Bishop's letters: October 05 +James

TAKING RISKS

The novelist Somerset Maugham once said “Only a mediocre person is always at his best”. Mediocre people are the ones who never take risks, who always ‘play it safe’ – and I fear that’s the direction in which our society is heading.

Every teacher knows how long it takes to complete ‘risk assessment’ forms at School, and recent reports suggest that geography field trips may soon be a thing of the past because they are ‘too risky’. Of course, it would be absurd to encourage reckless behaviour. But I know I’m not alone in feeling that our ‘risk-aversion’ isn’t actually helping anyone.

That’s because we have been created with a capacity for taking risks which needs to be exercised if our characters are ever truly to grow. The Creation Story in Genesis makes that clear. Adam and Eve (who represent all human beings) are placed in a context (the Garden of Eden) which requires them to make hard choices and difficult decisions. According to the Bible, taking risks is an essential part of being a paid-up member of the human race.

Of course, in the story Adam and Eve foolishly risked disobeying God, which wasn’t part of the contract. But it did prove that they were indeed made in his image since God himself took the huge risk of designing in free-will. That’s why, when two of my children returned from a Scripture Union Camp last summer, I was delighted to hear that they had taken part in some fairly ‘risky’ adventure activities. They could have hurt themselves (not life-threateningly I hasten to add!) – which was one reason why they enjoyed it all so much.

‘Risk’ is defined in the dictionary as “incurring the chance of unfortunate consequences by doing something”. Entrepreneurs do that all the time. For instance, Daniel Reilly, who is 18 years old, recently used a business plan he drew up as part of an ‘A’ level project to raise enough money to lease a Boeing 737. Next month ‘Nexus Airlines’ will start flying from Liverpool to the Canary Islands. Will David be the next Richard Branson? Maybe, maybe not – but we wouldn’t even be asking the question if he hadn’t been prepared to take the risk.

As Christians, we have already taken the great risk of placing our trust in Jesus Christ. We now have to take the even greater risk of telling others he is alive – even though he can’t be seen or touched. Of course, that ‘incurs the chance of unfortunate consequences’. Those others may not like what we have to say. The Christian Gospel, with its emphasis on self-denial and commitment, is highly counter-cultural. But unless we’re prepared to take that risk – we can’t expect our faith to grow.

Nor can we expect God’s Church to grow unless we’re prepared to take risks with some of our cherished ways of doing things. Some commentators today observe that the Church is facing a crisis. Others point out that the Chinese word for crisis is spelt with two symbols: one meaning ‘risk’, the other ‘opportunity’. We need to embrace them both.





James Newcome