Videos on Church Administration and other matters

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Conference Administration, Discover and Serve, Equipping, Meetings, Planning, Spiritual Gifts, Time Management
Several months ago I was asked to prepare some videos for the Newfrontiers Bible School in Nigeria. I realise I never made these more widely available but think they would be of great help to many people working in church administration. They appear in my YouTube channel Feeding 5000 is no picnic….. There is associated reading with some of the talks, as shown in the side panel. Here are the links: The Gift of Administration Administration in the Bible is a spiritual gift. It is a ministry that not only helps a church to function effectively but also helps liberate leaders and members to serve and realise their potential according to their talents and spiritual gifts Event Management - Jesus style When Jesus fed the 5000 he modeled how to…
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Giving Notices – Part 2 – How? When? Who?

Administration in the Church, Conference Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Meetings
Translation First, Google Translation has now been added to all Newfrontiers websites including my blog! For my blog see the panel on the right. Traducción atraves de Google-traducción ha sido añadido a todas las páginas web de Nuevas Fronteras, incluyendo mi blog! Para ver a mi blog , ver al panel de la derecha. Notices pt 2 Having touched on the Why? and What? let us now ask three further questions – How? When? and Who? How? Notices are about public communication and need preparation (and prayer!). In considering what you want to communicate ask yourself what you expect people to do with the knowledge – the ‘take away’. Then plan how best that will be achieved. Visual aids It is well known that visual communication is more effective than…
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Giving notices – Part 1 – Why? and What?

Administration in the Church, Conference Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Meetings
The sober truth! How many of your people would say the notices are the most interesting part of your church service?! I venture to guess – not many. Why? Because the church service is about meeting – first with God and then with other believers. Vital components of such meetings are, of course, Worship, Prayer, Preaching etc. But notices also have an important part to play. For instance they can be a great way of promoting a family feel in the church. Yet, in many churches, they are the ‘turn off’ time when people often hear but don’t listen. Why? There may be many reasons: too wordy, delivered by an administrator who is not confident in public, content not been carefully prepared, to name a few. So let’s take a…
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Effective meetings pt 8 – Formatting Minutes and Handling Actions

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Meetings
A literary masterpiece? Minutes are recorded to serve those present and to ensure that the decisions taken are followed through. Failing to take minutes, or making them ‘inaccessible’ through poor presentation, may represent a loss of benefit from the original meeting. Minutes should not seek to have the accolade of a literary masterpiece! They are functional. Familiar and well-understood abbreviations or shortened sentences are perfectly acceptable if that makes them easier to use. Formatting Some simple formatting can also help (see below – numbers correspond to those in the illustration). 1. Bullet points often promote clarity as they highlight the key points being made. 2. Text should not look ‘heavy’. Blocks of text are daunting to read so it is better to have short sentences and paragraphs separated appropriately with lines to…
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Effective Meetings pt 7 – Taking minutes

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Meetings, Planning
The Importance of Minutes The lack of adequate minutes can lead to frustration and inefficiency. ‘Minutes’ may seem a bit formal but notes of some sort are not negotiable - a ‘must’ from every meeting if the full benefit of the meeting is to be realised. The detail included in these notes can vary – there is no right or wrong. Some people like to keep the notes simple and record only decisions and actions. Others (including myself) prefer to have some of the discussion that led to the conclusion. It is rarely necessary to give a version which includes ‘he said this…’ ‘she said that…’, although the Houses of Parliament in the UK require this and the result is famously embodied in the Hansard proceedings! What I am sharing…
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Effective Meetings pt 6 – The importance of good Chairing

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Meetings, Planning
Skill Chairing meetings is a skill; effective chairing is measured both by the outcomes of a meeting and the fulfilment of those attending. What I shall share here is for the more formal type of meeting and will need to be interpreted appropriately into different settings. Who should chair a meeting? Often the ‘senior’ person assumes he or she should chair the meeting. But there may be several reasons for this not being good. Particularly, a) They may not be skilled in chairing. b) They may be the major contributor (e.g. the Lead Elder or visionary) and can dominate because they also chair. Many meetings I attend are chaired by someone whose primary role is to handle the dynamics of the meeting, leaving those who are the major players opportunity…
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