Time Management pt 7 – Paper or Electronic?

Administrative Skills, Equipping, General, Good Practice, Planning, Time Management
What is a diary? Traditionally diaries have been for recording history. Many books have been written as a result of people keeping diaries of their daily events and these have given us fascinating insights into life and culture in different eras and nations. Elizabeth Fry I have just been reading a biography of the great prison reformer in the UK, Elizabeth Fry, who lived at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Without her diaries we would know far less about her. She was clearly a formidable woman – perhaps I should not admit that she was my great great great grandmother! But diaries have changed and now tend to be looking forward. They are the most common vehicle for making appointments, planning holiday dates and…
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To the Nations – Visit to Ghana and Nigeria – Part 1

Christian ministry, Cross-culture, Ghana, International, News, To the Nations
I am breaking into my Time Management series to include a report on my recent visit to West Africa. It was a joy to be with John Kpikpi in Ghana and Sam Amara in Nigeria. John leads City of God Church in Accra and brings apostolic oversight to Newfrontiers churches in 7 West African nations. Sam leads the Riches of Grace Church in Lagos and is church planting in both Lagos and beyond. This report will come in 2 parts. The first is primarily an interview with John about his ministry and the West African scene. I encourage you not only to watch this but then to link to his teaching videos which have arisen out of his very successful television ministry. In the second part (with the next Time…
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Time Management pt 6 – Prioritising Discretionary Time

Administrative Skills, Christian ministry, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning, Time Management
Its as easy as ABC! How did you get on with a ‘Do it’ list? I now want to help you complete the prioritising but first we need to unpack ‘Important’ in a bit more detail. Last time we saw how the definition of Important in this context was a matter of values and had a particular focus on your unique gifting and responsibility. However, there are other considerations and these typically relate to how you interact with others. Let’s consider an example. Suppose you have to write some ‘copy’ for a piece of publicity. This may not seem very important or urgent to you for today. You know it is not going to be printed for another month. However, when you have written that copy it has to be…
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Ministry Report 3 – Foundations for Farming Conference

Christian ministry, Good Practice, Ministry Report, News, Poor, Training, Zimbabwe
Saturday January 30th saw 80 people gather in Swindon, UK for a Vision Day on Foundations for Farming. We were greatly privileged to have Brian Oldreive, the visionary who has developed Foundations for Farming, with us for a day of envisioning and impartation of the Biblical principles around which Foundations for Farming has been developed. Tobacco or Food? Foundations for Farming, formerly Farming God’s Way, has been developed by Brian over the past 3 decades in Zimbabwe. Having been a very successful tobacco farmer he was challenge one day by his daughter, ‘Daddy, why do you tell us never to smoke and yet you grow tobacco?’ He was so convicted that he never grew another tobacco plant! As he shared his personal history and walk with God we were conscious…
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Time Management pt 4 – Appointments

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Christian ministry, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning, Time Management
A promise The techniques of Time Management I am going to share with you give you a water-tight system. There is no reason for you ever to miss an appointment or activity that is important to you again! Can that be true? Yes! But first, it is important to have an understanding of time. Types of Time Broadly, there are two categories of time that comprise your day - Appointments and Discretionary. Appointments Activities that come under the category of ‘appointments’ carry the implication of being predetermined. They have a start time attached to them. Sadly, they do not always have a finish time - and this may be one of the things that occurred on your list of challenges from the last blog – interminable meetings. Tip: In order to…
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Time Management pt 3 – Using time intentionally

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Christian ministry, Equipping, Good Practice, Time Management
Pursuing Goals What are your goals in life? Over the next ten years? Five years? This year? Are you intentional about planning steps to fulfill these goals? If you are going to use time effectively – to help you do so is the purpose of this series – it is important to have some sense of direction and destiny. Clearly some have this much more precisely defined than others. The young swimmer aspiring for gold at the Olympics has a passion that will cause her to practice swimming at 5 am each morning before school for many years, a discipline that requires intentional planning and sacrifice. But not many of us are budding Olympians! But what about life? Marriage, Career, or other ambitions? Where do you picture yourself in 5,…
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