finger in all the pies

Life is a rollercoaster

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:07:00 +0000

Free images from
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The past few months life has been (and continues to be) a rollercoaster and this one has several loop the loops. It has one loop the loop called home, one called school, one called children, one called work, and several other mini twists and turns. And, to paraphrase Anthony Newley's musical.... "Stop the rollercoaster I want to get off!".

I am sure that what we are going through now will change us (it has already); it will bring us wisdom (to know ourselves more and to be more aware of what other want, do or need); and it will strengthen us (our current struggles help us prepare us for future trials).

Earlier this month I heard The Very Rev'd Dr Jeffrey John speak at St Michael's Church here in Bishops Stortford about the Resurrection. He compared Christ's resurrection to our own physical birth which is a form of death to our lives in the safety of the womb, indeed all through our lives there are times of death and acknowledgement of change. One might call the whole of our lives an ongoing resurrection, each little death brings life if we choose to see and live it. Or as Charlie Hall puts it in The Second Alive, "we come alive, when we lose our life".

If you are reading this - and know me and my family - the odds are that you are one of the many people that have encouraged, helped and supported me and my family through these last few difficult months and years. Thank you so much for your support, care, kind words and prayers.

Six Things - Carrie Mann

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:16:00 +0000

Carrie Mann is a one woman encouragement machine!
Always impeccably (if not glamorously) dressed and with more matching reading glasses than you can shake a stick at!

Carrie loves children, and even has five of her own with grandchildren being added now too! She enjoys dancing, singing and acting, and has enjoyed singing "Oom Pa Pa" to much aplomb. Carrie loves spending time with people and making people laugh. She tries to spend time cooking for the whole family (all 13 of them) usually a Sunday roast as she believes "a family that eats together stays together".

One thing that's always worth getting out of bed for
A cup of tea. I really can't function without one in the mornings. White and sweet!!

One thing about yourself that often obstructs you
Doubting my ability. I do have to remind myself that God does not make mistakes when designing people and I am exactly the person He intended me to be.

One thing I've learned the hard way
Gossip will always find you out, by that I mean people will find out if you have been gossipping, not a nice place to be.

One thing that gets under my skin
Poor time keeping. My Father bought me up to always be early, and so when people turn up late I find it irritating.

One thing I'd love to change
People making judgements on others. We should try to be accepting of others as we don't know what has gone before.

One thing I hope for
A cottage over looking the sea, it makes me feel peaceful and very relaxed.

Six Things is a series of micro-interviews with interesting and creative people
in which they’re asked to respond to a standard set of six prompts.

Serendipity Saturday - 21/04/12

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:06:00 +0000

So you need to cut down that tree in the garden, what are you going to do with the stump? Here's an idea that I came across in a local garden.

As I walk around in the world (and cyberspace) I try to keep my eyes really open. Open to noticing new things, strange things, things that make me stop and think. I am sharing some of these serendipitous finds with you. Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it. (and its one of my favourite words!)

Four tricky questions - an olympic interview

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:20:00 +0000

Back in February I had my Gamesmaker interview, this was part of the selection process that whittled down the 250,000 people who applied to be a volunteer at the London 2012 Olympics. 100,000 people were being interviewed over 12 months with around 70,000 being needed to run the games.

I was delighted to be offered a place to serve at the Paralympics and I attend my first training session next week.

What stood out at the Gamesmaker interview was the four questions they asked:
1. What have you accomplished that you are proud of?
2. Describe a situation where you had to work together in a team situation?
3. What is your favourite Olympic sport and why?
4. Can you tell me about a time you have gone the extra mile?

Apart from olympic themed question 3, my answer to this is below, I think these are great questions that we should ask of ourselves every so often. So I'm asking you, what would your answers be?

My favourite Olympic sport is the middle to long distance and the greatest Olympian in my opinion is Emil Zátopek who at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, won gold in the 5 km, 10 km, and the marathon breaking the Olympic record in each of the three events! His final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the marathon for the first time in his life, and won!

Habits of a lifetime can be changed

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:50:00 +0000

Do you have bad habits, recurring failures, addictions? If not you are one in a million (or fooling yourself!).

The rest of us know we have stuff that keeps tripping us up again and again.

If you're like me this stuff has become almost second nature, part of who I am. Therefore, if I want to change any of these behaviours and actions it is actually painful because in a perverse way they have become a comfort blanket.

