02Nov 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – Pt 5 – Brainstorming and Gathering Ideas

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
Brainstorming and Gathering Ideas It is important when beginning to plan to have some creative ‘out of the box' thinking, and to get an overview of the ultimate goal and process to achieve it, before becoming too detailed and specific. It is rare that the first thoughts that come to mind are the best! So I will share with you a technique to help free thinking which I carry out in all that I do, whether preparing to preach, thinking about this series of blogs, starting to arrange an event such as the Newfrontiers annual Leaders Conference, Together on a Mission, or helping to plan a long-term ministry. Spider Diagram 1. Free thinking Many would start planning by writing items on a list. This has the disadvantage of being linear…
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27Oct 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – Pt 4 – Strategic Decisions and sharing Vision

Administration in the Church, Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
Strategic Decisions When beginning to plan there may be some key ‘in principle' decisions to make, decisions that will be strategic, and will affect how a plan is implemented and what the final outcome will look like. What do I mean by ‘strategic'? For me strategic decisions are those that have added value or affect the quality of the outcomes. For instance, when Nehemiah first heard of the news about the walls of Jerusalem being broken down his first action was not to contact an architect or to phone the suppliers of building materials. Rather, he saw that there was a fundamental problem that had brought about the situation - the rebellion of Israel (Neh 1:7). Until that was dealt with any plan he would be implementing would be on an insecure…
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19Oct 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – pt 3 – Goal setting

Administrative Skills, Biblical Administration, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
Where do we start? The starting point of any planning exercise must be the finishing point! Where are you aiming to go and how are you going to get there? Planning is about taking a journey with many stages. It is no good just leaving your starting point ‘on a whim' and hoping you will go somewhere useful. It is vital that you have clear goals in mind. It is also important to know where these have not yet been fully defined in order to allow flexibility in planning and be able to make adjustments as the journey progresses. Look forward to look back When teaching on planning I sometimes ask people to imagine that they are meeting the day after an event has taken place. I then get them to suggest the…
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13Oct 2010 by Nigel Ring

Planning and Implementation – pt 2 – some basic questions

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Planning
As I teach on planning I address two basic questions. One is ‘Why plan?' The other may not be openly expressed but is often close to the surface: ‘Is planning just adopting the world's methods?' 1. Why plan? In my introductory blog I shared on this topic and will enlarge on it further in subsequent postings. Put simply it is the best way of achieving the desired goal with minimum effort and maximum effectiveness. By careful forethought much time and resource can be saved as they are channelled in the most productive direction, and goals will be reached with greater accuracy. I agree with John Maxwell when he said "The longer we spend in preparation the shorter the time in implementation." In contrast I have heard an anonymous speaker quoted:…
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26Jul 2010 by Nigel Ring

Conference Administration – Debrief

Administrative Skills, Conference Administration, Equipping, News, Together on a Mission
This will be my last blog for the summer. I realise that there are other things on peoples minds such as holidays – in the UK at least. So I am joining them! The importance of debriefing For my final blog before we break let me share with you how we debriefed from the Together on a Mission Conference (TOAM10). Debriefing is a very important part of conference organisation, or indeed of organising any event. For instance, what did Jesus do after the disciples first ministry trip? Debriefed (at least he set out to do so until he was interrupted by 5000 people!). And after feeding the 5000? Debriefed! How else would he have known how many people had attended, how many baskets were left over and so on? The…
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14Jul 2010 by Nigel Ring

Conference Administration – Behind the scenes at TOAM 2010

Administrative Skills, Conference Administration, Equipping, News, Together on a Mission
We met with God Over 3000 Leaders and Twenties have now returned to about 40 nations and are separated by many thousands of miles having spent last week together with a common sense of vision and purpose at the annual Newfrontiers Conference 'Together on a Mission' hosted by Terry Virgo.   There seems to have been a general air of satisfaction as they returned home having met with God through: • Powerful teaching and preaching both in the Main Sessions, Training Tracks and Seminars (sessions all downloadable >>) • Anointed Worship • Some significant prophetic words • An evening of prayer for the nations • A visit to the Global Zone to see where they could get involved in going to the nations • Strengthening their understanding of Newfrontiers’ Vision and Values through the videos • Refreshing…
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