Archives: col-marshall

Factotum #11: Models for men’s groups

Everyday Ministry

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Speaker at men’s function: You really must be aiming to lead your family spiritually. Get the Bible out after dinner, and work through a passage with your wife and kids. Make every effort to teach them the things of God.

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Factotum #10: Christian modelling

Everyday Ministry

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One of the graduates of MTS was a male model before training for the ministry. As far as I know, this experience has not contributed greatly to his training. But modelling is an important feature of Christian ministry in the New Testament.

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Factotum #9: Ministry apprentices

Pastoral Ministry

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Apprenticeships are a familiar part of our community life. It is a well-established model of education and training where the master craftsman passes on his knowledge and skills to the trainee. Before our more formal educational institutions arose, apprenticing was the way craft and knowledge were handed down.

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Factotum #8: Pitfalls for small groups

Everyday Ministry

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Our last ‘Factotum’ examined leadership in small groups. In this edition, we continue to focus on the ministry done in small groups, this time looking at some of the problems that can arise. Most of us have been in small groups at different stages of our lives—youth groups, prayer cells, focus groups, Bible studies. We will also have experienced some of the challenges and difficulties that these groups generate. You might like to use this edition as a way of assessing the small groups that you lead or participate in. Are you avoiding the pitfalls? Or are you stumbling headlong into them?

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Factotum #7: What is a leader?

Everyday Ministry

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Leadership is one of the pressing issues of today, and not only in the church. Time magazine recently had a special on the ‘leaders of tomorrow’, highlighting the need to prepare for the future or face a world that has little direction and little security.

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Factotum #6: Do-it-yourself-church

Everyday Ministry

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Are you amongst the 5 per cent that watch SBS television? Usually I’m not, but I read the TV guide and there it was: the movie The Factotum. I watched the first part of it. It’s a clever comedy about an unlikely speech writer for an aspiring Italian politician. The factotum is summoned from his teaching job to write for the politician. He is given no choice; his whole life is disrupted as he does his master’s bidding. Not a bad model for us as factotums, except we are given the script, rather than producing our own.

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Factotum #5: Church Improvement

Everyday Ministry

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It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. It’s a bit of an ugly word, unpopular and out of fashion, much like the person it describes. A factotum is a servant—someone who goes about a master’s work, a ‘doer of everything’, no matter how menial. ‘Factotum’ is servant training.

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Factotum #4: Praying in small groups

Everyday Ministry

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If there is one sure-fire prayer point in small groups, it’s praying that God will make us more prayerful! Everyone believes in prayer; everyone recognizes that we need to pray more, but everyone has trouble making it a priority. Put it down to the bustle of 90s life, or simply to sinful, independent hearts—either way, we can always find something which is more pressing a task than speaking to God in prayer.

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Factotum #2: Consumer Friendly Evangelism

Everyday Ministry

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A few weeks ago, I was evangelized in my front garden. There I was on a balmy Sunday evening quietly cultivating a few weeds when it was done to me. I was presented with the gospel of environmental salvation. It was very appropriate really, being Sunday and my hands creating new life in mother earth. But I hated it. I always recoil from evangelists, even this very pleasant Greenie. The only way I could cope was to tell him I too was an evangelist and to show off the battle scars from our common despised vocation.

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Factotum #1: The Ministry of the Pew

Everyday Ministry

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The ‘Pew Prayer’

Some years ago a pastor, Ray Ewers, instructed me in the finer art of how to walk into church. To most people, this might appear to be a rather basic accomplishment requiring little or no tutelage. Perhaps a family with five toddlers would appreciate some advice, but most of us would never give it a thought. Ray’s instruction was very brief: “Pray about where you sit”. (more…)

Two Ways to Apologize

Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel

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Defining terms

Evangelism—telling people the good news of what God has done in Christ and calling on them to repent and put their trust in him. Evangelism involves both giving information and making invitation. (more…)