lion&lamb: Back Issue

Introduction: Political Compassion?
Derek Poole

Silly Games with Flags
Alwyn Thomson

From the Director
David Porter

Church and Society
Lesley Carroll

Education
Mike Wardlow

Social Development
Doug Garrett

Environment
Tom Clarke

Wilson on Suffering
Alan Wilson

Finance and Personnel
Stephen Roper

Enterprise, Trade and Investment
Lawson McDonald

Faith and Practice - Esmond Birnie
Megan Halteman

Higher and Further Education
John Gillespie

Health and Social Services
Brian Coulter

Agriculture
Jack Patterson

Culture, Arts and Leisure
David Boyd

The Essential IVP Reference Collection

Embodying Forgiveness
ECONI Conference

Not of This World?
New Book

Summer School 2001

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DEPARTMENT OF ENTERPRISE, TRADE AND INVESTMENT
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) sets out its vision as ‘a balanced, competitive, innovative, knowledge-based and fast growing economy where there are plentiful opportunities for all’.

The Department has two key objectives:

to encourage the growth of the economy by promoting knowledge-based business, competitiveness and an enterprise culture in Northern Ireland;
to develop and maintain the equality, policy and regulatory environment necessary to achieve high levels of enterprise and fairness.

From a Christian perspective we can commend this vision and these objectives. They provide the opportunity for personal self-fulfilment through useful work. Work is one of God’s creation ordinances. It was his intention that we should all work (whether or not in a paid role). The school I attended had a Latin motto which, when literally translated, read: 'Work itself is a pleasure’. Whether we really believed that, then or now, is another matter but the thrust of the motto is telling. The apostle Paul put another slant on this when he said that if a man will not work he shall not eat.

So what more needs to be said from a Christian perspective on the role of DETI? I suggest that there are some important biblical aspects which need to be emphasised and which Christian people in Northern Ireland need to consider more seriously than perhaps they do.

Firstly, economic growth brings material prosperity and self-sufficiency. It can lead to a lifestyle that is self-centred and focused on personal gain. The Biblical emphasis is on lives which are Christ-centred and focused on him. Secondly, we can react in the opposite way and reject the growing materialism around us and develop a kind of puritanical attitude. Again, this departs from a biblical view that encourages us to receive with gratitude what God has given to us. Acknowledging God as the giver keeps things in perspective and protects us from arrogance and self-reliance.

A product of our market economy and its economic growth is a spirit of envy that pervades our society. Covetousness runs through our lives, breeding dissatisfaction. We are encouraged through Scripture to live contented lives and we are reminded constantly that this is possible only when our lives are centred in Christ.

A fourth aspect is our attitude to what we have and what we have achieved. Do we hold it selfishly to ourselves solely for our own personal use or are we open handed, generous and ready to share?

Those who have followed me to this point will recognise that there is nothing original in this reflection. These were Paul’s instructions to Timothy, and through him to the church at Ephesus, almost two thousand years ago. We commend the efforts to promote the development and growth of our economy. The challenge to us as Christians is how we handle the prosperity that this brings.

Lawson McDonald is Acting Deputy Chief Executive of the Industrial Development Board. He attends Greenisland Presbyterian Church.