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With Jim Grimmer
279 Plays4 years ago
The workplace is not a place for rocking the boat by discussing politics or religion, is it? Not always the case, as today's guest has found the business environment incredibly ripe for ministry. Jim Grimmer chats with Andy and Kristi about how he's using his Christian faith to fill the voids of personal and spiritual support found in many workplaces.
Jim Grimmer has over 40 years work experience, firstly 20 years as a Police Officer, including roles in serious crime and major incident investigation and for the past 20 years in Business Development, General Management & Director roles within the Oil & Gas industry.
In 2005, he was awarded the ‘Iraq Reconstruction Medal’ following a year located in the Maysan Province of Iraq, mentoring the new Iraqi Police Service on behalf of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
A co-founder and trustee of The Business Connection Charity, in November 2017, Jim stepped into the role of CEO of P3 Business Care, a social enterprise he created to bring personal proactive care, support & encouragement to people working in the 9-5 corporate sector.
Support the show (https://www.solas-cpc.org/podcast-book-offer/)Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Support Invitation
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, thanks for downloading PepTalk. If you enjoy today's episode, why not get a free copy of Andy's book or my book by becoming a regular supporter? Visit us at solas-cpc.org and donate just £3 per month. Thanks so much. On with the show.
Hosts Introduction
00:00:28
Speaker
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to another exciting episode of Pep Talk. I'm Andy Vanister from the Solar Centre for Public Christianity based in Scotland, and I'm joined all the way from the other end of the country by my co-host and partner in crime, Christy Mayer. Christy, how is life at your end of the country today? Oh, continues to be, well, actually, the weather's turned, so it's not as nice, but it's not very interesting, is it? But all is well. Thanks, Andy. How are you getting on?
00:00:57
Speaker
I realise a number of times we start this podcast talking about the weather. I know. It's so British, isn't it? So annoying. What else can we talk about? Well, we don't just have like Dundee and London represented.
Guest Introduction: Jim Grimmer
00:01:08
Speaker
We're going even further north today because joining us from about an hour and a half north of where I am up in Aberdeen, we have Jim Grimmer. Jim, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Andy. Christie, thanks very much for the invite to join you today. It's a pleasure.
00:01:23
Speaker
Well, Jim, for people who don't know you, why don't you give us a brief sort of potted history of, you know, what's going on in your life? What's brought you to the point where you're now sitting down at the other end of a microphone line talking to us? Because your bio covers all kinds of things. I'm not going to do it justice. So a bit of a potted history of who you are and the stuff that you're into.
Jim's Career and Faith Journey
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah, thanks Andy. Working life has really comprised 20 years as a police officer in the home city of Aberdeen and 20 years in various management roles in the oil industry.
00:01:55
Speaker
Faith-wise I'd gone to church for many years but it wasn't until 2004 and doing an alpha course that actually became a Christian and that really transformed my life. First step in Faith 2005 I went to Iraq to train the Iraqi police. God clearly spoke to me and to use the skills that he had and that was an amazing year and probably for the first time really gave me an opportunity to
00:02:21
Speaker
reading the Bible from start to finish and working away for nine weeks at a time and home for three weeks.
Founding Business Connection Charity
00:02:28
Speaker
And then I got back into working for a friend in the oil industry.
00:02:33
Speaker
It was 2013 that with encouragement of a Christian friend, I started running a breakfast in Aberdeen and I thought let's just give people an opportunity to come together and hopefully I could be able to signpost them to appropriate help etc. So that started to grow and then I met three other Christian businessmen
00:02:56
Speaker
different sectors that we were working in, different churches, denominations, but they all had a heart to do something. So we created the Business Connection as a charity in 2014. Alongside this, back in 2011, I'd gone to Hillsong International Leadership College in Australia with my wife Ashlyn. An amazing year, at the age of 50, it was a big step to leave my job and go there, but
00:03:22
Speaker
so many blessings about so many challenges but you know I saw God at work in amazing ways during that year and it was the end of that year I was praying about what she doing. God really challenged me that we had church pastors, school pastors, street pastors, why they would not have business pastors and the second thing he said was you get business pastors into a company and I will do the rest.
Creation of Business Pastors and P3 Business Care
00:03:44
Speaker
So the Business Connection was part of outworking that really. We continue to grow the Business Connection 2015. I stepped back from full-time work to commit a couple of days a week to develop the Business Connection 2016. We formally launched the Business Connection as a charity.
