Marketplace network leader Martien Kelderman is on sabbatical leave, studying at Regent College and London School of Contemporary Christian Studies. While away, he’s been travelling and studying, and writing some of his reflections.

Tuesday 13 July

Hi all.  --- I am going to call my epistle TableTalk on the subject line of your email. That way you can choose before you open. I like TableTalk, it has two contexts. Martin Luther regularly met with friends to discuss the reformation and these sessions were described as Table talk. Secondly I used to play cards with guys at work in my student days (on our lunch break of course) and regularly they sent signals to each other of the hand they were playing and this was always met with loud cries of ‘table talk” So I am revealing my hand as I go (and that way I won’t have to show you missionary slides when I get back).

The Redwood forests were amazing the other day. Huge trees many as wide as the car I was driving in a forest going on for 32 miles.  I had my only hitchhiker experience on the same day. I came out of a compulsory stop and saw an old lady standing in the foggy conditions thumbing a lift. She looked so bedraggled I relented and picked her up. She proved to be an older child of the 60s who was tramping across America showing her love for the planet and telling the planet she loved it and believing that as she did this it would respond to that love and heal itself. She also believed in Jesus out of an old Catholic background and believed Jesus had sent her to heal the planet. Good on her. Lapsed catholic meet new ager meet 60s child who has found an environmental mission. So she got wound up telling me what she believed and talked non stop for 80 miles. And she wanted to sing and did. Just as well I didn’t know the words or she would have expected me to join in. She told me of all the people who were secretly on her side and warned me about the people who opposed her. On the way she wanted to pray out loud so she did, (I wasn’t asked I was told) including a prayer to the Gulf of Mexico asking forgiveness for the oil. She prayed that I might experience the turquoise bubble of Jesus love and then she prayed to Jesus and to Mary and claimed Mary’s blessing on the people of the world. She wanted me to say Amen to her prayers and I did for two of them and refused for the third at which point she said I had started to listen to her enemies and got very agitated that I would not seal her prayer. We were just coming into a town called Eureka which she had initially asked to be dropped off at. I asked where I should drop her off to which she said that Jesus wanted her to stay in the car to another town (another 80 miles) My ears hurt too much so I said that I thought Jesus had asked her to walk around America and I would insist she follow his first instruction, pulled over and told her to hop out and start walking again.  That will teach me to not go to church on a Sunday morning.

Well I am into study at Regent College. I have had two sessions on the Book of Revelation.  The opening line from the lecturer was “Never have we known so much about the Book of Revelation and all of it wrong” and I am right into my Thesis and enjoying every moment of it. I ran across this for your interest

With all the bad news out there, whether it is the faltering economy or faltering ethics, we need to remember that most business people and most businesses carry on day after day, week after week, out of the headlines and public eye, in an honest, praiseworthy way. The headlines are usually grabbed by the crooks and jerks and they do need to be exposed.  But they do not represent the majority.

And then once in a while something great grabs the media and marketplace attention.  One of the most exciting and gratifying developments of the past year was the "MBA Oath" created and signed by (many) graduating MBA students from Harvard Business School in 2009.  The MBA Oath: Setting A Higher Standard for Business Leaders (Portfolio, April 2010) by two Harvard MBAs at the heart of this movement, Max Anderson and Peter Escher, explains the concept and rationale.  The basic idea is to challenge business students and leaders to commit themselves to high values and ethics --- not just high salaries and profits.  It is modeled on the classic "Hippocratic Oath" for physicians.  Here it is.  If you were writing such an oath for business leaders what would you want included?

The MBA Oath
As a business leader I recognize my role in society.
My purpose is to lead people and manage resources to create value that no single individual can create alone.
My decisions affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside my enterprise, today and tomorrow.

Therefore, I promise that:

·         I will manage my enterprise with loyalty and care, and will not advance my personal interests at the expense of my enterprise or society.

·         I will understand and uphold, in letter and spirit, the laws and contracts governing my conduct and that of my enterprise..

·        I will refrain from corruption, unfair competition, or business practices harmful to society.

·         I will protect the human rights and dignity of all people affected by my enterprise, and I will oppose discrimination and exploitation.

·         I will protect the right of future generations to advance their standard of living and enjoy a healthy planet.

·         I will report the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly.

·         I will invest in developing myself and others, helping the management profession continue to advance and create sustainable and inclusive prosperity.

In exercising my professional duties according to these principles,

·         I recognize that my behavior must set an example of integrity, eliciting trust and esteem from those I serve.

·         I will remain accountable to my peers and to society for my actions and for upholding these standards.

This oath I make freely, and upon my honor.