I am trying to change a couple of my worst traits and recently I was listening to a couple of preaches from Mars Hill that I found helpful.

Shane Hipps spoke about the hundreds and thousands of choices that lead to situations of personal pain, bad habits or even addictions. We have to admit that we did make those choices, albeit they became more and more automatic responses the more we let the bad habit form. It was one of those sermons when it seemed the preacher was talking just to me. He went on to say there is hope as we come to God and make the right choices. These boulders of bad behaviour/habits will be worn down by the constant flow of God's healing water. (click here to go and listen)

Kent Dobson talked from the story of Ruth of hopeless circumstances. Ruth did all she could in her situation of just taking one step at a time to walk towards hope. (click here to go and listen)

I am trying to take one step towards hope each day and I am thankful for the lovely people I have around me who guide me, encourage me and pull me up when I stumble and fall.

If you are stuck in whatever way I would recommend listening to one or both of these messages, I believe they may just speak to and encourage you where you are at.

Serendipity Saturday - 31/03/12

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:24:00 +0000

I came across these wonderful tape sculptures, made from clear sellotape and placed in ordinary spaces creating provoking and amusing works of art.
They are the work of Mark Jenkins. Do check his website which is wildly creative and slightly disturbing(in a good way).

Six Things - The Rt Revd Dr Alan Wilson

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:11:00 +0000

Alan was born in Edinburgh, grew up in East London and Kent, and studied at St John's College Cambridge and then Balliol College Oxford. He was ordained Deacon (1979), Priest (1980), and Bishop (2003). Married to Lucy, a violin teacher, they have five children.

Not your average clergyman Alan served in a parish which had a Crematorium and visiting several thousand families to listen to their stories of relatives and friends who had died was an education not many of us recieve. He has worked as a chaplain at Reading Prison, and led courses in Applied Ethics and History for Reading University, developed a supervision model for ministry. Alan hasn't worked exclusivly in the church world, in the mid nineties he undertook commercial design work producing airwaybills, contact lens containers and packaging products.

A member of many ministries and organisations that promote social responsibility and equality, education, arts, and mission. He speaks various languages badly, having learnt from his Hungarian mother the value of understanding other peoples’ conversations rather more than they think you can.

Alan has been involved in writing on websites and his own blog since 2007 and I came into contact with Alan through his role as a judge of the Christian New Media Awards.

One thing that's always worth getting out of bed for
The buzz of people interacting around visions and ideas, especially friends

One thing about yourself that often obstructs you
A lack of focus pulling together all the strands of life in a way that adds up

One thing I've learned the hard way
To write concisely, not in a St Paul "stream of consciousness" mode.

One thing that gets under my skin
Inequality in all its forms. It gets way up my nose when people suggest God colludes with partiality, or the way things have always been, or that faith is some kind of get out of jail free card for injustice or discrimination.

One thing I'd love to change
(personally) My inability to play jazz piano
(in England) The stuckness in Education - I'd love to see all able to access an education that brings out their God-given creativity and giftedness and enables them to flourish spiritually, mentally, physically, artistically and socially as well as academically. Bit of a tall order, I realise...

One thing I hope for
To see the church become a more open, accepting, and loving network of local disciples - less hierarchically fixated, top-down, anxious and fearful,

Six Things is a series of micro-interviews with interesting and creative people
in which they’re asked to respond to a standard set of six prompts.

Leadership and values, the most important thing?

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:43:00 +0000

Awhile back I started a series of posts under the title Leadership: destination, people, journey, and arriving. So far I have written about the destination (defining, getting and communicating vision), the next stage is the journey.

In any journey you first have a destination, otherwise you are going nowhere. Next is the process of the journey, "How you want to get there?". This is where values fit into the picture. In his book, "Purpose Driven Youth Ministry", Doug Fields says, "values reveal what is important to your ministry (or organisation)". Values essentially give you the benchmark to test the means and methods you are using to get to your destination.
Most people would agree that values are important but I believe they are the missing organisational link in the trinity of mission, vision and values. If not altogether missing then at the least the poor second cousin of mission and vision. Why do I say this? Every organisation has values, whether they are written down or not. However generally these values are meaningless because:
They aren't Real - are they actually values or just objectives or non-value statements?
They are rarely Repeated - are your values explained, communicated, discussed or taught?
They are never Reviewed - is the organisation measuring what it does against how it says it wants to do things?

