REVIEW:The Search For God And Guinness

So I'm part of this cool "we'll give you a free book if you post a review in your blog" dealy-o with Thomas Nelson Publishers. The first book I picked was something that immediately piqued my interest - a book about the Guinness brewery. It has been a dream of mine for some time to take a trip to Ireland, and one of the places I would definitely visit is the place where Guinness is brewed. I don't drink very often - and at my latest position, I had to sign something that stated I wouldn't - but I've always liked the way Guinness tasted and have had a few of them in my life.

It's interesting because a few months ago I was having a "conversation" online on a message board about a story I had heard concerning Guinness - that the founder of Guinness looked around his Dublin neighborhoods and saw fathers who were drinking away their money rather than spending it on their families, so he decided to create a drink that would be good for them, be filling so that they only spent a little on alcohol and that they would support their families. The problem in this conversation was determining the validity of this story: googling it produced nothing, so we assumed that since we couldn't find any sources denying it, that it must be true.

It's not. That's one of the first things you discover reading The Search For God And Guinness. Which for me was kind of disappointing; after all, we all love good stories, especially those heart-warming stories about incredible people (not to mention it's always a good thing when you can find some justification for drinking a beer: "Hey, I'm drinking Guinness because it will fill me up and I won't spend as much money on beer.")

However, The Search For God And Guinness is a fascinating tale of the Guinness brewery and the family who founded it: starting with Arthur Guinness, who was quite the man. Although generations of the Guinness family grew the company to what it is today (a beer empire), it was Arthur Guinness' vision that started the whole ball rolling.

To me, one of the most fascinating aspects of Guinness was the way from the beginning the company took care of its employees. These days (well, maybe not so much "these days", since a lot of companies are cutting health care benefits and other things because of the economy, so let's say "in recent times"), we take it for granted that a company would want to take care of those who work for it, but back in the early days of Guinness, that was a rarity. Arthur Guinness understood that if he wanted his employees to work hard and be loyal to his company, he had to provide them with benefits that would keep them happy and their families taken care of.

Guinness also not only cared for its own employees, but also for the community around the brewery. Arthur Guinness started the first Sunday School program for kids in Dublin, which showed how religion played an important part in his life. Several of the Guinness family throughout the ages have decided to forgo the brewery business to enter in the ministry, and church was a staple in most of the Guinness families' lives.

Another fascinating part of this book was the description of the life of Dr. John Lumsden, who was brought on board as the chief medical officer. Lumsden was a man of deep conviction and compassion and helped improved not only the lives of the Guinness worker and family, but also the lives of the underprivileged and poor of Dublin. He was the one who urged the Guinness brewery to champion the cause of the poor and needy. The amazing thing was not only the compassion of this man, but also that the leaders of Guinness decided to do it! From the book:

It is a tribute to the enduring benevolence of the Guinness firm that the board that convened in 1901 was eager to follow Dr. Lumsden's suggestions. It might have been otherwise...They might have felt themselves bullied and manipulated by this upstart, this fresh-faced young doctor with his novel ideas of corporate duties to the poor...instead, they threw themselves into the vision Lumsden had set.

Lumsden offered nine suggestions for improving workers' lives:

1. Technical education for the younger generation
2. Popular lectures of educational value
3. A program of athletics and exercise
4. Literature encouraging hygiene and the prevention of disease
5. Courses in cooking for mothers and young women
6. Education regarding the feeding of infants
7. Recreational opportunities in the form of concerts or social
8. Opportunities for management and laborers to meet and socialize
9. Housing

Like most biography type books, there were certain sections that I felt were a little too detailed, but for the most part The Search For God And Guinness kept me intrigued throughout the book. Here were two issues that I think resonated with me the most:

1. Corporate Responsibility

In today's age, with all of the corporate scandals and greed, and the ever-increasing gap between the CEO and the workers under that CEO, it's refreshing to read about a company who cared for the well-being and development of its workers over making money. We all understand that a company's main focus is to make money, no one is debating that. But to make money at the "expense" of the workers who are making it happen is a travesty. Now, I know that there are many "secular" companies who are doing good things for their workers, and good things for the community and such - however, we mostly only read about the "bad stories", after all bad sells (Enron-World Com-nameyourmessedupcompanyhere). However, I believe a generation is being raised up right now of people who are demanding that companies exist for more than just the bottom line: the almight dollar. And they aren't just demanding it, they are using their buying power to make changes. I think we will see this movement grow throughout the next decade, and it would be beneficial for corporations to look in the past and see what the Guinness brewery did and emulate their corporate responsibility code.

2. The Divide Between "Secular" and "Sacred"

Guinness helped break down the wall between secular and sacred by showing that a person didn't have to be a minister or a missionary to make a difference spiritually in the lives of people. Good things can happen outside of the walls of a church, it can even happen inside a brewery (gasp!). Stephen Mansfield, the author, showed his distaste of other biographies on Guinness, because too often they branched the Guinness family into three groups: the brewery Guinness family, the banking Guinness family, and the God-following Guinness family. To do so, argues Mansfield, is to lessen the impact that the other branches (brewery and banking) had spiritually as well. This type of thinking is one of the reasons why we as ministers feel like we have to do everything in a church: because our people don't recognize (either because we've told them or because that's their expectation) that no matter what they do as a career, it can be used for God.

I really enjoyed this book and it gave me new appreciation for the lasting impact a company, even a brewery, can have on the world. My hope and prayer is that we will see more companies take the example of Guinness and show more corporate responsibility towards its employees and the community around it.