09Nov 2011 by Nigel Ring

Teams that work – pt 7. Spiritual maturity

Equipping, Team
Spiritual maturity Any team leader would like spiritually mature people on his team. Clearly, when building an apostolically-appointed eldership team this is not negotiable. Elders must have their own walk with God and be able to ‘take the rough with the smooth' without falling apart. The people who are following must have the security that the church is being well led without irresponsible decisions being made. Nevertheless, some churches I am aware of do have ‘leaders in training' sitting with them on occasion as a way of not only training future leadership but also of exposing such men to some of the pressures of eldership without them holding the ultimate responsibility. This can provide a great opportunity to see how they react in times of challenge, one way of following…
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02Nov 2011 by Nigel Ring

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…
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20Oct 2011 by Nigel Ring

Equipping conferences in November – Debt and Homelessness

Equipping, Finance, Good Practice, News, Poor
Both Debt and Homelessness are two major problems in these days of recession and many churches are becoming involved in helping people in their localities. We, in Newfrontiers, are privileged to have two highly experienced long-standing networks which are eager to equip other churches to serve those who are affected by these two social issues. Debt Advice Community Money Advice was birthed in the Newfrontiers church in Burgess Hill. It now represents a network of about 100 centres across the UK, both within Newfrontiers and among other Christians. Envision, the annual CMA conference, will be held at HTB in London November 4th - 5th. This provides an ideal opportunity for those considering starting a debt advice ministry to understand what is involved, how to access training etc. You can book…
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19Oct 2011 by Nigel Ring

Teams that work – pt 5. Who is suitable?

Equipping, Team
The right mix When building a team a leader needs to have a range of people who are able to bring unique features to that team's welfare and performance which, together, represent a balanced and equipped team. For a team that is focused on creating an event, such as the Newfrontiers Together on a Mission Conference referred to earlier, the skill set will be very critical. It will need to include people with relevant skills for the event and who can carry the appropriate level of responsibility. This may arise from natural talent, training or a combination of the two. For the longer-term team, such as an eldership team or trustees of a church, specific skills may be less prominent; spiritual gifting, character and spiritual maturity may feature more prominently.…
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10Oct 2011 by Nigel Ring

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…
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28Sep 2011 by Nigel Ring

Teams that work – pt 3. Are we accomplishing our goals?

Equipping, Team
Let's score some goals! A team must know why it exists and where it is going. When a football team takes to the pitch there is no doubt in any of the players' minds why they are together and what their intention is - to get the ball into the goal more times than the opposition! In the last blog we saw, under the heading of Mission, the importance of a team knowing where they are going. But teams can take different forms. For example, two teams I have been involved in are 1) the Management Team for Together on a Mission, the annual leadership conference of Newfrontiers (the final one was held in July this year), and 2) the trustees of Church of Christ the King, the church of…
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