Well, the spontaneous eruption of jeers and catcalls had to be heard to be believed. I've no idea of the politics of anybody there but there was no doubt at all of the derision and contempt for these institutions, and politicians of all shades need to take note as they seek our votes.

What's to be done then to mend what's clearly broken beyond repair? I took an away day last year and was asked to take a session on David Cameron's 'Big Society'. At the time it was hard to flesh out what the Big Society actually was. A year down the line and it's clear to me that the Big Society is actually the only solution that stands any chance of working.

Jim Wallis argues that a healthy society is a stool with 3 legs. The State, private enterprise, and the community. When they are in balance the stool stands. When one leg grows at the expense of the others the stool cannot stand. Too much private enterprise and greed and vested interests take over. When the state dominates, enterprise becomes lazy, communities lose their voice, and a dependent mentality takes over, with the squeaky wheels getting the grease. Too long the state has dominated until the stool has finally toppled. It's time the local communities are strengthened and responsibility given back where it belongs.

Yes, we need the state to provide a safety net, but it's gone too far. Yes, we need private enterprise to create jobs and wealth, but not to enrich the few at the expense of the many. And yes, we need strong communities, strong families, working out their own solutions rather than have solutions imposed on them. And yes, I think we are at last beginning to 'get it'.

What we need now a sense of humility amongst our leaders. They got us into this, now they should lead us out, or stand aside and make way for a new generation willing to lead by example. In my travels I'm coming across a lot of young leaders working hard and thoughtfully changing the communities where they live. It'll take time, there will be pain, but change is coming. I'll give you one example. Had lunch today with a young pastor. He takes a team of people out onto the streets of Chichester every Friday night. They call themselves City Angels and they go out simply to make friends and care for people out enjoying themselves and drinking just a shade too much. The police wrote him this week to tell him that serious crime in the city centre on Friday nights is down 49%, with antisocial behaviour down 24%. Figures for Saturday night are unchanged.Big Society works.

There's a more detailed essay on my website www.afvs.org.uk

If you've been following my blogs you might have picked up that I'm very much a Ready, Fire, Aim, sort of person. This does have its downside, as it can lead to a loss of confidence in those you are leading towards the goal. Nevertheless I still think it's a good way to proceed. Often I can't see what the issues are until I am some way down the road. I might wish I'd seen it sooner, but we each have to play to our strengths, and mine is to get cracking, and sort the issues as they arise.

I talked to a CEO of a fast growing charity recently. His charity has a golden opportunity to take over a struggling charity and make a success of it. Adequate funding is in place and the downside is limited, but he's frustrated by the need to get approvals and resources and other agreements from his trustees. It's important that we have adequate controls in place but don't allow bureaucratic drift, which can kill an opportunity as fast as anything. Allow experiment, but keep good open communications and manage it closely, especially the financials.

I've had to also learn to stay in my peace, and know when to sit quietly. There's a poem based around the 23rd Psalm which kept coming to mind. Here it is:

The Lord is my pace setter .... I shall not rush
He makes me stop for quiet intervals
He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity
He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and his guidance is peace
Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for his presence is here
His timelessness, his all importance will keep me in balance
He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquility
My cup of joyous energy overflows
Truly, harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours, for I shall walk in the peace of my Lord and dwell in his house for ever. (This is often called the Japanese 23rd Psalm, but it was written by Marian Wright Edelman who will have pride of place in my April Bulletin)

So, Ready, Fire, Aim, Peace.

Now this truth has been replaced by the awful reality, that by and large, give or take, leaders don't know what they are doing, and much of what they do is governed, not by the greater good, but by self interest. 2 examples will suffice.

They (the leaders of course) still tell us that we have to pay such mind boggling salaries replete with even bigger bonuses because if we don't they'll go elsewhere. We look back now and think - if only they had, perhaps they'd have damaged us less. Research (which these 'leaders' keep very quiet about, tells us that the only people successfully motivated by bonuses are those that are doing mechanistic jobs that don't require too much thought. Jobs that require left brain thinking are actually performed less well when there is the question of a big bonus at the year end.