00:04:04
Speaker
probably in the last, the start of the last major downturn in the oil industry in Aberdeen pre-COVID. And then we started having a monthly breakfast as well as a fortnightly breakfast with a guest speaker. In 2017, I had a conversation with the guys because
00:04:23
Speaker
In the conversations I was having with people coming to breakfast, guys in particular, it was clear that although they said they had a Christian faith, they were very reluctant to open up about having a Christian faith within the workplace. And that really was the start of planting some seeds that eventually became Thrive Conference.
Impact of COVID on Thrive Conference
00:04:43
Speaker
We ran Thrive for the first time last year in Aberdeen.
00:04:47
Speaker
Obviously, it's a physical conference, a Friday evening, a daytime Saturday. But this year, because of Covid, we actually took it online. And obviously, Andy, we had yourself involved in both conferences. Absolutely amazing. Just blown away, really, by what God can do in these situations when you take a physical conference online and the access that gives you to so many more people.
00:05:13
Speaker
Coming back to the vision to go into the workplace, I stepped out from a full-time job that began in 2018 into Business Pastors and the vision for Business Pastors
Faith in the Workplace Through P3 Business Care
00:05:28
Speaker
The business connection obviously is for people to come to me in effect, but business pastors is for me to go to people within the workplace. So we now have employed male and female, what we call business partners,
00:05:43
Speaker
The company is called P3 Business Care and P3 is actually from Proverbs 3 that says, wisdom bestows wellbeing. So we have male and female business partners that visit a company a couple of times a week and developing trust and relationship with employees
00:06:00
Speaker
so that we can proactively identify and address issues before they become crisis. Because my experience from my career in the oil industry, that everything was very reactive. Something came to a crisis point, somebody went off sick, and then you were trying to address the issue. So I thought far better to try and proactively identify and address these issues before it becomes a crisis. So that's a very short summary of a long period of time in my working life and some of my faith journey, I suppose.
00:06:31
Speaker
Thank you so much. It's really rather insightful hearing about how you've come through the police and then you've moved into business and then seeing the need for some kind of care in the workplace.
Faith Engagement and Witnessing in Business
00:06:46
Speaker
Why do you think that that matters?
00:06:49
Speaker
How have you found that your faith has shaped the way in which you engage with like P3 business care and the business connection, particularly on an evangelistic kind of slant? How have you engaged in those different areas as a Christian witnessing to others? Has that been possible? Yeah, I guess what's driving me is, you know, the pre-Christian life, I suppose, like so many people, the life I led
00:07:17
Speaker
particularly in my police career, that environment, drinking and doing so many things that were wrong ultimately. But yet that day I committed my life to Jesus, 4th of October 2004, totally transformed my life and experience the whole experience, etc. And I suppose one of the drivers for me is for people to be able to have that transformation in their life in a lot of respects.
00:07:46
Speaker
And a realization that God has a plan for our life. He wants the best for us. And particularly at the moment, as we've experienced, you know, these last months where the challenges everyone's faced and the fears and the concerns and the worries that have, particularly in Aberdeen, you know, my home city as well, a massive downturn in the oil industry as well. So again, I see it as an opportunity both through the business connection
00:08:15
Speaker
entropy three and as we know you know scripture says to go to where the people largest as Jesus did you know he wasn't waiting for people to come
Trust and Prayer in Business Settings
00:08:25
Speaker
to him he was going to where they were
00:08:28
Speaker
He was engaging them in whatever circumstances they were in. I often say P3s for receptionists to see, no, there's no one within a business that we wouldn't engage with if they're open to engaging. And I've just seen fantastic opportunities to share faith. When you're speaking to companies about P3 business care, I'm very open that I'm a Christian,
00:08:57
Speaker
This is based on Christian values. And it's been really interesting. We're trying to support and break into, in some respects, a massively secular business environment. But yet, if I'm challenged on my Christian faith, I explain to the CEO of a company, for example, if
00:09:19
Speaker
An employee has a conversation with us about what a particular topic might be, health, it might be relationships, might be whatever. That's a personal and confidential thing for them. So if a business partner has developed a relationship with an employee that they want to have a faith conversation, like everything else,
00:09:38
Speaker
that's personal and confidential. And without exception, that is being accepted. You know, people have said, OK, that sounds really reasonable. So in some respects, that gets us over the hurdle, if you look at that way, that we're a Christian organization trying to be within a secular business environment. But it's all about trust.
00:09:59
Speaker
in relationship. You know, the business connection, as I said, running breakfast events, people of faith and no faith, we come to that breakfast events and over time develop that trust in relationship. So at some point they felt comfortable to open up and then I could potentially signpost them to help. And exactly the same with P3. We're going into a work environment and it's been incredible how quickly
00:10:28
Speaker
people open up. Literally, we start with a company visiting twice a week and literally within three or four weeks, someone is coming to us and saying, could I speak to you about something? And so very often, companies, CEOs, senior management are totally blown away by the engagement that we're having. But from my own background, as I said at the outset, that support has never been there.
