Matt Bird loves to build relationships and is helping churches in the UK impact their communities. He was also instrumental in working out that the Church gives up to £3 billion worth of voluntary hours ever year

When it comes to community outreach and evangelism, we must show people the limitless and unrestricted love of God – whatever the results, says Matt Bird.

A former researcher at the Ministry of Defence and vicar, Matt has studied extensively what it means to build meaningful relationships, and has discovered that whether operating in business or ministry, God’s model is the best to follow.

“‘Relationology’ started because I received an invitation to give a keynote at a business conference on the subject of networking,” Matt tells iBelieve Magazine.

“Now, I don’t know what happens to you when you hear the word ‘networking’, but I have all sorts of internal reactions to it and I told the conference organisers that I was grateful for the invitation but I would not be able to accept… the reason being that I detested networking.

“I went on to explain that I believe in building authentic, long-term, trust-based relationships because I believe that is what drives business growth. The organisers immediately asked if I would speak on that.

“I didn’t want to go out and become known as the ‘anti-networking guy’, so I had to think of a term to build this concept on. Relationships are science and an art form, so I was thinking of the art and science of relationships and the term Relationology came to mind. I quickly searched it and couldn’t find it anywhere so went to Companies House and formed the company and got the trademark and that is where my business began.”

Pick up the June 2016 issue of iBelieve Magazine to read the full interview with Matt – and many more stories of faith, including an in-depth look at the Queen’s beliefs

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