Mark Williamson's Blog, page 7

Customers or Christ Followers – John 6:26-27

Consumerism turns Christ followers into customers, and turns believers in a person to believers in a product.

So what is consumerism and how has it found its way to church? Attempts to define consumerism range from religion, addiction, rights of customers, drive to purchase, dissatisfaction and unquenched hunger for more to shop till you drop mentality. Many articles have been written about how the impact of today’s demand for choice and emphasis on customer rights and privileges is affecting...

The Resurrected Man

A great passage on the importance of spiritual formation is found towards the end of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s masterful novel, The Brothers Karamazov.

One of the Karamazov brothers, Dmitry, is in prison, about to be sentenced for years of hard labour in Siberia for a murder he didn’t commit. At some point between his arrest and trial he found God, and gave his life to Jesus. And in prison awaiting trial he says to his brother Alyosha:

Brother, during these last two months I have a felt a new man...

The Rooney Effect

The week that Euro 2016 starts is probably a good week to think about a little known team performance issue that I’ve come to call ‘the Rooney Effect’, in honour of England football captain Wayne Rooney.

Fourteen years ago Wayne Rooney burst onto the footballing scene, a 16 year old kid who thought he could take on the world, and who was so good that Everton fans and commentators alike started referring to him as Superman. He scored his first Premier League goal against Arsenal in a game Ever...

Top 10 Spiritual Measures

What are your spiritual measures?

Do you have ways to measure your spiritual life? What are the things you can measure that tell you whether you’re walking closely with God or not?

I believe that each of us has our own set of spiritual measures. Sometimes we are conscious of them, more often than not they are unconscious things. But there are always there; things we come to recognise as subtle markers of how we’re doing in our relationship with Jesus.

I encourage you to discern your own perso...

Government Negotiations

I recently read 22 Days in May, the story of the 2010 UK coalition government negotiations between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, written by Lib Dem MP David Laws.

It’s a fascinating story. Here’s some lessons I took from it.

Plan Early: Months before the 2010 election, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg set up a small team to look into different scenarios the election might create. They did detailed planning on possible full coalitions or confidence and supply agreements with both Labou...

Top Three Leadership Films

Can leadership films teach you on your development journey, the same way that books can?

I’ve shared before about my recommended leadership biographies. But what about leadership biopics? What are the top three leadership films, that you can watch to learn some great habits?

I’ve probably not watched as many biopics as I have read biographies. But here’s my top suggestions.

Steve Jobs: I love this film. Maybe because I love the leadership lessons to be learned from Steve Jobs. But this is a b...

Is there an Ideal Team Size?

What’s the ideal team size? Is there such a thing as anideal team size?

It’s something I’ve been thinking through since I’m part of various non-profit boards that are each wanting to recruit new members. And an obvious question is how many people do we want on the team? What would be the ideal board size? Is there an ideal board size, or even an ideal team size?

Teams can vary hugely in the numbers of people on them, but perhaps there are some common characteristics. And please note that I’m...

What is God’s Will for my life?

What is God’s will for my life?

This is often the sixty four thousand dollar question we are all trying to answer. God has a purpose for each of us. And we know that living out that purpose will bring us more joy and fulfilment than anything else on earth. But what is it?

There are many good things we could do, and we know that God will bless us no matter which of those many good things we choose to do – but surely God has a preference?! Perhaps most of all, we don’t want to miss out on whate...

William Wilberforce: Studying Scripture

Studying scripture is a life changing habit to get into. The words of the prophets, the words of the apostles, and supremely the words of Jesus have the power to change lives. Are you reading them, so as to put yourself in a place where God can change your life?

At the age of 25, William Wilberforce seemingly had everything in life. He was best friends with the Prime Minister (William Pitt), and MP for one of the most prestigious seats in the House of Commons (Yorkshire). He was also fabulous...

Management by Shouting

Is there ever a place for management by shouting? Surely not. Surely any manager who shouts at their team members is now rightly considered a bully?

A couple of months ago we published a blog from an NHS nurse that mentioned shouting and screaming at staff members as a terrible management practice, and one that caused the writer to leave that job and search for another position. You can read it here. Shouting and bullying in the workplace are wrong.

And yet there are still a couple of places...