Secondly, there's Greece. The banks and the rest of the EU were falling over themselves to lend them money, it suited them to do so. Now Greece is broke can't pay the money back, and the EU leaders are acting in their narrow self interest rather than the greater good (which might include what's good for Greece)

But many of us still look for leaders, heroes if you like, to lead us through the increasingly complex challenges that we find on all sides. The reality is that the leaders don't know what to do, and when they do act, they tend to act out of self interest. People across the world are waking up to this. We've seen the results in the Arab world with governments being overthrown. The danger of course is simply a fresh set of leaders emerging with their own self interest.

So what can we do? For a start we should stop looking for strong leaders. Look for people that are not so much heroes as hosts, teachable, able to inspire and empower those around them that they are 'leading'. People will buy into something they helped to create. We have such immense problems to tackle, we can't afford strong leaders who make people dependent and passive. We're all in this together, we have to sit down and work it out together. We have to stop the overspending fast. The more rules and restrictions we put on one another the less well people perform and the more risk averse they become. And we have the terrible picture in today's paper of lad drowned in 3 feet of water with rescuers looking on who had only been trained up to 2 feet of water. (What leadership! What empowerment!)

This new leadership (not actually new; Jesus himself modelled it well enough) needs to be put in place at the local level in our communities. There's a new movement afoot, across the world where leaders, mostly but not all younger, are 'Walking Out'. Margaret Wheatley describes them in her book, 'Turning to One Another'. They call themselves 'Walk-outs', she says, walking out of work and careers that are stifling them, walking out of relationships where they don't feel respected or valued. But they aren't walking out to disappear; they're walking out to walk on. To walk on to places where they can make a real contribution, where they can use their gifts, their strengths, and be valued for who they are.

Next week I'm having lunch with Derek, a leader who has moved on in this way. He makes me uncomfortable, but I can see he's working for the greater good of those around him. He's not young (but then the man who is making the biggest impact in the Greek crisis is a 90 year old).

The question to leave you with then is this: 'What might you need to walk out of?' It's a big question, and you need courage to even ask it. Stop waiting for approval or support or better times, or when you aren't so tired. Trust the energy of YES. Is it time for you to walk out to walk on?

I asked what good works their new charity will carry out. They are in the music industry, and wanted to bring music into the lives of children in different parts of the globe. But above this they wanted to find ways to promote kindness.

What a simple concept, but how utterly profound. Recently Anita, my wife, found a spiritual director. Sue, that's her name, is on a similar mission. She promotes kindness. Random acts of kindness she calls it. Wherever she goes this remarkable lady looks out for ways to be kind to people she doesn't know. The recipient is often given a card inviting them to go and be kind to someone else. When she was paying her bill at the local coffee shop, she paid someone else's bill at the same time. I saw someone at a parking meter desperately searching for change and didn't help. Lord help me be faster on the uptake.

But I did stop today and spend a few minutes chatting to a rather frail lady of 83, she proudly told me, so I am slowly getting better.

Albert Einstein put it like this: 'the ideals which have lighted my way and time after time, have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty and truth'.

Annie Lennox encourages us to ask ourselves, 'have I been kind today'? 'Make kindness your modus operandus and change your world', she says. I found this quote on FB this week. It got a lot of criticism. Perhaps critical readers didn't pick up on the 'your world' bit. I can't change the world, but I can change my world, and perhaps in a small way, your world.

Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways, it can change someone else's life forever (Margaret Cho)

Go and be kind.

He called his warriors together and declared that he could guarantee victory if they would vow to perform one feat at the moment he gave the command. 'What do you wish us to do'? 'When I sound the trumpet, I want you to give me one more foot. Push the enemy back just one foot'. The men swore they would do this.