TableTalk No 3

22 July 2010

Hi to all

I have just completed my study course in the Book of Revelation.  I come away with a confidence that we can read the book both as having been a message for its time, i.e. essentially fulfilled baring Revelation 21 and 22 which sits as a picture of the return of Christ. Certainly the 1^st century readers would have seen it as an explanation of their current context. It also remains a picture of relevance for anyone oppressed by an anti-Christ culture which may be military as per Roman times or ideological as per the former Soviet Union or China or by modern economic drivers of materialism and selfishness which consume our lives.  (I have attached an article on Revelation and work written by the Theology of Work Project -This project is seeking to write a commentary on the place of work in every book in the bible. The authors are a group of 20 or so theologians and business people working together)

Last weekend I went to Seattle, a 5 days for the price of 3 car rental deal gave me the weekend to tour Washington and Oregon states. This is also a beautiful part of the world. I had never previously realised the significance of Mount St Helens in this region. This mountain as you will recall erupted and blew its peak off completely some years ago. Apart from devastating the landscape around and effecting the lives and livelihoods of many thousands (very strong timber industry in these states) it was also one of a series of  mountain peaks that are sited at almost regular intervals up the western coast of the USA. If you imagine a snow covered peak like Mt Taranaki (Egmont) only at some 10-15000 ft each, higher than Mt Cook, if you imagine the symmetry of Taranaki and then imaging one of these always snow covered every 200 km for 1500km you begin to get a sense of their presence. If you were to drive from San Francisco in California to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada you seem to have one of these mountains either up ahead or in your rear vision mirror almost all the way.

In Seattle I stayed with Al and Nancy Erisman. Al worked for Boeing Aircraft for 35 years as a mathematician and a technical quality assurance specialist. Since retiring he has engaged in a wide range of theology and faith in the marketplace projects and leads a Ethics in Technology and Business group with a regular publication called Ethbiz. A wonderfully gracious couple, they blessed me in my stay, offering hospitality and introducing me to a large number of people. While there and very much courtesy of Al’s introductions I met the leadership of Kiros, a large Christians in Work Breakfast programme who meet monthly in 4 centres around Seattle. It has been very successful in creating a fellowship and an encouragement for Christians in work. We had much to talk about. I also had a 3 hour presentation and dialogue with the business and theology faculty of Seattle Pacific University who have intentionally initiated a programme of integration around Theology of work and Theology of Business. It is relatively early but the first achievement has been to sit them in the same room and acknowledge that they need each other.

I also met with the leaders of Bakke Graduate University. (Thanks Gordon for the heads up on this group). This university was started by the Mustard Seed Foundation (a family trust) to spread and seed fund Theology of Work training courses around the world. They back themselves with an accredited programme, degree offering and seed funding. Their primary goal is to seed and imbed theology of Work courses in existing training bodies like Laidlaw and Carey. They expressed a real interest in working with us to see that established in New Zealand.

Back into class today. The Thesis progresses well and I am reading for a course on Christian faith and Secular law beginning on Monday.  I notice we won the rugby again so we will spend three months talking about whether we have peaked too soon. One thing I notice in the USA is they know how to celebrate the positives.  They also know how to create a 3 hour border crossing experience. Oh it is also sunny and warm !!!!!

I did love a sign on a petrol station counter

NOTICE

PRICES SUBJECT

TO CHANGE

ACCORDING TO

CUSTOMER

ATTITUDE

and no more hitch hikers

Blessings

Martien

5 August

Hi all

It is actually two weeks since I wrote. It’s a bit hard to make interesting a picture of me sitting in classes for 6 hours per day and then writing thesis material for another 4 hours. But it has been interesting. It has been so valuable to have concentrated time to read and think and study with absolutely no distractions. I have completed three Regent courses.

1   Reading the Book of Revelation well: I now know who the beast is and where he lives ………………… just kidding. I have come to realise what an awful distraction that kind of speculation is. One interesting comment from the lecturer. After 2000 years of intense research and high analysis by multiple thousands of Christians who all “know” who currently owned the titles of the beast and of the prophets etc and who “know” the time frame within which the end will come even if they don’t know the day and the hour, the only certainty is that they have all been completely wrong. And that should tell us something!!!! 

