Tag Archives: ministry

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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The balancing act

Life

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One of the biggest struggles for many Christians is balancing the demands of work, family and ministry. It can seem impossible to balance the pressures of all three. The common and tempting solution is to simply neglect, or at least accept mediocrity, in one or even two of these areas of our lives.

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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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Bunyan’s computer

Pastoral Ministry

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John Bunyan’s name is familiar to most Christians. Some months ago, I came across one of his short books: The Acceptable Sacrifice. It was originally a sermon based on Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise”. It was his last book.

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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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