CHURCH
A Country rises or falls by its leadership. Make no mistake, the ecclesia of Christ are first called to lead by example. You are the Light of the World. One of the key features of a healthy human body is coordination between its organs. The Body of Christ is uncoordinated and fragmented. One of the key features of Islam is that you are first a Muslim before colour or creed. Unity and cooperation is key to the future of Christendom in Britain. By this I do not necessarily mean the historic model, but a biblical model of incarnation and servant-leadership. The Church and State divide has led to Secularism....a soulless society and a country divorced of conscience. The journey ‘back’ will take a lot of wisdom, patience and character.
CORPORATE
By corporate I refer to the marketplace, commerce, business, the workplace, the judiciary, education and government. Jesus said go into ALL the World... He also said ‘I have come to save THAT which was lost’. The great commission is not just about saving Souls but also salvaging Systems. There is a need to support and raise a crop of highly successful professionals and entrepreneurs as a showpiece to cities and counties .A prophetic statement that there is an alternate and fair way to govern, transact, teach and lead.
COMMUNITY
I will deftly define community as a collection of people within a loosely demarcated geographic or ideological sphere who have a common sense of belonging, identity, history, experience or worldview. If the Country is the substance, Community the molecule then Family is the atom. By family, I refer to both the Nuclear and Extended prototypes.
Any wise government will place this societal atom in the epicentre of all its policy portraits. The family is the nerve ending of society. Strong families equate to strong economies and reduced vice statistics. The heads of families should be supported, trained equipped to lead their clans. The tension between the classic Tory/Labour forms of government may always exist. The choice between state run industry versus family/business empires is an age long debate. I dare say it is not either or but both/and.
COHESION
We need to mature out of our nervousness of heterogeneous and homogenous communities. Both are legit. Asylum seekers, immigrants and ethnic minorities should be made to feel as British as Mrs Joan Smith with a genealogy dating back to the 12th century. Post Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbie, I would love to see a Britain at ease with itself on the issues of race and nationhood. In Newham where I work alongside colleagues and friends from various nationalities and faiths, I see the dawning of a vision.
Transform Newham, which is a loose affiliation of various Churches, has made giant strides to achieve a level of cohesion rarely seen amongst Christian Leaders. I believe the same principles can be grafted regionally and nationally. If you can unite Christian Leaders then you can unite anybody!!
