26Apr 2010 by Nigel Ring

Effective Meetings pt 2 – Characteristics of a meeting

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Good Practice, Meetings
I am involved in many different types of meeting. Not all have the same structure or importance but listing them may give you a point of identity from your own scene, so I will discuss them briefly in the next blog. First, however, all need to have certain characteristics or questions answered. Characteristics 1. What is the purpose? 2. What are the expected outcomes? 3. What is the status e.g. does it have a legal standing as part of the management of the church/charity? Purpose This defines the structure on which to hang topics to be handled. So, the purpose of one group could be ‘to govern the church’ (i.e. elders’ meetings), ‘to organise a conference’ (e.g. the annual Newfrontiers conference ‘Together on a Mission’) or ‘to manage and strategise for the family…
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19Apr 2010 by Nigel Ring

Effective Meetings pt 1 – Overview

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Christian ministry, Equipping, Meetings
The future of Time Management I still have one more Time Management posting to make about PDAs but am not yet ready to do so. In the meantime I want to begin a new series on meetings. I hope you will find it helpful. Meetings in abundance Do you ever feel that the Lord got it wrong?! When he says he came to give life in abundance do you sometimes feel that he must have meant meetings in abundance? We all seem to attend so many! I am sure that many in leadership feel that their lives consist of attending meetings. I don’t mean worship meetings, but planning and strategy meetings, finance and administrative meetings etc. It is obviously vital that such meetings take place in order for your church…
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12Apr 2010 by Nigel Ring

Time Management pt 14 – Summary

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Time Management
We have now completed the detailed material I wished to share but there are two more sections I shall include. First, a summary and then a look at applying these principles on a PDA. Summary Initially I set out to share my own experience, not to give a comprehensive overview of various different time management systems. I have particularly focussed on the day-to-day management of your Organiser, being the ‘vehicle’ in which the events that fill time are planned and monitored. Time management is about ‘writing your history in advance’, making the best guess you can about what the future holds and planning to achieve that. I encouraged you to define long term goals and expectations and then to break these down into intentional activities to help you achieve them.…
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09Apr 2010 by Nigel Ring

Report on Zimbabwe pt 2 – Rural Poverty

Agriculture, Cross-culture, International, News, Poor, To the Nations, Zimbabwe
Following my time in the Harare area a 4 hour drive to Bulawayo took me to the farm of Peter Cunningham, successful ostrich farmer and visionary, who seeks to help empower the poor by ‘out-sourcing’ the husbandry of young ostriches to village people and then buying them back for processing. I was also amazed to hear of some of the ways in which he and his workers have been literally protected by angels from some opposition in recent years. What a mighty God we serve! Kezi On the Sunday I visited Crossroads church in Kezi, a vibrant energetic church meeting in a tent (recently decimated by storms) and ably led by Stephen Manhanga. Over a hundred people attended (some having been unable to do so as they had to stay…
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05Apr 2010 by Nigel Ring

Time Management pt 13 – Progressing the Do it list 3

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning, Time Management
Keep going! Processing the Do it list, as described below and in the previous two blogs, can appear very complicated. But it is in fact quite simple if you work your way systematically through the guidelines I am giving you. I want to urge you to persevere - it will quickly become ‘second nature’ and will redeem hours of your time to be used more effectively. So, keep going – we are nearly finished! Don’t fall just short of the finishing line!! Having looked at the symbols used when setting up the day’s Do it list we shall now look at those used to monitor progress and maintain continuity. There are two symbols in each category. Monitoring progress ^ In Process / Completed Maintaining continuity > Transferred x Dropped Monitoring progress The symbols ‘^’…
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