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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01Jul 2010 by Nigel Ring

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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21Jun 2010 by Nigel Ring

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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14Jun 2010 by Nigel Ring

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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28May 2010 by Nigel Ring

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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