Real values
In the first instance are the values that the organisation holds something tangible that you can describe and see in the real world - e.g. friendship or teamwork. Very often organisations produce complicated, long winded statements or just use vision or mission orientated words and phrases as value statements.
Some good examples of values (that are clear and understandable) are City Church, Revelation Church and Boeing

Repeated values
Like vision, values should be kept in front of the organisation and not just locked in a document or website.
If values tell us what is important to us and speak of our ethos then we should be talking, communicating, educating, sharing these values widely and regularly. At this point the phrase "values are caught not taught" would usually be stated and it certainly has a ring of truth to it and values can be seen and therefore caught. But if catching is the only method for getting values then is it like catching a virus? When you come into the presence of the value holder and you pick up what you see and percieve then you become a similar value holder. But if values are only caught then like a virus mutation may occur. We need to teach and communicate clearly what our values are, what they mean and what they look like. This should happen in many different ways acting as a plumbline to test what we are 'catching' from one another.

Reviewed values
So we have some real values, we are repeating these values regularly. How will we know if we are really doing what we say is important?
We could ask some questions which would objectively see if we are doing what we say is important. Again in Doug Field's book he shares how they did this in his youthwork, so for their value of acceptance they had the following questions they would ask of themselves to review how they were doing in this area.

If you have a set of values how do you know if anyone, even yourself, is following these values? Do you do some form of objective review or do you just say to people "these values are core to who we are" so you must be following them.

So I guess we need to ask yourself how important are our values? How are values held in your organisation? What are your experiences, good or bad? I would love to hear your feedback on this - in fact I would really value them ;-).

Serendipity Saturday - 17/3/2012

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:39:00 +0000

One of things I try to do is walk around in the world (or indeed in cyberspace) with my eyes really open. Open to noticing new things, strange things, things that make stop and think.
I decided I will try and share some of these in a hopefully/possibly regular feature I'm calling Serendipity* Saturday.
So to start a picture of the strangest named store I have ever come across. Sneezums of Bury St Edmunds.

* Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it.

Six Things - Michelle King

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:34:00 +0000

Michelle King was born in Bishop's Stortford and has lived in this area for most of her life. With husband David, she has two lovely children, both teenagers who are the light of her life.

She has been a musician as long as she can remember and has studied extensively. She enjoys spending precious time with family and friends, songwriting, cooking, reading, dancing, singing and playing the oboe. Two years ago as a result of a dream she discovered she could write songs and in December 2011, won the SaintFM Christmas songwriting competition with her song It's Christmastime. She has written a number of other songs which she sells to raise money for charities close to her heart - see her website The Music of Michelle King.

Alongside writing songs Michelle teaches music at the Christian School Takeley, helps lead a youth group, speaks for Mission Aviation Fellowship and is a director in her husband's company.

"If I recorded parts of my life in a book, you may think them unbelievable."

One thing that's always worth getting out of bed for
Following my first songwriting dream, I have been known to receive other song ideas that I have to get out of bed for, to write down before I forget them. Sometimes a tune will come into my head at night if I can’t sleep, and I can’t get back to sleep until I know they have been written down. My family have at times heard me practicing chord progressions on the guitar in the dead of night (they are very understanding and patient people!), but I would never play the oboe at night because it’s not known as the quietest instrument ever invented!

One thing about yourself that often obstructs you
It would have to be my own self-doubt as I can sometimes try and close doors that have been opened for me. Every time I have attempted to do this though the door opens wide again and opportunities come my way, so I continue on my path. A friend said to me that when it’s time for a door to close it will close. I think they are right and I should have more faith in what is happening right now in my life, and to pray for guidance and understanding every step of the way.

One thing I've learned the hard way
My toughest lessons have been in love. I’ve learned the hard way that to really love, one has to be prepared to let go and allow freedom. Love isn’t possession, it doesn’t own. It gives without expecting back and it never ends.

One thing that gets under my skin
I would have to say that it is laziness. Those who are not prepared to contribute or even worse, expect people to do their work for them.

One thing I'd love to change
About myself: It would be to become less of a perfectionist at times, in terms of being way too hard on myself. High expectations etc.