00:10:56
Speaker
the ability to actually sit and speak to someone face to face in confidence, knowing that they'll be in next week. They're not in there to run some seminar and disappear again. It's building up that trust and relationship that opens the doors. And I've been blown away by how many people have some kind of church background.
00:11:18
Speaker
you know, they'll maybe say, my grandmother went to church or I used to go to church or there's often, very often, there's some connection in the background to church. Admittedly, maybe not always a good experience and that's why they're no longer at church, et cetera. But these kind of things come out in conversation. And again, the power of prayer. People are, I think, just to be an encouragement to people that's listening, people are far more open
00:11:47
Speaker
for you to say, could I pray for you, or I will be praying for you in this particular situation, then perhaps people think. Because my experience in the workplace, when people open up and confiding in you and really led by the Holy Spirit as to when you might have that conversation, but you know, times I've said, look, could I pray for you, pray with you, people will be very open to that.
00:12:15
Speaker
So yeah, just to be an encouragement, to be confident in your faith. One of the reasons that we created Thrive, as I say, I felt there was something to be done there. And really through Thrive Conference, you can pick up the recordings of Thrive Conference through the Business Connection YouTube channel.
00:12:37
Speaker
all the recordings are on there in various sessions. But, you know, Transform Work UK, Ros Loker, she did a session with Andy around inclusion and really tried to build confidence. And we've got to remember that we're in these situations, we're not alone, you know, we've got God with us. And the many years that they've been working on development of P3, I've always hung on to that.
00:13:03
Speaker
what God said to me back in 2011, you get business pastors into a company and I will do the rest. And we've always prayed before we go into a company, et cetera. So I think if employees are praying before they go into the work in the morning and say, God, just put me alongside someone today that I could be Jesus to them ultimately.
00:13:25
Speaker
That's, that's great advice, Jim. What I like about, about that, when both the P3 and the, and the prayer stuff, is that something, you know, anybody, anybody can pick up because we can all, you know, listen to our colleagues, we can look for opportunities to be available and to pray. I want to ask you a question about something else you said in your bio at the start, you talked about how
00:13:43
Speaker
you became a little bit concerned through i think through business connection and other pieces that you were doing you know coming across Christians who were really kind of sort of hiding their faith away at work and sort of really kind of nervous about putting their heads above the parapet. What do you think are some of the causes of
Expressing Faith at Work
00:13:58
Speaker
that?
00:13:58
Speaker
And how do we help people become perhaps just a bit more relaxed about being a Christian in the workplace? You've given a couple of ideas already, the kind of prayer and being willing to listen to people. Are there other things you've learned from your own experience and talking to others in terms of helping Christian men and women to be more publicly Christian in their workplaces? Yeah, I think a bit of a burden of mine in particular is
00:14:22
Speaker
You know, here's a shared going to church for many years, but not being a Christian. So I often think how many people are in that position faithfully going to church and potentially serving in church, but yet not having that personal relationship with Jesus. And one of the breakfasts always quote this example. There was a guy worked in one of the big oil companies in Aberdeen,
00:14:45
Speaker
To start this conversation, he says, oh, there's a faith room in the office and I see the Muslim guys going into the faith room, but I'd never be seen walking in there. And I thought, wow, you know, if he wasn't even willing to make that statement in effect, there's no way that he was going to have a conversation about Jesus in the workplace.
00:15:06
Speaker
And it was one of the drivers, one of the things that really set me off in that path of thinking, you know, we need to do something to equip, empower, encourage men and women of faith to be confident in their faith. I suppose one of the challenges is that people maybe don't feel that they're equipped.
00:15:28
Speaker
or perhaps, and this is touching right onto what you're doing Andy with Solas in your short docs, etc, which are fantastic, is that people maybe feel, if I open up about being a Christian, someone asked me this particular question, what is my response going to be?
00:15:47
Speaker
or will I have the right answer or whatever but again it comes back to yes we are called as Christians to be reading our Bible and to be gaining knowledge of the Word but also I think we get hung up on that too often I think because we're in the workplace we very often have relationships with colleagues
00:16:10
Speaker
And so, and there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, look, I don't know the answer to that question, or I'm not the font of all knowledge, etc. And in some respects, being human, you know, they don't have the answer to everything. But I think, again, coming back
00:16:31
Speaker
to the power of the Holy Spirit, looking as well for opportunities. I think very often we don't have a rise in where we are open. And there's lots of opportunities, particularly in this current climate, to be coming alongside colleagues. Just to take that extra time, what I'm finding in businesses, when COVID first started, the first two or three months, companies were very proactive.
