16Aug 2012 by Nigel Ring

Helping Homeless People

Equipping, Good Practice, Ministry Report, News, Poor
Post Olympics I hope you enjoyed the Olympics! It seemed a great occasion that lifted the atmosphere in the UK. And wasn't God good in giving us such fine weather compared to the previous ‘x' weeks!! Now we are into holiday time in the UK so this will be my last posting until September. Friends First Church of Christ the King in Brighton has had a ministry to homeless people for about 25 years. Starting with a ‘soup kitchen' it developed first into a one evening per week drop in for a meal, clothing hand-outs and hearing the gospel. Ten years ago the church purchased a house for 12 people who have demonstrated their desire for help towards independent living, having come off any addictive substances such as drink or…
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01Aug 2012 by Nigel Ring

Helping make decisions pt 5 – the Facilitator’s role

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Facilitation, Good Practice
Facilitation Facilitate means ‘to make easier'. That encapsulates the role of the facilitator; he or she is there to help the discussion flow and to make the whole process as easy as possible to achieve good outcomes. With this in mind it is usually best to have someone facilitating a meeting who has no personal involvement in the topic. It is then possible to be completely ‘outside' the discussion and merely to help people move from one aspect to another by monitoring how it is going and determining when all the juice has been squeezed out of a particular topic. Prepare for informality A discussion of this sort can appear to be relatively unstructured. Indeed, it is important that people do not feel constrained by a rigid structure since different…
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26Jul 2012 by Nigel Ring

Helping make decisions pt 4 – context and environment

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Facilitation, Good Practice
Furniture! The layout and comfort of chairs are key contributors to the success of a meeting! Yet they are often neglected. This is true of a church meeting as well as of meetings of elders, trustees etc. For instance, prayer and participation in ‘body ministry' is greatly helped by people being able to see each other - a circle or ‘horseshoe' - rather than praying into the back of the head of someone in front of you! An elders' or trustees' meeting can be more effective around a table where there is space for papers and laptops than in relaxed easy chairs. It also brings a helpful ‘formality' to the meeting. The same is also true for group discussions of the type we are considering in this series. It is…
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18Jul 2012 by Nigel Ring

Helping make decisions pt 3. Facilitation – a living example

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Facilitation, Good Practice, Jubilee+, Newfrontiers
I have just returned from a meeting that is very relevant to this series. So, contrary to what I had anticipated in this posting, I am going to share my experiences as they illustrate what this series is about and how powerful the process of Facilitation can be. What is Jubilee+? I was invited to attend the two-day retreat of the Core Team of Jubilee+ where they were seeking God about their strategy for the next season. Their intention was to end up with an Action Plan. Jubilee+ is an initiative within the UK for facilitating Newfrontiers churches (and others) to launch effective ministry among those who are poor and disadvantaged. What did we do? One of the team members, Andrew Westerman (Emmanuel Church, Durham and Kairos UK Ltd) served…
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10Jul 2012 by Nigel Ring

Helping make decisions pt 2. Group dynamics

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Good Practice, Poor
As we continue to look at making decision-making more efficient (and, I hope, enjoyable) we will now look at the people involved and how they flow together. It may be helpful to say that this part, particularly, applies to any small group in the church, whether decision-making or just meeting weekly for encouragement and discussion. Who takes part? It is not possible to be dogmatic about who should participate in discussions but, in the case of the Ministry Health Checks I carry out, I like to have not only those who lead the ministry, cast vision and support the team, but also those who are ‘hands on' in carrying out the day-to-day activities. This second group often know more about the reality of what is happening than the leaders since…
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05Jul 2012 by Nigel Ring

Helping make decisions pt1. What is Facilitation?

Administrative Skills, Equipping, Poor
Facilitation What an unattractive word! Yet behind it lies an important skill; that of helping a group discussion to be fruitful and come to meaningful conclusions. In this short series I will share some of the things I have learned when I have been a facilitator in various settings. For instance, when I help a church carry out a Health Check on a ministry among the poor I facilitate a discussion with the team which allows them to consider the key characteristics and performance of their ministry and to produce an action plan to make improvements. Another example would be a discussion I was asked to facilitate recently about how a team could work strategically in Burundi to contribute to cultural transformation through the outworking of the gospel. Key features…
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