Recent research has shown that millions of working days are being lost in Britain through stress at work. Rod Badams of 'Christians at Work' reports on a Christian initiative to help with this problem.
Every day Chris Dinsdale leaves his home in Twickenham and sets off on a 36-minute cycle ride to a spacious and comfortable office in St George Street, Mayfair. 48 years old and a former partner in a firm of chartered surveyors, Chris now has one of the most unusual jobs in London. He provides a full-time pastoral support ministry to Mayfair's business community.
Whatever its significance on the Monopoly board, the real Mayfair - the area of the West End bounded by Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane - is the heart of London's property business, and home to a wide range of diplomatic, government and commercial activities, including considerable retail and hotel interests.
In the early 1990s the business life of the area was hit by a calamitous slow-down, leading to disasters as catastrophic as any of the fictitious business dramas one could imagine being played out during a quiet evening's Monopoly.
Although the economic recession has now eased a little, the business stresses and pressures of the Mayfair scene are still damaging the health, well-being and personal circumstances of thousands of high-fliers and lower-level "workhorse" staff in the relentless treadmill pursuit of ever-rising targets.
Midweek in Mayfair
In response to this challenge, a group of evangelical Christians with close links with the Mayfair business community, under the name of Midweek in Mayfair, appointed Chris to develop the pastoral side of its work. Chris had been a salaried partner in Weatherall Green & Smith, an international London-based firm of chartered surveyors. Midweek in Mayfair, now an independent charitable trust, was formerly a partnership between Christians in Property and Christ Church, Down Street, a church in Mayfair. Christians in Property is a fellowship of more than 300 Christians employed in the property business.
From January 1993 to March 1996 Chris worked two days a week for Midweek in Mayfair and three for Weatherall Green & Smith. But from April 1996 he has been working full-time in Mayfair.
Chris's appointment arose out of concern expressed by a number of Christians who had links with the local business community. The feeling was: 'If we cannot make somebody available to offer support, it's a pretty bad show.' But another important catalyst was Chris's deeply-felt concern for business contacts who were 'hurting', and the way in which the Lord had been steadily leading him, and his wife Clair, who is also a chartered surveyor, to consider a ministry of this kind.
St. Helen's conversion
Chris was first challenged by the message of the gospel in 1975. He was one of many converts from the ministry of the Rev. Dick Lucas of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. Dick Lucas gave a weekly lunch-time Bible ministry to hundreds of businessmen, and Chris was one of those invited along.
'It was my boss who invited me, and I suppose I went along because he was the boss. I listened both to my boss and to Dick Lucas for about two years, but I deferred any decision about what I was hearing. Then I remember the Lord telling me that I was sitting on the fence, and that this had to stop,' he explained.
After Chris's conversion, he continued to work for Weatherall Green & Smith for the next 16 years, getting up at the crack of dawn and rushing into the office.
Depression
Then in February 1991 he suffered a bout of mild depression, and was off work for five weeks.
'In the midst of this depression I used to wake up and my mind was going round with things I had to do but could not do,' he said.
Recovering from this, things continued as before, except that now, before going off to work, he and Clair spent time together reading the Bible and praying. 'Then on January 15 1992 I woke early in exactly the same state of mind as I had during my depression. Clair and I both realised that it was not right to be in this state of mind, so we sought the Lord's guidance. This time I was totally reassured that there was no need to worry or be concerned. It was the Lord telling me that he wanted me to care for 'hurting men'.
'All the hurting men I knew were in business, and in the next few months so many practical things confirmed that this was what God wanted me to do. I had suffered from work-related stress and mild depression and could empathise with them and what they were going through,' said Chris.
Some of the 'hurting' men of whom Chris was aware had been victims of the recession in the property business which Chris vividly remembers.
'My own workload practically disappeared. People were not coming forward with schemes, and in the property business, fees are based on transactions. The majority of the big fees come out of deals, so the income of firms was going down and down.
'There was real uncertainty in the market-place. People were being made redundant in their 40s, and this was horrendous for them, because they had not expected it. Their fathers had had a job for life, and this was their expectation as well,' he added.
Hurting people
Given that the frenetic world of business is full of hurting people, what specific help can Midweek in Mayfair provide and what does 'personal pastoral support' mean in practice?
'What we can offer people most of all is time,' he said. 'A few years ago, I remember what it was like in the office. People would ask me if they could drop in to talk through a situation. This was a huge joke. I had work to do. I had partners jumping up and down, and accountants wanting figures for this and that, and in the midst of it all this person comes in to ask if he can discuss something. Wherever you go this is still the case. For all sorts of reasons, whether you are a surveyor or a shop assistant, no-one has any time,' said Chris.
'As Christians we need to offer people a lot of time. Clair and I have been set apart to have time for people. Throughout the Bible we see instances of Jesus giving time to people. But in the business world of today the pressure to perform is so great that there is no time for anything which does not enhance performance. Many people in business feel that because the organisation has no time for them they are of no value and will be treated like any other resource. By giving them time, I want to be able to demonstrate that God values and loves them as a person rather than as a resource and that he is concerned with their situation.'
The list of contacts now numbers 500. When Chris first began his pastoral ministry he introduced himself to 10 firms of chartered surveyors. Because he had been a partner in Weatherall Green & Smith it gave him a credibility which he would not otherwise have had, and from the perspective of those being approached this gave a status and impetus to what he was seeking to do, for which he was grateful.
Half Chris's time is spent in one-to-one meetings with people, either at his office or at theirs, or on the telephone.
Availability
Do you mean that if you were sitting at your desk one morning, and suddenly you were reminded of someone, you would be proactive in telephoning that person there and then?
'Absolutely. It's exactly like that. We want everyone to feel the availability of the support and genuine interest that we are offering, and to encourage relationships to develop in the business community,' he said.
The office in St. George's Street is an oasis of tranquillity. The prints on the wall - a Manet of Venice, and a seaside scene by Lecomte - are large and soothing, and the substantial and healthy-looking pot plants faithfully watered. The coffee is good, and the atmosphere friendly, without the slightest hint of intimidation or psychology. The maps and filing cabinets are a tribute to Chris's efficiency and sense of order, rather than indications of a bureaucratic pastoral approach.
The principles of the pastoral work are that it is confidential, free of charge, and that beliefs are not imposed on the business contacts befriended and supported.
Chris and Clair, who are both accredited counsellors and 'trained listeners,' have helped people in situations involving stress, work pressures, career issues, relationships, including marriage, financial strain and redundancy.
'Many business people are working 10-12 hours a day, and this has inevitable consequences in other areas of life. Business and financial pressures bring stress into marriages and family relationships,' said Chris.
Clair is particularly involved with business women in the area. Both she and Chris, in addition to the experience gained during their professional careers, and through their counselling training, have been involved in pastoral responsibilities at their home church at St Stephen's, East Twickenham.
In parallel with the pastoral aims of Midweek in Mayfair there is also an evangelistic thrust. Each Wednesday a lunch-time meeting at St. George's, Hanover Square, draws about 80 people to hear topical Bible teaching ministry by the Rev. David Prior, priest-in-charge of St. Botolph's, Aldersgate.
After all, ultimately all Christian pastoral work is bound up with the road to heaven, rather than profit-driven ambition.
Home
Archives
Subscriptions
Adverts
Find a church
About us
Contact us
Site Map
Printable