On the other hand I come away profoundly moved by a group of Christians in the first century facing, if not already experiencing, economic deprivation because trading was denied them when they would not acknowledge the gods of the marketplace (including the homage of Caesar), facing death if they found themselves confronting authorities who required that homage of Caesar, facing suspicion and possibly betrayal from neighbours because they dared to meet around the Lord’s table (they were called magicians and cannibals for that), facing isolation because they dared to honour even the lowest ranked in society, the slave, as equal heirs of this kingdom. These ideas undermined the whole social order and what is more worrisome for the authorities, because of all of these things they were curiously attractive to their world and were growing in number to the point where the authorities feared them. And to them John presents this amazing picture of a final victory which would be won because of what Jesus did (“the blood of the lamb’) and because of the (often sacrificial testimony of these believers). And in that sense and with this truth the book becomes true for every generation of believers in every nation that dares to stand and the only event that has yet to be fulfilled is the actual return of our Lord and the new heavens and new earth and the final destruction of evil. Every other picture presented has been fulfilled over and over throughout our history.

The Book of Proverbs: was a good Bible study in traditional style. Interesting pictures of how wisdom is defined and how content came into the book including clear evidence that Solomon had studied the wisdom of particularly Egypt and included some of it within his own collected wisdom.  Interesting to note in a patriarchal age  that some of proverbs is the wisdom of a woman, who was also a prophetess, the mother of King Lemanuel (Prov 31) I wonder what that tells us about women in teaching. A pointer to all of us that we need to look to the wisdom of our own age, test it as being wise, and absorb it. Interesting how much of it can be expressed as “I note that ….”    Or I observe that……”  

It caused me to wonder what Solomon might legitimately now include if the Book of Proverbs was compiled. Is there a book of business wisdom that is not current clever ideas but proven wisdom? Something like

“if the offer is too good to be true then it is probably too good to be true”

Christianity and Secular Law: This study was led by a Christian law professor out of Pennsylvania. Primarily we looked at how our theology persuades us / or not to get involved in legal/political world. So I got to look at the engagement with society questions of the Sermon on the Mount and Romans 13 through the interpretation of the Roman Catholic Church (our own church for 1500 years) through Martin Luther, Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, Reinhhold Neihbuhr, Martin Luther King, Stanley Hauerwas and the Anabaptists and a study of Natural Law, rejected by evangelicals for a long time but experiencing a resurgence today.

Very good.

I think I am largely persuaded by Hauerwas (see his book Resident Aliens) that we need to be the church (as in community of believers rather than institution) and speak from our faith without always going the “speak secularly” approach.  He would say we should not fear to be the church, society expects the church to be the church, and it will mean rejection of much of what we say and do (welcome to the world of Jesus). He does not suggest we should speak in jargon, just that we should not deny or fail to confess Jesus as centre to our conviction. Hauerwas has become a sought after opinion in both church and secular political circles. I am not persuaded by Hauerwas that we do not join movements to push society into more biblical directions for social behaviour. I am much more persuaded here by Abraham Kuyper’s Sphere Sovereignty notion.

An Ethic’s Centre

I mentioned earlier my discussions with David Gill, Christian Ethicist, of a certain nostalgia for the 60s when people believed something. I have since read his book “It’s about Excellence; building Ethically Healthy Organisations”. It is a concise and practical book about engaging  with the marketplace through the framework of cultivating good ethics.

In recent times I have been gently confronted with three ethical frameworks which are not in tension with one another although they would keep each other and ourselves real. The three are:

1. “Operating out of the paradigm of Faith Hope and Love”   David Williams, Laidlaw College
2. David Gills, “It’s about Excellence; building Ethically Healthy Organisations”
3. Stanley Hauerwas, “Resident Aliens” and “The Peaceable Kingdom”

I am thinking that an ethics centre (Virtual or Actual?) which could draw on and merge these three frameworks could be a wonderful engagement both with Christians in the way they live and with society as salt and light.

I note also that New Zealand does not have an Ethics Centre (that I know of or can find)   Hmmmmm

Yesterday I spent half a day with Rob from WEA, thanks Glyn for the introduction.  A quick tour of North Vancouver while we talked and solved most of the world’s problems together. Very useful and a good break.

On Monday I bus to Seattle to pick up a rental car and I drive east to Boston with strategic appointments in place for Billings Montana, Minneapolis, Chicago, Grande Rapids, Washington, New York, Boston.

I discovered you can’t hire a car in Canada which you want to leave in the USA. Don’t you just long to run across a decent genuine multinational company one day.

Hopping by plane from one centre to the next is quicker but proves to be more expensive if you add in the on the ground logistics

And then it’s there waiting to be done, a pink shirt, a gold chain and a well planned, tightly scheduled 10 day mid life crisis.

Oh well back to ‘A Just Wage’ 

1 Comments

1. paul young makes this comment

   Thursday 7 July, 2011

   Dear Martien, I was a teacher and have a dispute with a Christian who is the Chairman of Board of a college. I was referred to see you urgently. If it is not sorted, I have to go to the court. If you are away, who will be the best person to visit? Thanks. May God bless you. Paul Young