Lunch with Linvoy

His first team debut at Charlton was televised and he won the “Man of the Match” award; 6 games later he was dropped. It was a tough introduction to football at the top level, over 500 young footballers a year are let go. Linvoy described how he worked on, driven in large part by anger and desire to prove the Charlton manager wrong!!

Linvoy Primus, the Premiership footballer, who played for Charlton, Barnet, Reading and Portsmouth, gave a riveting talk at the Woking Business matters lunch. He related how his Christian faith helped him to let go of that anger and start to play for God. A turning point was the arrival of Harry Redknap. During their first conversation Harry told him he was going to sell Linvoy; not a great start. But the Chaplain told Linvoy not to worry, if God wants you here, you’ll be staying, just play for God. And so it was, Linvoy was still in the first team when Harry left.

After he retired, Linvoy teamed up with Darren Moore and Mick Mellows to form Faith in Football - as Christians they wanted to serve their local communities by helping young people and their families, be positive role models and help make a real difference!

From that simple beginning, Faith & Football has grown so that it now provides a range of community, educational and overseas programmes using football as a platform for relationship building. They mobilise the Church to meet and serve people where they are on life’s journey and to make Jesus’ message of hope known to all. We wish Linvoy all the best with this great work.  http://www.linvoyprimus.com/

Lunch with Linvoy!! - Tuesday 25th March

I would like to invite you to our next Woking Business Matters lunch; our speaker will be Linvoy Primus

 Linvoy Primus was a professional footballer for over 20 years. He began his career at Charlton Athletic and after a period with Barnet and three successful seasons with Reading, he transferred to Portsmouth. During his time there, Linvoy worked under three different managers: Harry Redknapp, Velimir Zajec and Alain Perrin. The Milton End stand at Fratton Park was renamed the 'Linvoy Primus Community Stand' because of his outstanding services to the club.

“Linvoy Primus, a man with a big smile, big personality and an exciting testimony who communicates very well”

This promises to be an excellent event and a great opportunity for meeting other people working in Woking, so why not treat yourself and come along.

The event will be on Tuesday 25^th March; 12.40 for 1.00pm till 1.50pm at Charlie Choy's Restaurant and Bar, Units 12 -14, The Centrium, Victoria Road, Woking, Surrey, GU22 7PB. We do not charge, but we invite a contribution of £10/head to cover costs; a pan Asian buffet lunch will be provided.

To help us get the catering right, please would you book by emailing me or calling me on 07795 973814.

I would also be grateful if you passed the invite onto anyone else you think might be interested in the topic

Woking Business Matters are a group of Christians, from a wide range of churches, who work in and around Woking and we hope these events will help build up relationships between people who work in the town. You can find out more through the Woking Business Matters groups on  and

I look forward to meeting up again on Tuesday 25^th March

“DUH when did dishonesty ever become thinkable?”

 

Thus wrote Bromley Boy – aka Simon Jones, In a recent blog

 Well I agree it shouldn’t be acceptable and yet in my personal experience it has always been thinkable to some people. What about you? My current employer is very good about openness and integrity; but in the past I have worked with organisations that took a pragmatic approach to the truth, - am I likely to get caught? If not well then…….. And this attitude is not just confined to the commercial sector – just look at the recent accusations of hospitals and the police falsifying various statistics to “enhance” their performance.

 

Issues of integrity and truth telling are often pinch points for Christians in employment – how to deal with it you might ask? One sales colleague I worked with would announce, typically at the start of meetings with other departments, that he wouldn’t tell a lie (There was an assumption that because we were in sales we would be willing to be dis-honest) – sort of heading them off at the pass. In the Bible, when Daniel was told to do something that compromised his principles, he asked permission to be excused.

 

The Banking sector is big into programmes for reforming cultures and behaviours right now. James Featherby wrote a fascinating article on this in Faith in Business Quarterly magazine. All sorts of approaches are being tried

·         Offering financial incentives for good behaviour

·         Emphasising professional standards

·         Enhancing personal integrity

·         A great deal of focus on accountability through ever more rigorous controls and monitoring

These all have their place, but James argues that they also need to

set these in the context of some greater purpose. In the case of the City, the aim is to connect savers and borrowers and to do this in a way that benefits all the parties, rather than seeking to serve only themselves and their shareholders.

 
This is a paraphrase of his wider argument, but one worth keeping up your sleeve if you think truth telling may become an issue. How will this fib advance our excellent reputation for customer service sort of thing.

 

Finally back to Simon Jones; he takes truth telling off in a completely different direction, seeing truth telling as part of mission “Mission is defending the truth that the stranger should be welcomed, the weak should be supported, the poor should be defended. These no-brainer, biblical statements are not self-evident to so many of our neighbours.” It’s worth reading his full blog, let me know what you think.

Bromley Boy's Blog