Battle commenced; the armies clashed and locked up, shield against shield, each side straining to break the other. Epaminondas watched and waited 'til he judged that both sides had reached the extremity of exhaustion. Then he ordered the trumpet to sound. The Theban warriors remembered their promise, summoned their final reserves of strength and pushed the enemy back just one foot. It was enough to break the Spartan line and ensure their defeat. My ever courageous team, after a tough year, is right on the edge of breaking through in 2012. One push will do it.

The sign of a good leader is to have that primary quality of being able to envision and empassion, empower and inspire those following to go just one step beyond their own limits. (Now, this is a great story but I've not been able to validate it. Historians attribute the victory to the general changing his battle plan to hit the Spartans with an oblique infantry formation, concentrating his attack on one vital part of the enemy line)

Here's a similar tale of a Roman General leading his troops to victory. The countryside was swampy and he knew that the next day's battle had to be fought on a certain plain because it was the only dry, flat place in the area.

He pushed his army all night, marching them through the swamp. The hard night march got them to the battle site before the enemy could get there and was able to claim the high ground.

In the aftermath of victory he asked the question, 'brothers, when did we win the battle'? One said, 'Sir, when the infantry attacked'. Another said, 'we won when the cavalry broke through'. 'No', said the general, 'We won the battle the night before - when our men marched through the swamp and took the high ground'. Battle after battle has been fought in history where they key to victory lay in which army occupied the high ground (Remember Gettysburg, the defining battle of the American Civil War)

Battles will come from time to time, we live in a vale of tears; when you fight a battle, always make sure you have secured the high ground. And let your strength be always gentle. And as Churchill once said in a very short speech - never, never, never, never give up. (Thanks to Stevenpressfield.com for these 2 stories)

What will it look like? We're going through both immense change and turbulence. Most of the western world is teetering on the edge of the abyss with insoluble financial and social problems on all sides. That's the turbulence. Much of the change is the incredible speed, and new methods of communication that have revolutionised the way we live, do business, make war, relate to our friends and our enemies.

To reach current and future generations church must surely be a place of consistency, safety and yet understand and work amidst the changes we see around us in society.

Churchwise I'm in a period of significant change. I'm in a 'between churches' period which will probably last the year. We aren't rushing anything and are quietly evaluating our options. It's a time to sit quietly and reflect; what really went wrong? How can we make sure we don't make the same mistakes again? (Even at our time of life, there are still plenty of new mistakes to make!)

I've come to one early conclusion; this is that church will need to become more biblical than it's ever been if we are to stand the scrutiny of a world that is in considerable distress, and not be dismissed as an irrelevance.

In 1935 Oswald Chambers wrote this in his well known book, My Utmost for His Highest: 'The great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present day is the conception of practical work that has not come from the New Testament, but from the systems of the world in which endless energy and activities are insisted upon, but no private life with God ... The central thing about the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to himself, not public usefulness to men'.

We all know Mary Shelley's book about Dr Frankenstein who decides to create a human being. He builds the creature on his operating table and with an electric charge brings it to life. At first all is well; the creature was gentle and innocent, a source of blessing and support. However when adversity hits the creature transforms into a destructive monster, demanding to be fed and supported.

As human beings we have been created with immense creative power locked up within us. When this creative power is misused we have, like Dr Frankenstein,  the ability to create cultures and institutions that demand all our energy and our time but damage and destroy all in their path, doing the opposite of what they were intended for. Bob Mumford wrote a powerful book on this subject, some say one of his best.

The model of church that we find in the New Testament is nothing like this. Why then are we seeing so many burnt out pastors and congregations, and people walking away in despair. Often it's not the malcontented 'church hoppers' moving on or moving out; it's the loyal ones, the generous givers, the faithful servants, the volunteers.

I wonder, do we we need more programmes, or do we need less? Do we need more buildings, or fewer?  Friedman in his book, 'The World is Flat', identifies clearly the shape of the church in the 21st Century. He writes, 'It'll be flat; we will not have strong hierarchical leadership. We will influence one another by relationship, prayer, love, and real community'. By community I'm reminded of Bonhoffer's comment that the restoration of the church will surely only come from a new type of monasticism. I do believe that 'the biblical approach to operating as a Christian community .. is no longer an option. It is an absolute necessity' (Kent Hunter, The Future is Now).

