Maurice Glasman on the Labour Party and perhaps Church Meetings

I'm a bit of a Maurice Glasman and Blue Labour fan and was reading a recent interview with him, and the quote below stood out to be interesting with regard the debate us Baptists are having and the role of church meetings, Council, and Assembly.

The first is a genuine change in what I call the relational culture of the party. The reality is the average number of people who turn up for branch meetings is 12, the average number who speak is five. So that means there are seven people who don’t say a word. We’ve got to look at that and say, ‘What kind of culture is this?’

So, from an organising point of view, we’re thinking about bringing in suggestions that everyone says their name and where they are from at the beginning of the meeting – just to hear their voice.

Secondly, that every meeting will include a one-to-one conversation. Once again, it’s about getting away from the idea that the only way to get things done is to get pieces of paper out and pass motions. We’ve got to broaden the base of the party.

And then we come to the key thing – being prepared to actually listen and act on things that people care about rather than the things we think they should care about.

 

Comments

[Rowena Wilding]

This is brilliant, Andy, thanks for sharing. One thing we've been introducing is an opinions wall - an opportunity for those who prefer not to pipe up, and for those who take time to process information and make up their mind, to scribble on post it notes and attach them to the wall so that we can discuss them later on. It wonder if it comes back to hospitality; helping people to feel comfortable when they're operating outside their usual mode of working. We definitely need more ways of "broadening the base"!

[Ashley Lovett]

Don't be silly Andy. It's much better if no-one speaks at Church Meetings. That way we get things done, and being Christians is always about getting things done, efficiency, productivity, and all that.

Listen to people, let them have opinions, goodness me. The next thing you'll be suggesting is that the Minister isn't always right! And I know I am because I asked myself earlier.

[Ash]

Good stuff Andy. I met Lord Glasman at a community event in November and he was given about 45 minutes to speak. He gave up 15 of them asking people to talk to each other, as described above. I told him that, as someone who'd never visited that group before, that was the single best thing he could have done. He said 'it's simple, but it wasn't obvious... it took years to get it.'