Muslim women are required to cover their hair (hijab) and to dress modestly. Many do neither but it is best to be aware of needs of those who do. If your company has a uniform or a certain dress code be sure it permits wearing of hijabs. Many companies have now taken step to provide hijabs which match company uniform.

Holidays

Generally Muslims in UK take holidays as and when they need to. There are however a few dates of significance that should be noted.

Eid al-Fitr – this holiday celebrates end of month of Ramadan and fasting. It is traditionally a time when extended families congregate and presents given to children. Although this holiday extends over a three day period, many Muslims typically take a single day holiday.

Eid al-Adha – celebrates end of Hajj (pilgrimage) and commemorates willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son. In Muslim countries sheep, goats and camels and usually sacrificed and meat distributed family, neighbourhood and poor. In UK such meat is ordered through a butcher due to our laws. As with Eid al-Fitr, Muslims typically take a single day holiday during this period.

Socialising

One of major discomforts for Muslims in British workplace may involve socialising culture of office. Typical business culture involves after work socializing in pubs or restaurants. As Muslims do not drink any alcohol and places such as pubs, bars and discos are not considered suitable venues for relaxation, then Muslim staff may politely decline such offers.

This should not be interpreted as bad manners of unfriendliness, but rather a difference in cultures that should be respected. When planning team building trips or exercises or team outings always bear in mind a Muslim member of staff may feel uncomfortable if venue is a pub, bar or even a restaurant serving alcohol. It is always best to check with that staff member first.

Try to think of alternative venues where all staff will be comfortable.

Food

There are certain restrictions as to what a Muslim can/can’t eat.

Meat must always be halal. Such meat has been slaughtered according to Islamic practice. If halal meat cannot be sourced then Muslims are allowed to eat Kosher meat too. Pork is not eaten at all by Muslims.

Always check ingredients of foods you plan to share out or use in staff lunches. Foods not suitable for vegetarians may contain non-halal meat or meat derivatives (e.g. gelatine) and cannot be eaten. Similarly, foods with alcohol content should also be avoided.

An easy way to overcome any catering difficulties is to provide a vegetarian option.

Touch/Personal Space

There is an opinion among some Muslims that touching between men and women should be avoided. Although not common in UK, as compared with Gulf, you may occasionally come across Muslim men and women who do not like to shake hands with members of opposite sex. If you are unsure then it is advisable to wait and see if they extend their hands first.

Muslim men and women may also find close personal contact between sexes very uncomfortable. Unless you know otherwise be sure to leave a good deal of personal space.

As mentioned in introduction, these are broad guidelines only and degree of support from a business / HR perspective will be entirely dependant on individual involved. Care should be taken therefore not to assume needs of a member of staff, but to simply be aware of possible issues and resulting interventions if these become necessary.

If you feel you or your staff could benefit from a more detailed briefing on above information, then please see http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/islam-breaking-stereotypes.html

I am amazed at how our best church families have no clue as to how to have conversations at home about spiritual subjects. Churches are so busy getting people involved at church that they've neglected this fundamental agenda of spiritual formation. The typical church family leaves spiritual stuff to what happens at church, thereby delegating spiritual formation to institution. And institution encourages it!

What if youth ministers spent as much time with parents as they did with their children? This would be a shift for most church expectations of staff. We typically hire children's and youth ministers to run programs for children and young people. In fact, this approach by church may do more to decimate home as a spiritual center than anything coming into home on television or Internet.

As a youth, I grew up in surfing culture. As a surfer, I never planned a single wave, but I did prepare to ride waves when they came. God is making waves all around North American church. Some churches are going to get to ride them. These are churches that are prepared to get in on what God is up to."

Typical approaches to future involve prediction and planning. The better and biblical approach to future involves prayer and preparation. The Apostles sitting in Temple on day of Pentecost were not engaged in a strategic planning retreat to plan birth of church and early stages of Christian movement. Not in their wildest dreams would they have scripted three thousand converts on Day One nor would they have predicted leap of Spirit to Samaritans or to Gentiles? Apparently not, based on their responses to both developments. Would they have recruited rising star of Judaism to become ultimate leader of movement? Hardly. God does planning; we do preparing. He does not say, “I am waiting for you to develop plans I can bless."

Spiritual preparation has goal of getting God's people in partnership with him in his redemptive mission in world. The five elements of a spiritually prepared architecture are vision, values, results, strengths, and learning. The question we need to begin asking is, how do we cultivate vision? Vision is discovered, not invented. Jesus Christ said, ”I will build my Church”. He is one with vision for our lives and church. It is our job to discover what he has in mind, not to invent something he can get excited about.

I learned following lesson early in life and it has eased my heart tremendously. God is always at work in every situation before I show up. As reality of this fact sunk in, I realized that my job was not to analyze situation really well and then to figure out a way to make something happen but rather to see what God is already doing and ask if I had a part to play.

We need to listen to people in our church, we need to look at our town or neighborhood and we need to talk with our leaders. But as we do that we must be focused on question: What is God already doing here? Jesus models this kind of approach in John 5:19 when He says, "I do nothing on my own initiative. I only do what I see Father doing. Further, role of a leader is to help his people ask question: What do we see God doing here? This is starting point for visioning process.

Maurice Goulet is Author of Lord Of Darkness ~ Lord Of Light. (Unfolding The Signs Of The Times And The Hope Of A New World) Now available Online at www.CDBN.com.