Happy New Year! Here we are again at the beginning of as new year for the Church. Here’s what I said.

Isaiah 2.1-5; Romans 13.11-end; Matthew 24.36-44

If you know anything about the world of work today, and particularly about management, you’ll know that it has developed its own language. And that language is full of acronyms – take a phrase or list of things you want people to remember and make a word out of them. Or take an easily remembered word and come up with something rather contrived that the letters of the word stand for. Many of you will know the kind of thing I mean. And even the Church isn’t free of them. For example, when a group of people, a committee perhaps, is having to set some targets we are expected to make sure that they are SMART targets. SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-limited.

And there are hundreds of these motivational acronyms for people to remember and use in their working lives: Continue reading →