Some of the best laid plans go awry. I was due to meet with a Companion of the Community, a good friend near Darlington. I set off on a beautiful, crisp, clear autumnal day from home only to receive a phone call from my friend 40 minutes into my journey to say that they were crawling through pea soup fog and in the interest of safety we pulled the plug on our get together. I was left with a choice: turn back, spend a few hours at home only return to Tyneside where I was speaking at a Leaders Gathering in Newcastle later in the evening or continue and spend the afternoon in the city. Shirley wasn’t at home so I drove on, parked up and walked around Newcastle city centre. I resisted the temptation (which I will hopefully give into within the next few weeks) of going into the Apple Store and instead bought a copy of The Guardian and found a nice café with a view over one of the city squares and spent the next two hours chilling out, thinking, watching the world go by, imagining what lives lay behind the faces and some of the latest fashions. I went into Fenwicks department store and just enjoyed being in a ‘proper; shop. Two memories came back to me: one of my earliest childhood memories was catching the bus up the coast road from Whitley Bay to the Haymarket in Newcastle, walking excitedly with my parents down Northumberland Street and joining the crowds, eventually edging our way to the front as I pressed my nose to the Fenwick’s window display which depicted a scene from the Biblical narratives of the Christmas story or from one of the pantomime fairy tales. Mesmerised, enchanted, lost in wonder, Fenwicks window at Christmas was one of the regions major draws.
The second memory was several years ago when I was selling the Community’s Cuthbert Cake. Flouting all sales protocol I made a cold call and asked if it would be possible to see the Purchasing Manager for the delicatessen products. I was treated from the outset with courtesy and was asked if I would return two hours later when I would be seen. I was to leave the product with them and on my return was invited in to the Manager’s office with one of the sales staff, offered a cup of coffee and invited to do my sales pitch. I don’t really know what it was and I’ve learned absolutely nothing from the BBC series The Apprentice that would persuade me to resort to the kind of strategies employed that are seen or advocated there. I simply told the story of the Community and why we had a trading company. They listened intently, asked intelligent questions and finally said discussed terms. I told them the information that I had been given which was a very fair price for them and a good deal for us. I was bold over by the order they placed, the respect they showed me and I assured them that we would deliver as promised and would value their custom.
It was just a small incident but a real insight into how business can be done. We agreed prices and terms and they paid us within 30 days of invoice. A stark contrast to the intimidating, bullying, almost abusive manner in which I was treated by one of the big supermarkets who loved the product but who wanted to ‘screw’ us and I walked away when they demanded that any business would be conducted on a 90 day terms basis, something that would kill a small business.
I am no expert on business. I thank God that we have good people around us that serve the Community brilliantly with good business and financial acumen. I do however know something about fair trade and how values and ethos are important in life, Community and the work place.
With the judgement of God upon our Western consumer culture and our reaping now the greed and avarice together with the dominance of unethical and immoral, not to stay, foolish business practices and financial strategies, we are reaping what we have sewn. Abusive, bullying, dominance of the big, the mighty and the proud will have to come to an end. Such ways are not God’s ways.
We are in a financial crisis that is not a temporary blip but is and will change the world in which we live in our lifetime and certainly for our children and our children’s children. Consumerism will blind us from the many ills but in the end it’s anaesthetic powers will cease and we will be left to rue the way we have lived consuming the world, its people and land. In that day and hopefully in the days before, we might find a simpler way to live.
A way that reflects more the values of the kingdom of God. This is why our vocational calling as a Community matters. It is the outworking of the way of life which we are being called Alone and Together to embrace.
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