00:16:59
Speaker
calling their employees every week, how are you, et cetera. But as time has gone on, that has reduced. And it's now very much, how are you? Yeah, I'm fine. And OK, we need to speak about this. This is what's happening in the business type thing. But from a Christian perspective, I think there's opportunities to be coming alongside people, to be looking for opportunities. But just it's a step of faith, ultimately.
00:17:25
Speaker
to step out in the workplace to identify as a Christian but I think so many
00:17:33
Speaker
If you've been living the right life is maybe one way to describe it. I'll share a very quick example.
Faith Conversations Inspired by Christ-like Living
00:17:41
Speaker
When I got back from full-time work to free up time for the business connection, incredibly I got connected to two former police colleagues who had a company and said, come and work for us for three days a week and not a free up two days for the business connection. I find myself back in the police environment in effect with maybe half a dozen colleagues in the office
00:18:03
Speaker
The language is atrocious. It was just like being back in my days in the CID. I had an office to myself. I was doing business development. And I could hear the guys having this conversation and the language, et cetera. But when I would open the door and walk into the main office, that would stop.
00:18:25
Speaker
Over the time I worked for the company, every single one of them came to me individually and said, what's happened in your life? You know, this change that's happened in your life. And it gave me an opportunity to witness, share my testimony of the day I committed my life, the amazing experience of Holy Spirit, et cetera, with every single one of them. So it comes back, it's a great example of how you can be an influence
00:18:55
Speaker
And being an influencer and others without actually really being aware of it, ultimately. But I think the more you can live that Christ-like life and be an example, be a good employee, be a good friend in the workplace, be someone who goes the extra mile
00:19:17
Speaker
is also in seeds for when people have challenges, that's the opportunity that they might think there's something different about you or even, I know you've got a Christian faith, can I speak to you about this? And that can open the door.
00:19:32
Speaker
Jim, this is just such an encouragement for us to hear of just how easy it is to just be able to, it's so simple, isn't it? To be able to cultivate these relationships. Just very briefly, I mean, do you have one more story that you could share with us about what this looked like for you in the workplace?
Story of Gratitude and Faith's Impact
00:19:50
Speaker
I'll share a story from this week. I was on a call, so following COVID, we obviously had to stop our physical visits, but be maintaining contact with employees over the telephone. And I was speaking to a young guy this week, he'd apply for a promotion, got a knock back, was really, you know, dejected.
00:20:12
Speaker
and you're going off work for sick for a week kind of thing all part of the fallout from this and I said look I says you know I've got a Christian faith he says yeah I says I start every day giving thanks for what I have and you could just hear that sort of silence I says you've got a job at the moment you've got an income
00:20:34
Speaker
You've got a great relationship with your girlfriend, you've got a flat, you've got your health, you've got so much to be thankful for. And you could almost hear the penny drop kind of thing. He says, you know this? He says, you're so right. And I says, I start my day. I've got a little card up on my wall and I'll just read it out to you. I have the unmerited favour of God on my life and his peace, vision and protection.
00:21:04
Speaker
And every day I sit at my desk, and I just look at that before I start that day, and that's just exactly what I look at and I speak out. So that's just a simple example, I think, of someone that's in that situation but looking upon it negatively, but it gives us the chance to look at it from a different perspective and be thankful for what we have, rather than looking at what we might not
00:21:29
Speaker
We might not have gained that promotion, except because we're more than what we do. That's ultimately the bigger picture.
00:21:37
Speaker
Jim, this has been absolutely fantastic. There's been so much stuff in there. As you've described some of this, I've been sitting here thinking, gosh, I wish I'd heard some of this back in the days when I was in the secular workplace.
Conclusion and Resources Encouragement
00:21:48
Speaker
Thank you so much for sharing this and for what you're doing through Business Connection, through Thrive. We'll put links to both those things in the show notes when this is released so listeners can go and check that out. And thanks for giving up 20 minutes of your time this afternoon.
00:22:01
Speaker
Being a pleasure, guys. Thank you. Hopefully, as we say in the outset, it's been helpful for some of the people listening there. Yeah, I'm absolutely sure it has. And thank you to all of you listening home for spending some of your time with us. And Christy and I will be back with another guest in two weeks time on the next episode of Pep Talk. Thanks for listening.