Teams that work – pt 6. Spiritual Gifts

Equipping, Newfrontiers, Team
The role of the Spirit When Jesus returned to the Father he said to the disciples that it was good that he was going away so that the Holy Spirit would come (John 14). How is the Spirit manifest? Apart from his speaking to us and drawing our attention to Jesus in worship he gives us grace gifts for the benefit of the church to be exercised on a daily basis. Being entrusted with specific spiritual gifts is no credit to us any more than the delivery man takes credit for the present you may have been given by a favourite aunt for your birthday. His job is to deliver it safely to you so that you can benefit from it. Likewise, our job is to deliver the gifts He…
Read More

Teams that work – pt 4. Building a team

Equipping, Newfrontiers, Team
Together > Equipped > Achieve > Mission Working backwards through the TEAM mnemonic - Together > Equipped > Achieve > Mission - we have dealt with Mission and Achieve. We now need to examine how to determine the makeup and dynamics of the team to allow us to be best equipped to achieve our mission. Diversity of People... We are all made in God's image. Isn't that amazing? So the infinite diversity of characteristics, personalities, temperaments etc of people merely reinforce how wonderfully diverse God is in all His attributes. ...complementary gifting Nevertheless, a good team contains members who complement one another. No football team would have great success if all were goal-keepers. Strikers and mid-field players are also essential. Sometimes, when creating a team, it is tempting to draw…
Read More

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…
Read More

Meet Dr Shana

Agriculture, News, One to One interviews, Together on a Mission, Zimbabwe
We are very privileged to have Dr Goodwill Shana (who likes to be addressed as ‘Shana’) as a speaker at this year’s Newfrontiers leadership conference, Together on a Mission (TOAM). Shana is President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and has played a key role in bringing the church in Zimbabwe into a significant place of influence in this turbulent era in Zimbabwe’s history. Recently I visited Zimbabwe and had the pleasure of meeting Shana once again. On this occasion I was able to interview him on camera, although his tight schedule and the context gave conditions which were far from ideal for a high quality video. This interview gives us an opportunity to meet the man who will be speaking to us in Brighton. I encourage all Newfrontiers…
Read More

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,…
Read More

Biblical Administration part 8 – Qualifications of an Administrator – ‘above reproach’

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Christian ministry, Equipping, Finance, Good Practice
In Acts 6 we saw some of the qualifications of an Administrator relating both to character and spiritual standing. 1 Timothy 3:1-13 deals with similar issues in a more systematic way and, because it is so important not to appoint people who lack these Biblical criteria, I want to spend a little more time considering what Paul wrote to Timothy (1) The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. (2) Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, (3) not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. (4) He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, (5) for…
Read More