Change
5 Thursday Morning Online Gatherings to journey with the video series produced by Faith Nurture Forum based on Lorenzo Lebria’s TryTank project
Not sure but you may need to be a member of the ITsForMinistry FB group to join the ITForministry FaceBookk Room….
You can join at: www.facebook.com/groups/itsforministry – and answer a few questions and accept group rules…
Change
I’m pulling together a list of resources for congregational leaders in my Presbytery and will share it here too…
What other resources would you add to the list..?
Link: churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/newsletters1
You can subscribe to the various Church of Scotland E-newsletters:
Link: churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events2
Link: stirlingpresbytery.org.uk/page/59/worship-resources3
Link: careynieuwhof.com4
Link: itsforministry.org5
Podcast links here are to Apple podcasts, but many will also be found on Anchor, Spotify sand wherever you find your favourite podcasts.
Link: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/to-be-fair/id16065073516
Rev Martin Fair reflects on faith and popular culture
Link: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/working-preachers-sermon-brainwave/id2823649027
Link: anchor.fm/features8
Link: blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-a-youtube-channel9
Link: logos.com/connect/compare-subscriptions10
Link: Itsforministry.org/music11
Various links to music on the web, much of which can be used in recordings and worship streams. (Always ensure that you have the appropriate licenses in places when recording or streaming)
Link: fischy.com12
Link: trytank.org13
Link: lifeandwork.org/news/news/post/1588-beginning-a-culture-of-innovation14
A series of events will take place in March to kickstart new support for innovation across the Church of Scotland.
A joint event with the Scottish Episcopal Church, the workshops over the weekend of March 17-19 will be led by the Rev Lorenzo Lebrija (above), founding director of the US Episcopal Church’s TryTank initiative.
Canva.com is a brilliant for content creation. The full version is available freely to charities on submission of OSCR registration verification. Great tool for creating, scheduling and posting Social Media posts, creating posters, powerful presentations, graphics of all sorts.
Link: pixlr.com/16
Edit photos and create stunning designs right in your browser, on your phone or desktop for free (and paid options) Start from an empty canvas, a photo, a video or select one of the crafted templates.
Link: itsforministry.org/images17
Listing of free (and some paid) image download sites.
Link: charitydigital.org.uk/home18
Link: charityworkerdiscounts.com/19
Link: funding.scot/21
Find funding for your charity, community group or social enterprise using our free online search engine. From small grants to funding for big capital projects, we can help you track down the funding you need to make a difference in your community.
Link: beyondgiving.co.uk/22
Our aim at Beyond Giving is to support you find the best solution and turn a complex problem into a simple solution. We can also help you achieve financial sustainability through the accessing of grants and funding, including exploration of new income generation models, enabling your mission and community based projects to flourish.
1: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/newsletters
2: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events
3: https://www.stirlingpresbytery.org.uk/page/59/worship-resources?fbclid=IwAR2PTWhRUpkdEypMTn1cROgFYNJ-ocGsVRgoKqxlkCNo8OVCy7z2edloyc
4: https://careynieuwhof.com
5: http://www.itsforministry.org
6: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/to-be-fair/id1606507351
7: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/working-preachers-sermon-brainwave/id282364902
8: https://anchor.fm/features?fbclid=IwAR00qylTZkOprpBmAurkxmEpum9f8ak3fLwUxrkKtfKoVUPAbAMkZ8vlc
9: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-a-youtube-channel?fbclid=IwAR03E11VTxVzvp3ZeVhmnSjNTJ4vDP8mi9UgbjE9xbSa7Sprkv0V8Om8
10: https://www.logos.com/connect/compare-subscriptions?fbclid=IwAR2l7Nzt2Xfzo8M0iLx6-MjoOLSDINBByAHu1vvSsLrnvga8YXKFqwxgU
11: http://www.Itsforministry.org/music
12: http://www.fischy.com
13: http://www.trytank.org
14: https://www.lifeandwork.org/news/news/post/1588-beginning-a-culture-of-innovation
15: http://www.canva.com
16: https://pixlr.com/
17: https://itsforministry.org/images
18: https://charitydigital.org.uk/home?fbclid=IwAR0IwahDuUo9d5DCRwSAmrzyOL36HjZLAae1a2wQYBymM70IXqf3OeO7X8
19: https://www.charityworkerdiscounts.com/?fbclid=IwAR0z6iacKoguQgpEe29RPEyJnqPpVp2g2PsppeRK1zlsXPY6G5Pn9M7BJ6s
20: https://www.donr.com/?fbclid=IwAR2rmbaE8UWaL6tQF5gQcMwyCtInzlpn2TCT9qzkx8pq6bTb-J0QlXAzI
21: https://funding.scot/?fbclid=IwAR2-OhiCu5x6JMKD1zcuMeT5lBvwwEsUfoJ7OqhRcbebqFXNoU7Ds7PhNU
22: https://www.beyondgiving.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR3WnzKDbweNOLDA6KDuUPVKjHun70jXdIKY8TOwJgHddfivMHA5x8vzUzU
Change
What must you do today?
