19Dec 2012 by Nigel Ring

Do we need a ‘social’ charity? Pt 7 – Partnering

Administration in the Church, Charity, Equipping, Poor
This is the last post in this series and also the final one of 2012. So let me take the opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas. I love this time of year when we celebrate Jesus' birth and do hope there will be time for you to reflect on the amazing truth that he was prepared to come to earth and take the form of a servant, ultimately conquering death for you and me. I also hope you will have time to relax and be refreshed with family and friends. Partnership I am a great advocate of working with other interested bodies. Why duplicate services if this can be avoided? Partnerships may be with other churches or agencies, including secular ones, who have specialist skills and knowledge. How should this be structured?…
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12Dec 2012 by Nigel Ring

Debt Advice Network receives Queens Award

Debt, Equipping, Good Practice, Poor
What a Christmas present! Community Money Advice, which began in the Newfrontiers church in Burgess Hill and is now based in the Newfrontiers church in Shrewsbury, has just been chosen as one of only 60 charities to receive the highly prestigious Queen's Diamond Jubilee Volunteering Award. This amazing and ‘good value' support ministry now has 120 community based Debt Advice Centres ‘training & employing' 700 fully qualified volunteers across the United Kingdom. The Cabinet Office released this statement on December 12th. Within this statement Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said: ‘The list of recipients of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Award for Volunteering 2012 reads like a Who's Who of some of our most important charities and voluntary organisations.' Heather Keates (CEO and Founder of CMA): ‘I am so proud…
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12Dec 2012 by Nigel Ring

Do we need a ‘social’ charity? Pt 6 – Trustees and Oversight

Administration in the Church, Charity, Equipping, Poor
Trustees' abilities and skills Last time we saw how, in choosing trustees, there needs to be a combination of spiritual maturity, unblemished character, and spiritual and natural gifting. In the area of natural gifting it is good to identify what would help. Perhaps people representing the following disciplines: Finance, Law, Building (e.g. surveyor), Social Work, Teaching would be a good start. Another role trustees can fulfil is to ‘keep their ear to the ground' in the church. Sometimes elders are held in high regard by the people and thus be slightly removed from them, even if that is not their wish. The trustees are usually less conspicuous; few people will even know who the trustees are as they fulfil a supportive role ‘behind the scenes'. Thus they can sometimes be…
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05Dec 2012 by Nigel Ring

Do we need a ‘social’ charity? Pt 5 – Working in the local church

Administration in the Church, Charity, Equipping, Poor
Structure What sort of structure is appropriate within a church? How do elders and trustees relate? What level of ‘hands on' management and direction over a particular ministry is appropriate by trustees? These are some of the questions that need to be addressed as you proceed with registering and managing a separate charity. Let's look at some of the key issues. Charitable Trust or Charitable Company? Currently I prefer the charitable company. Why? First, because this follows a company structure with directors (trustees) and members. The members appoint the directors and this mechanism provides a way of ensuring the church and trust do not get separated. For example, in our church we have only one member of the ‘social' trust and that is a ‘corporate member' in the form of…
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28Nov 2012 by Nigel Ring

Do we need a ‘social’ charity? Pt 4 – What is its purpose?

Administration in the Church, Charity, Equipping, Poor
What are Objects? Any charity or charitable company (more about that later) needs objects. These define why the charity exists and what it is hoping to achieve. In this respect it differs significantly from the stated objects of the church, which may include such phrases as ‘promoting the Christian gospel through teaching and outreach'. For a social charity we need to emphasise the benefits to those who are poor or disadvantaged. To illustrate, the first object of my local church's trust document states that we are to ‘Advance the Christian faith'. This is not attractive to many secular donors. In contrast, the first object of one of our social charitable trusts is ‘the prevention or relief of poverty'. There is also an object in our church trust document that relates…
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21Nov 2012 by Nigel Ring

Do we need a ‘social’ charity? Pt 3 – Relationship with the Local Church

Administration in the Church, Charity, Equipping, Poor
Ministry or Project? Is the help and transformation you are trying to bring to people who are disadvantaged defined as a ‘ministry' or a ‘project'? Recently I was with some church leaders in Holland. I asked them what the word ‘project' (suitably translated!) conjured up in their minds. The list included such terms as Time Boundaries, Finance, Project Manager, Process. After about ten words or phrases had been listed I pointed out than none of them reflected the people they were hoping to help thus showing that ‘project' tends to be a very task-associated word. In the church we are talking about people; people within the church and people outside. I suggest that we should not talk about ‘project' but about ‘ministry'. The work in your church with the children…
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