Today, many churches seem to operate from a position of high control/ low accountability. This means the flock is told what to do, but not held accountable, with no understanding of Matt 18. 15-17, or Ephesians 4.15. Strong effective church leadership is a good thing, but the church of the future needs to embody low control and high accountability by putting the New Testament culture of trust and family into practise. As a corollary it may be lightweight/low maintenance. I recently met a pastor of unusual insight and courage who is aiming towards selling their building.

If we can get to grips with these core issues, church for us will look like a movement rather than an institution.

This isn't a call to shut down our churches; it's a challenge to be radical - New Testament radical and find out what our values and our beliefs really are.  Time is short. Lets get serious. Don't be sidelined.

Creaking myself upright from the carpet where I was playing shops with Rosa I answered the 'phone to a caller who requested to be put through to the office. I told her, there is no office here. She told me she needed to be put through to the office to talk about an unpaid bill for lift maintenance. I repeated myself and added that there are only residents living here.

'Oh, you're a resident then. Is there someone else I can talk to?'  'No.' 'I'm playing shops with Rosa' I added, probably unnecessarily. 'Are you using real money?' 'No, it's pretend money.' 'Oh, well done.'

I always glow when someone says well done. 'is Rosa a resident as well?'  'No, she is just visiting.'

'That's nice, now can I speak to whoever looks after you?' 'No, she's at the shop.' 'A real shop,' I added, again probably unnecessarily. 'Ah, bless.' Now this is a phrase I've never been able to handle, so I stayed silent. She raised her voice just a little, and speaking very slowly and deliberately asked me, if she rang again tomorrow would there be someone else she could talk to? 'I'm going to the Isle of Wight tomorrow' I told her rather proudly, 'my friends are taking me.' 'Bless', she said again. 'I'll ring tomorrow, and there'll be someone else to answer the 'phone'.

Relieved that the ordeal was over, I hurried back to the shop where Rosa, having decided that a thorough grasp of finance is essential to her plan for world domination, was quietly exchanging my 50p coins for her 20p coins.

I explained to my wife what had happened when she returned a couple of minutes later. In a few minutes she crisply took care of the situation, and all bills are paid.

I'm always reluctant to answer the 'phone. Now you know why.

As I've said before in my best cracked gramaphone mode, most problems in organisations are relational, (well yes ok, shortage of money is also often an issue; I'll talk about that another time)

So let's remind you yet again what happens when trust is low:

People are frightened to speak out. Someone said to me only last week, 'I have a wife and children to consider' (was his life under threat, could they be taken hostage?). But the fear is real and we daren't laugh.

People are guarded, there's a lack of transparency, lack of volunteering, lack of teamwork, new initiatives are viewed with suspicion, motives are always being questioned. Confidence breaks down.

Efficiency and effectiveness breaks down. Culture of blame develops. Barriers everywhere. Backs are covered. Hidden agendas.

Basically everything slows down.

Where trust levels are high, we get the opposite: people want to be around, decisions are made fast and implemented quickly. People are allowed to make mistakes. Some environments will even encourage screw ups, on the basis that if people are allowed to get things wrong in a no blame culture, they will have the confidence to succeed and succeed well. If you have volunteers working for you, it's imperative that you do all you can to allow them to operate in a safe, blame free, high trust environment.

Remember. there are tremendous benefits when trust levels are high: When leaders are trusted energy is released. When others are trusted they do more, they work harder and better, they give themselves more. Oh and costs are reduced, always useful. Lencioni's book, 'The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team', majors on the damage caused by a lack of trust and appreciation.

The data protection issue? I researched it and sent off  carefully worded advice and charged a couple of hours of time. But was clear when I followed up later that the issues were relational, and down to a lack of trust.

Check out on the trust levels of the organisations you're involved in. The only way to know if you can trust someone is to trust them.