In our rush to return to 'normal' I think we need to stop and think if what we were doing before as 'normal' was in reality working!

This last 15 months has shown us that a lot of what was essential we can do differently and life still works! For example many can quite happily sit at home and work without the need to be physically together in an office. We can easily run a meeting on Zoom without the need to spend (often) several hours travelling to a venue to be together. We can be connected and do community from our sofa.

I am finding physical meetings have become a time of value that is more focussed on the people and not the business agenda. A refocus on building one another up: supporting, connecting, valuing time spent in one another's presence.

This is a great opportunity to press pause and be creative with new ways of doing.

The world I find myself in the most is connected to charities, organisations and church. Maybe this is a great time to press pause on what this sector does and return to the simplicity of what we do! Certainly within Christian organisations our simplicity should be around love God and love people - all we are about should be a demonstration as to the reality of this (and recognise that God can be at work through all and in all!)

I found this the other day on Facebook written be a former pastor Jim Palmer (in relation to church life) and think it can be really helpful as we re-discover and be creative in the days ahead:

​Putting church over community
Putting orthodoxy over love.
Putting certainty over wonder.
Putting teaching over conversation.
Putting polished over real.
Putting explanations over empathy.
Putting answers over questions.
Putting membership over friendship.
Putting prayer over action.
Putting services over self-care.
Putting style over substance.
Putting appearance over authenticity.
Putting functionality over beauty.
Putting religion over spirituality.
Putting numbers over faces.
Putting holiness over humanity.
Putting accountability over acceptance.
Putting heaven over earth.
Putting meetings over relationships.
Putting reputation over risk.
Putting superiority over humility.
Putting charisma over compassion.
Putting the afterlife over the herelife.
Putting doctrine over reason.
Putting hierarchy over equality.

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From Reviews:

"Paul is one of the most friendly, kindest and inspirational people I have had the pleasure to meet. To get it out there I have a pagan heart, Paul has always respected this and has always included me in everything and I respect him fully for this. I have had the pleasure if working alongside and supporting Street Angels and also have jumped into the odd zoom Christian Service and found him an eloquent speaker and a friend to all. His Street Angels book is a favourite read and if not for his vision I think there would’ve been a lot of discord and lives lost on the streets at night."

"With a real heart to ‘seek the peace and prosperity of the city’, Paul has an inspiring track record of transformational initiatives that help the church to love the people in front of them in practical ways."