Keep on Learning

When I was about six years old my school diagnosed me as being ‘educationally sub-normal’ (a less politically correct term for what is now labelled ‘special needs’). After a few one-on-one lessons with the headmistress (during which I demonstrated a technique for observing the way that snails propel themselves and created an elaborate full-size painting of a native American chief, complete with headdress made from real feathers), they realized I was not ESN, but simply bored.

Not that they did much to alleviate my boredom.

A year or so later I remember ‘sneaky-reading’ a book about a grizzly bear. It was a more difficult book than I was supposed to be able to read and I imagined that I would get into trouble if caught reading it; so I would sneak it out of a friends tray when no-one was looking and read a chapter or two before sneaking it back again.

Madness.

I was interested in snails and red indians and bears. I wasn’t interested in most of what school was attempting to teach me – and would probably have learnt more (and certainly been happier) had I been allowed to stay at home and collect lizards and build dens in the patch of waste ground at the top of our road.

Despite these early educational frustrations, I have always been interested in learning, just so long as it is something that I have an interest in.

Today I travel to South Africa and to two churches that have been formative in my learning about Jesus and his plan for his Church. Jubilee Church in Cape Town is where I came back to faith after two years of teenage wandering, and where I began to learn about ministry to the poor and to observe church leadership in a different way from how I had previously. I’m looking forward to being back there, and preaching there for the first time. Godfirst Church in Johannesburg is the only megachurch where I personally know the lead elder, and PJ Smyth is someone who knows more about leadership than I will ever be able to grasp. As well as teaching and preaching in a number of settings while there I’m excited about the opportunity to pick PJ’s brains again.

I’m looking forward to learning lots on this trip – I don’t want to be spiritually ESN!

Nothing Doing

Sometimes deliberate inaction is a leaders best policy, and one that I can't help thinking David Cameron should have followed over yesterdays vote on a European referendum. By making the vote (which wouldn't in any case have bound the Government to holding a referendum) a three line whip, the Prime Minister provoked a confrontation with his backbenchers that he needn't have had. He may claim that, "There's no, on my part, no bad blood, no rancour, no bitterness," but this is difficult to believe when prior to the vote all MPs were warned that defying the whip would mean an end to any hopes of promotion. A wiser course for the Government might have been to ignore the debate and underplay it as much as possible - rather than exacerbate the entrenched Euro-tensions in the Conservative Party.


Sometimes it's best to walk away from a fight, rather than face it up. But choosing when to do so is tricky. 


Church leaders often face these kind of dilemmas too. Inaction and passivity are fatal to a leaders credibility and authority, but picking the wrong battle can be equally undermining. David Cameron is weaker rather than stronger today because of how yesterday played out. That's a mistake not to make.