As I approached the grim yawning customer service assistant in Tesco this morning, I was quickly reminded of Ireland’s ZERO customer service policy (I could write a book). Being married to an American has given me the pleasure of visiting a country who – fake or not – realise and understand what good service is. The Irish just don’t get it.

These parallels of service standards permeate the Church in Ireland to. If I was honest, I’d say that the Irish church has (broadly) low standards and expectations when trying to run services and church related events. Some may jump on me here and accuse me of me being a victim of a ‘consumer church’ mentality, but the truth is that churches in Ireland do run services and do run events – they just don’t do them well. I think the difference here is that (again broadly speaking) that they not only run things on a shoe-string budget, but a shoe-string, ‘cheese-o-rama’ mindset. Is it any wonder the church is not taken seriously?

I pray for more spiritually/culturally/socially astute leaders who have the humility to take  Paul’s exhortation seriously, and start living more like athletes training, living, and planning to win the race.

N

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