standard process for any major employer, particularly a bank, is as follows: the employee is called to the top floor (usually by being called on the phone by senior management) and meets with human resources and a senior manager. A standard script is read out verbatim and the employee signs a piece of paper. Then the employee leaves and is offered the opportunity to leave the building and return later to get belongings, or as is the more normal route, the opportunity to return to their desk and collect their personal belongings whilst under the close scrutiny and supervision of a senior manager. The employee is then walked to the front door at which point they return their pass and equipment. Pretty grim, pretty impersonal but absolutely consistent with the letter of the law. Job cuts are never good, never unavoidable, and it’s one of the worst things you have to do as a senior manager.

I still have my job. The story above would suggest that the impact of the credit crisis is getting closer and closer to home all the time. Grim times.

My sister’s wedding

A couple of pictures from sister’s wedding from yesterday. This is my younger brother and I, and my younger sister and I. It was a great day, and we welcomed some Aussie’s into the family.

A heavenly view

Got pointed to this article today (HT Hannah) which is very much a summary of NT Wright’s book “Surprised by Hope”. I’ve not read all of the book yet, but it looks very interesting. The concepts discussed in here have been things I’ve been thinking through and I find them more widely accepted in than I had understood. I also think this is a critical part of a four part gospel story, and God restoring ALL things. 

- What about you? What’s your understanding of heaven as set out in the bible (after all, that’s all we have to go on)?

- If heaven IS going to be back on earth, how is that impacting on how you view your treatment of the earth?

- If heaven is on earth, what does that mean for Hell? How can God restore all things if Hell still exists?