Development from a Christian perspective – Pt 6: Church characteristics pt 2

Development, Equipping, Good Practice, Poor
Integral part of the community The church, by its very nature, is an integral part of the local community. It is made up of people from that community and is well equipped to understand and contribute to the welfare of the community. In this respect, also, it usually differs from the secular agency, although there are, of course, secular charities that do exist within and for the local community. Major development activity often requires external intervention and there are many NGOs who specialise in bringing some particular skill and benefit to a community. However, by their nature they tend to engage in the community only for as long as their services are needed, and then they move to bring benefit elsewhere. Because the church is an integral part of the…
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TOAM Conference July 12th-15th – Day Tickets

News, Together on a Mission
Day Tickets Despite the significant increase in bookings this year we are able to offer Day Tickets for the Conference. Thursday Evening - an evening of Envisioning, Prayer and Celebration Thursday evening will be a special meeting. We encourage as many as possible to join us as we celebrate all that God has done so far in and through Newfrontiers as we move into the new season. Please invite your friends! Maybe you could arrange a coach from your church? The evening will be completely FREE and open to all, but you will need a ticket. These will be available at the door but we anticipate great numbers, so urge you to obtain these tickets through the booking system before July 8th. Go to the TOAM booking site. Video of the…
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Development from a Christian perspective – Pt 5 Church characteristics pt 1

Development, Equipping, Good Practice, Poor, Relief and Development
Having looked at some of the characteristics that relate to the secular agencies we will now look at some of the distinctives of the church in its development work. However, I must stress that this is inevitably a somewhat simplistic overview and there is often significant overlap between the practice of the church and the world. Gospel impact In the recently published book ‘In His image’ p137 (2010 Authentic Media) Andy Matheson says ‘Because all people are made in the image of God, all people need to be reconnected with Him if they are truly going to experience transformation in their lives. Transformation cannot come simply through helping people with employment, health, or any other area of physical or emotional wellbeing’. The most significant difference between the secular agency and…
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Development from a Christian perspective – Pt 4 Further characteristics of development agencies

Development, Equipping, Good Practice, Poor, Relief and Development
In the last blog I looked at the first three of five characteristics which I consider to be particularly applicable to a secular agency namely: 1. Expertise 2. Resources 3. Size 4. Quick fix 5. Staff mobility We will now look at the fourth and fifth characteristics. Quick fix An aid agency may be particularly good at providing a ‘quick fix' solution to a problem. However, sustainability and on-going maintenance may be weak, particularly if inadequate attention has been paid to community participation in defining the problem and determining a solution. Failure to involve the community adequately in the process may result in a lack of ownership by that community and thus also a lack of motivation to maintain the activity or project (e.g. maintaining a bore hole and pump)…
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Development from a Christian perspective – Pt 3 – Characteristics of development agencies

Development, Equipping, Poor, Relief and Development
News First, the International eNews of Newfrontiers has just been published. Do you receive it? It is a newsletter which ‘visits’ four nations each month to bring updates of what is going on in and through Newfrontiers churches. To view it or receive this regularly click here. Now, lets return to the series on Christian Development. Having briefly seen the benefits which the gospel brings to Christian development I would like to look at some of the characteristics of the secular NGO or aid agency and of the church. Obviously I have to make some sweeping statements in such a short treatment of the topic and there are many exceptions to the examples I quote, but here goes! Some of the distinctive characteristics are typically: The Agency Expertise Resources Size…
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