23Mar 2016 by Nigel Ring

Pursuing Excellence in Ministry with the Poor – Pt 4. The Action Plan

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Evaluation, Good Practice, Poor
So far we have seen how to consider different issues related to the ministry and have captured ideas for improvement. We now need to take these forward to a finalised Action Plan. 4. Identifying and agreeing improvements to be made By the end of Day 1 many sheets of notes have been blue-tacked to the walls of the room. On Day 2 we take each of the issues discussed on Day 1 and dig deeper until we have specific actions that all can agree need to be taken. By this stage there is an ever-growing participation and enthusiasm from the team members. Often they have had great thoughts overnight and have further contributions to bring following reflection about the process. We start by prioritising the list of topics that we wish…
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16Mar 2016 by Nigel Ring

Pursuing Excellence in Ministry with the Poor – Pt 3. The Process

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Evaluation, Good Practice, Poor
Having outlined the philosophy of ‘pursuing excellence’ we shall now look at the process of carrying out a Ministry Health Check with a ministry team. 1. How long does it take? Two days, or the equivalent, are needed for the process to be carried out. This may seem a lot of time but to lessen it loses much of the benefit. 2. Initial discussion and information gathering On day 1 I work with the ministry team and facilitate discussions based on statements that are graded individually by each participant according to the extent to which they feel that statement applies to the ministry from their perspective. These statements relate to vision, team support, handling of finances, relationship with the church, and so on. There is always a range of responses. This…
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08Mar 2016 by Nigel Ring

Pursuing Excellence in Ministry with the Poor – Pt 2. Some examples

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Evaluation, Good Practice, Poor
Last time I proposed that a church's ministry with the poor should be excellent. Let me now share some ministries in which I have helped develop Action Plans for further improvement of what were already good ministries. School In Guinea, in West Africa, I helped evaluate a church-based school with which I have worked for many years. Originating out of the Sierra Leonean civil war of the ‘90s and into the new millennium, when many fled over the border to neighbouring Guinea. The school was started out of the church which was planted in the capital, Conakry, to serve the refugees. There are now well over 300 children attending ranging in age form 3-26. Many of the older ones have missed so much school due to civil and political unrest that…
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02Mar 2016 by Nigel Ring

Pursuing Excellence in Ministry with the Poor – Pt 1. Setting the scene

Administration in the Church, Equipping, Evaluation, Good Practice, Poor
In the coming weeks I will share how I believe churches can carry out excellent ministries with the poor. I believe that is on God's heart. It is good At creation we repeatedly read that God looked on all that he had made and declared it to be good (Gen 1:4, 10, 12 etc). Sadly, when the world looks at the church today it expects to find irrelevance or second-rate performance. The media often ridicule the church and Christians. That should not be! On my business card I have as a tag line ‘Pursuing Excellence’. If we are to be witnesses to Him and all that He has done we should expect the world to look at us and all that we do, and be impressed – not by us but by…
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09May 2011 by Nigel Ring

Ministry Health Check pt 6 – The ‘NGO’ statements

Christian ministry, Equipping, Evaluation, Good Practice
Last time we looked at the statements that have a spiritual impact. In this final part of the series I list those statements that we would expect to apply to any work of this nature, whether Christian or secular, NGO or Aid Agency. These are coloured green in the PowerPoint presentation. 9. Who? It is clear who the ministry is for, why we are doing it and what is the best approach It is known what other ministries provide a good model and where there are the gaps in provision It is known what service clients want 10. When? The ministry has clearly defined objectives and activities with a structured schedule and budget There are short, medium and long term plans with a built in flexibility so as to be…
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02May 2011 by Nigel Ring

Ministry Health Check pt 5 – The ‘spiritual’ statements

Christian ministry, Equipping, Evaluation, Good Practice
What are the other statements? Having shared some examples of statements let me now provide the full list in this and the next posting. Written here they seem somewhat overwhelming but please do not be put off! For clarification on any of these please refer to the series which I posted Sept - Dec 2009 where I described the 20 basic Key Indicators. These statements have been created around those Indicators. The statements are grouped under common headings, as shared in part 1 of this series. This grouping is reflected in the PowerPoint slides which are coloured according to the group. The complete presentation may be downloaded here. The orange ones are 1. Spiritual Oversight The ministry is apostolically endorsed The elders of the local church oversee and support the…
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