About the world: I would like to see even more of a global desire to end poverty, so that no one has to go without the basic necessities of life. No child for instance should have to suffer war, injustice, disease and malnutrition. The world’s problems are simply not of their making. Many people are trying to make a difference, and on a world-wide scale that’s not easy.

One thing I hope for
My personal hope is that I continue to allow doors to stay open, to believe in myself, and remain doing everything for Him and to His glory.

Six Things is a series of micro-interviews with interesting and creative people
in which they’re asked to respond to a standard set of six prompts.

Book Review - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:17:00 +0000

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is an incredible book. The characters in its pages are described in great depth, despite the relative brevity of each of their stories and the narrative keeps your attention like the best page turning thriller.

Cloud Atlas is made up of six separate stories which are connected by a variety of threads which show how power and control continue to dog man throughout time. I enjoy stories that are told through interlinking lives, I immediately think of great films like Crash, Short Cuts and Magnolia. Cloud Atlas is easily as absorbing as those films and I eagerly await the release of Cloud Atlas the film this year (it will either be a tragic effort or a masterpiece).

The big difference with this story as opposed to the films I mentioned is the way it is spread over a timespan from nineteenth century to sometime in the distant future. The authors ability to write in such differing but truly authentic styles is brilliant. It is no wonder it was a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2004.

It is certainly a 5 star book and one of the best works of fiction I have ever read.

Have you read Cloud Atlas? What do you think?

Jesus in the wilderness

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:19:00 +0000

I came across this wonderful, deeply real and moving video of Jesus in the wilderness. It seems appropriate to share it as we journey through Lent.

How you react to criticism reveals a lot

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:27:00 +0000

Recently there have been a number of articles in my local paper (Herts & Essex Observer) detailing a variety of situations of possible cover up, on going criticism and the apparent arrogance of the leaders of my local council. Their response was one of ignoring or denying that anything at all is wrong. Inevitably as with all disputes and arguments the truth will lie somewhere in between.

When people criticise or question you or your organisation, responding by closing ranks, ignoring or denying any problems is a sign of weakness, arrogance and a lack of compassion - or maybe all three!
99 times out of 100 there will be a little truth (or a lot) to what the person is saying.

Wise, caring and ultimately strong leadership will want to know about any weakness or failing they have because the odds are the leaders themselves can't see these.

The alternative is a world where we hear:

They would say that
We are right you are wrong
If you don't agree you know where the door is
You need to believe/agree with this to be part of it
The leaders know what is best/right don't question their decisions

Is this the sort of society or culture we want to build?

The worst of 2011?

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:31:00 +0000

Following on from yesterday's list of my most popular posts it seems only fair to list those posts that weren't quite so stellar. None of these posts gathered more than 10 pageviews (my last 10 posts averaged 60 pageviews). Part of the reason for the low pageviews for these post was that they were written in the early days of my blog.

So in no particular order:

Be Holy, Be British (a meditation on God's call to us to be holy)
Book Review: Team of Rivals (my review of this fabulous book about one of the great leaders - Abraham Lincoln)
Dexter (a liitle bit about my favourite TV programme)
New Music (my comments on 'new' CDs I found in my local charity shop)
What motivates us (I thought this was a great post with an inspirational video)

Have you any comments or thoughts on posts that you think were not great? I really would love to get any comments and constructive criticism if you have any. If you think that any of the posts from the above list don't deserve to be in this list let me know.

The best of 2011?

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:32:00 +0000

Just for fun I thought I would list my most popular posts, in terms of pageviews, in 2011. They were in reverse order:

5. I join the smartphone crowd (341 pageviews)
4. Book reading update (559 pageviews)3. I can do that (188 pageviews)2. Communicating Vision (631 pageviews)1. Admin Lessons - Planning (947 pageviews)

What has been your favourite post on finger in all the pies? I would love to know what has been memorable to you.

Books of 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:03:00 +0000

I have 17 books* on my reading list for 2012. As I finish each one I hope to write a simple review, my thoughts and feelings on each book. Last year my list was made up of 20 books and I only managed to read 11 so this year's list is still a challenge** but hopefully a bit more achievable. I have broken my list into three categories.
Fiction, History & Growth (growth refers to books that I hope will inspire, challenge and help me to grow). Let me know if you have read any of these books and what you thought of them.

