Lately I’ve found myself talking to church people about business and my clients about Jesus. Not always how it plays out, nor necessarily how it ‘should’ play out, but really nice to see the flow of life and learning in both directions.

A couple of guys in our church community are kicking off business projects and I know a bit about that stuff these days, so its good to be able to offer coaching type questions into their world and help them articulate what they are hoping to do. I find business energising and I know I’ve learnt a heap over the years, so I feel like I can offer useful insights both as a business person and as a Christian leader.

And after 8 years of being a retic bloke I know a lot of my repeat clients quite well, so the chat often turns to the ‘other part’ of my life – and sometimes unexpected conversations develop. This morning I was filling an hour between appointments and ended up doing a job for a mum from Quinns Baptist College, a woman who was a church attender in a past life but had drifted off.

I managed to find a fix for her job that saved her over $200 which made her rather happy and in the process of conversation she began discussing her own faith or lack thereof. It ended with her writing down the details of our church gatherings and telling me she’d see me there. Maybe she will – maybe she won’t… That isn’t the point.

The point is that after 8 years of living, working and being part of the same community I know I’ve been able to gain enough trust and respect from enough people to be able to speak about more than PVC and nozzle patterns. Its a small glimpse of what I hope to see developing more in business as I go along.

Natural, honest, earthy conversations about the bigger things of life – but only if you want to… If you don’t I’ll just shut up and keep digging.