FICTION
Cloud Atlas - by David Mitchel
Three Men in a Boat - by Jerome K Jerome
Hombre - by Elmore Leonard
Tooth & Nail - by Ian Rankin
The ascent of Isaac Steward by - Mike French
The Road - by Cormac McCarthy*

HISTORY
American Sphinx the character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J Ellis
Six Centuries of Verse - selected and introduced by Anthony Thwaite
The War of the World – by Niall Ferguson*

GROWTH
You Can Change - by Tim Chester*
The Dark Night of the Soul - by Gerald D May
The Road Less Travelled - by M.Scott Peck*
The Story From The Book, from Adam to Armageddon - by Ted Miller*
Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul - by John Eldredge*
The Practice of the Presence of God - by Brother Lawrence
Longing for God - by Richard Foster & Gayle Beebe
In the Shadow of His Wings - by Jonathan Macy

* books that were on the 2011 list
** my 17 books means I have 4759 pages to read in 2012 that works out to 13 pages a day

Crushed like diamonds

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:12:00 +0000

I understand that diamonds are formed through immense heat and pressure crushing carbon materials which results in something incredibly beautiful out of all that heat and pressure.

If we were to look closely at one another's lives then I'm sure we would see little glints of mini diamonds or at least tiny flecks of diamonds from past struggles.

The past year has been in many respects the most difficult me and my family have ever had to go through. And yet deep down I feel a certain peace radiating. It's not the temporary peace that would be afforded from solutions to life's problems because generally life has a whole stack of other problems around the corner for us. This peace seems to be saying to me it's OK, life is difficult but you are safe I'll be with you. Maybe just maybe I am starting to understand, to grasp the truth and reality of Jesus' words "my peace I give you".

Happy New Year - better late than never!

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:53:00 +0000

http://www.psdgraphics.com/

Happy New Year readers! I sincerely hope 2012 is a year like no other for you - not like 2011, 2010, or 2009, 2008 and so on.

It's been awhile since I posted to the blog and there are a variety of reasons summed up in the word, life - the busyness, struggles, challenges etc. - as my favourite opening line of a book goes, "Life is difficult."*

However, I return to blog again for another year and although I have not been writing ideas have been bubbling up in my mind. So what can you expect from me in the near future? My first post will be tomorrow - written a couple of months ago and feel it's right for now - followed by my 2012 book list, reviewing/revisiting my top and least viewed posts, more leadership views, further posts on my experiences and tips for administration, and some ideas that are forming on belief & unbelief and the temptation of fads. I am also hoping to have some guest posts!

One area of my blog is missing from the above list, did you notice it?

Six things, the micro interviews with interesting people that have been very popular. I did nine of these in 201, but who will I ask in 2012? Well I have some ideas but I want to put that question out to all my readers as well, who would you like to see answer my six questions? Please do comment below, email me or message me on facebook or twitter. I will definitely approach the most popular people who you want to hear from.

So onwards into 2012, I look forward to journeying with you.

* The Road Less Travelled by M Scot Peck

Top of the Pops

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:19:00 +0000

image courtesy of
Vectorportal Site

It's the end of the year and I thought I would sign off by listing my favourite Music, Films, Books, Photos and Videos of 2011.

Music - I started the year of consciously listening to more music as a way developing my musical appreciation, exposure and growth. As a result this is the hardest category to pick one best band/cd but I will. Before that let me mention three notable bands/Cds
Rend Collective Experiment - Organic Family Hymnal, quite simply it takes me to a place of worship which no other music does, I wrote a post about one of there song why go read it - click here
Texas - White on Blonde, an old album from 1997 but it just brilliant
Jonathan Coulton - Joco Looks Back, if you regularly go to Ikea you must listen to his track of the same name, a fabulously quirky album which I stumbled across by virtue of the social network (seeing a friend listening to it so I listened to it)
But my pick for 2011 is Listener - Wooden Heart, I wrote about coming across this band at Greenbelt and they are just amazing - click here to read my post

Films - I watch quite a few films, I secretly want to be a film critic, but I rarely get to go the cinema so my top films this year are mostly via TV\DVD.
Thor - the best superhero adaptation in my opinion- funny, fantastic, great characters and great visuals and direction - the only bad thing was I had to watch it in 3D
Sunset Boulevard - a film from 1950 with William Holden & Gloria Swanson which I just loved
The Straight Story - a wonderful story about a man on a journey to repair his relationship with his brother
Bronson - a tour de force by Tom Hardy
But my pick for 2011 is A Town Called Panic - a French stop animation film which was just wonderfully surreal. It pops up on Film4 every now and then so try and watch it you will love it.

Books - if you follow my blog you will know that I have had a list of 20 books that I wanted to read this year. Of the eleven I actually finished two stand out.
The Shack by William P. Young - - a wonderful touching story of God meeting a man at his lowest point it is moving and challenging and made me want to see more of God
My pick for 2011 is Teams of Rivals - the story of Abraham Lincoln's remarkable life and presidency. I reviewed this book back on Feb 12th mine and Abe's birthday!

Photos - this year I have been trying to take all sorts of photos - interesting and creative ones - I'm not going to choose one that is best but I here are some of my favourites.

Videos - I love how we can be inspired, amused and touched through the visual medium, here are some of my favourites - Resurrection by Rob Bell would be my pick for 2011.
Resurrection by Rob Bell Parallel Parking by Yum Yum London Television is a drug by Beth Fulton John & Joe by the StoryCorps

Almost the end of the year - a post of thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:23:00 +0000

Image: c/o Charleston Primary School

This is my penultimate post of 2011 and what a year it has been. Personally it's been a year with a lot of turmoil but with some high points, one of the highs of this year has been writing this blog.

As I started my blog I shared five reasons for why I was doing this - to stretch and develop me, to serve as a sort of personal journal, to interact with people, to inspire and challenge others and to have fun. I feel in part I have done a lot to meet these and it certainly has been fun.

However, I couldn't have done it without the support of you my readers and friends, especially those who have commented on the blog, facebook, by email or in person - you have been so encouraging. I hope you will continue to journey with me (via this blog) in 2012.

What have been your highlights from my blog this year, I would love to know your thoughts.

Leadership: real people, inspiring leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Like most people who have worked in many jobs and in different industries I have served under and alongside many leaders, probably hundreds. I am certain that everyone of them has shaped and influenced me, for good or bad, even if I didn't realise it. So I sat down one day a while ago and spent a few minutes listing leaders I have known and one thing that I would remember them for. These are real people that I know or have known and not the 'great leaders' of platforms and books that you and I have read and heard but actually don't know.

Martin Harrison - the first person who ever led me, he particularly taught me the importance of training people properly, giving the necessary feedback and coaching and then letting them (me) make their own mistakes.

Elizabeth Gooch - an incredibly driven and focused woman who showed me the importance of getting the right people together to make a great team.

David Stroud - I worked on one of the regional teams that David led. During this time I organised a church leaders weekend. This was the first such weekend I had done and unfortunately my calculations went wrong and we were looking at a £2k loss (it ended up only losing around £200). When I shared the details with the team David simply said, "Well you won't make that mistake again". In a stroke he removed my fear and guilt and showed trust in me for the future (all my church leaders weekend since have turned a small profit!).

Tony Thompson - I led the team that organised Together@Shuttleworth in 2008 & 2009 for the regional churches he and his team oversaw. These events were a great success but on a personal and family level they were a real struggle. So after completing the 2009 event I had to step down from leading the event. Tony arranged support and care for me because in his words he felt responsible that someone from his team needed support. It was good to feel care that went beyond the confines of the role to serve and support me, the person.

Melanie Crane - I worked with Melanie over a number of years and the thing that struck me about her was the way she included and developed people. She seemed to easily gather a crowd but many people can do that. Leaders do something with the crowd, take them on, give them opportunities as see them as more than just workers but as future leaders also. This fully struck me when she was in the process of leaving her job in our church and she gave us a long list of the people who she has worked with and what they have done and what they could do.

Nic Lines - the final person I will mention here is Nic. I work alongside Nic, our youth leader and have seen him at close quarters, especially when I have been on the catering team at Newday. The thing I admire is how after inheriting a team he brought in his own style of leadership. Still a young in leadership (years) but he clearly has the ability to listen and give space to people whilst having a definite sense of what he wants to see achieved.

If you were to name leaders who have shaped your life who would be the first you would remember?

Chicken & egg = Mission & maturity?

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:22:00 +0000

Photograph: Dennis Novak/Getty Images

I came across an excellent article entitled Why the missional movement will fail written by Mike Breen the former Senior Rector at St. Thomas Sheffield, where he pioneered some very different ways of being the church.

In summary he is saying that missional churches and activities are great and he aligns himself fully with them BUT the foundational work of discipleship is often missed out and so ultimately these movements may not last. He says, "If you’re good at making disciples, you’ll get more leaders than you’ll know what to do with. If you make disciples like Jesus made them, you’ll see people come to faith who didn’t know Him. If you disciple people well, you will always get the missional thing. Always."

I agree with him that discipleship is not on the agenda much if at all in most churches. If you asked a sample of people from a range of churches are you being or have you been discipled I wonder what they would answer?
Apart from the discipleship of new Christians do churches have any ongoing discipleship framework? Small groups are part of the answer but just part, not the complete 'magic' answer on their own.

Discipleship is intentional, long term and hardwork, but it is the best way to build solid foundations that reap fruit 30, 60 and 100 times (Mark 4:20). Back in 1988 there was a phrase coined about "the decade of evangelism", an extended period where evangelism was sort to be put at the top of the agenda, I think we may need a focus on discipleship (for a decade?) otherwise we may just be on a mission with a lot of immature people.

Book reading update - 9 down 11 to go!

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Oh dear my plan to read 20 books this year is going to require either:
1) a miracle, or
2) no sleep for the rest of the year!
Unfortunately I sort of stopped reading shortly after Easter and didn't really pick it up again much over the summer. Nevertheless I do have a few mini-reviews to update you with and a revised list of books I am going to try and get through - a new target if you like.

The world needs more elders - PJ Smyth
I had started reading this on my last update back in April! It's an excellent thought provoking book, not only is it a good tool to use for training future church leaders, but also for anybody in a church to consider a measured and biblical view of what church leaders should be focusing on. Reading it challenged me in many ways in terms of my thinking about church and leadership and I would recommend it to anyone.

The Associate - John Grisham
I really enjoy the pulp fiction nature of John Grisham books and until the last chapter this book was engaging, fast moving and a 'real page turner'. However I have never been so diappointed in the ending of one of his books, it just stopped - no suspense, no future possiblities - sorry John you need to re-write that last chapter.

Disabled Church-Disabled Society: The Implications of Autism for Philosophy, Theology and Politics – John Gillibrand
I have never read a more difficult and challenging book. Actually I still haven't because if I am honest when I got to the almost impenatrable sections I skimmed quite a bit. However, the chapter about his life with his son Adam was incredibly moving and in amongst the rest of the book there are some challenging questions. Above everything I was left to wonder, as Gillibrand does, are people like his son who has no means of communication with the 'normal' world much closer to God than we can ever be?

Persian fire: the first world empire and the battle for the West – Tom Holland
I am a massive fan of Tom Holland's award winning book Rubicon about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Alas, whilst this book no doubt was as accurate and detailed as Rubicon it seemed to me very dry. That may be in part due to the incredible complexity of the tale it tells - not only many different nations, states and cities but tribes and clans within cities and states. The most interesting part of it was finding out about the complex and very clever bureaucracy of the Persian empire, that even a duck had to have a travel pass to move along the Persian highway!

The books I want to read before the end of the year (in one month)
Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It – by Steve Taylor
You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behaviour and Negative Emotions – by Tim Chester
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
In total these have 610 pages, that means that on average I need to read around 30 pages per day - not a lot for an avid reader but a challenge for me! Wish me luck, and why not share what you've been reading lately?

Doppleganger update!

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Just a quick blog post to make an official statement:

"Steven Hunter would like to clearly state that Not Steven Hunter of @notstevenhunter and now facebook.com/notstevenhunter is an independent voice and in no way controlled by or associated with (except through imitation) Steven Hunter."

That said, Steven Hunter would like to welcomes Not Steven Hunter onto facebook and thank him/her for their continued following of my posts and tweets - you often bring a smile to the day and that in itself is worthy of praise. I do wonder though how long before the blog Not Finger in all the Pies is up and running!

Today is amazing no matter what you see...

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Hunter) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Recently I have been stirred by the beauty of Autumn and the sights and sounds we see all around us at this time of year. It makes me want to look at things that little bit closer.
It also reminded me of this video made by artist Jonathan Harris who on August 27th 2009 turned 30 and began a simple ritual of taking one photo every day and posting it to his website before going to sleep. I found it moving and beautiful in its wonderful simplicity, I hope you do to.