What are you up to today….?
✅ What will you do today…?
✅ What difference will you make..?
✅ What will you learn..?
✅ What questions will you ponder..?
✅ Who will you ask for help and support..?
Brainstorming
It’s only impossible until it’s done”, words attributed to many including Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.
On a Thursday morning in January 2022, 24 ministers, elders and others from within the ITsForMinistry Facebook group meet on Zoom for a Conversation triggered by some of Seth Godin’s thinking around Leadership always being qualified by ‘this might not work’.The Seth Godin’s Video which all had watched prior to the conversation was this one:
The recording of the conversation is available to those within the FB Group. If you are not already a member there you can request to join. (There are a few simple questions including commitment to the group rules which must be completed)
Following the conversation a number of the group have committed to reading Seth Godin’s The Practice and to meet regularly to discuss its content and to encourage one another in our practice in the context of ministry.
Details are in the FB group if you are interested in joining in.
General
Are you getting too many notifications on TEAMS… or too few… or just the right amount? Take control of what notifications you receive and how…
Brainstorming
Socrates is attributed with saying “The unexamined life is not worth living”
And more recently Charles Handy quotes: “It’s like the Irishman Frances Crick once said: ‘How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?’”
Do you take time to listen to yourself..? To reflect and ponder what you really believe and think about life, the universe, faith, God, yourself and everything…
Change
What are you a member of? What groups and organisations do you belong to?
Within the Church we sometimes talk of membership, and we sometimes talk of how some of our most committed folk are not members, and yet many of our members aren’t active in the community of faith.
The understanding of membership has certainly changed over the years. In our post-modern world… are we still ‘post-modern’ or gone somewhere beyond that… there simply isn’t the same commitment to any organisation, or institution, favoring a much more fluid approach – this is part of life’s experience in this season…
I occasionally ponder my commitment to the groups that I belong to.
I am a member of the Church of Scotland, baptised in 1964, and later made my ‘profession of faith’ – I joined the Church in 1981, as a teenager. It is a significant belonging that shapes my living – not least because in 1992 I was ordained a minister in the Kirk. I am deeply committed to the Church and cannot imagine life without that sense of belonging
I am also a member of the local Rotary Club – and therefore a member of Rotary International. I regularly share in the weekly Rotary lunch meeting – although attendance has slipped a bit recently when online meetings have often clashed with other commitments. Occasionally over the years I have attended Rotary meetings elsewhere and appreciated that sense of belonging and welcome in the world wide family of Rotary, but only very occasionally have I engaged in anything beyond my local club, and when something else crops up I won’t manage the local either.
I am also a member of the Incorporation of Tailors in Glasgow. One of the Trades associations now steeped in the history of the city and continuing to do much benevolent work in the City. It is many years since I have been actively engaged – but I have kept my membership, following the family tradition from my Grandfather to my father to me.
I am a member of Mensa, the International High IQ Society, rather exclusive I know… I keep up my modest annual subscription – there’s a bit of kudos in knowing that I belong, the monthly magazine has some interesting articles, I don’t go to any meetings – although have enjoyed some of the recent online offerings.
Years ago I did some study around leadership and was introduced to the idea of folllowership. Around the Church we might call it discipleship. In the work of Barbara Kellerman – she speaks of a spectrum of followership from isolates to bystanders to participants to activists to diehards. Doesn’t that translate into the Church context?
When I ponder the level of engagement that others have to the Church, any judgement is nipped in the bud when I think of my varying commitments to other organisations – and I realise that others say of the Church:
there’s a bit of kudos in knowing that I belong, the monthly magazine has some interesting articles, I don’t go to any meetings – although have enjoyed some of the recent online offerings
And some say… I have kept my membership, following the family tradition from my Grandfather to my father to me.
Others say… only very occasionally have I engaged in anything beyond my local club, and when something else crops up I won’t manage the local either
And some say… I am deeply committed to the Church and cannot imagine life without that sense of belonging
And that challenges and motivates me to meet people where they are… and to review what, when, how, why and where we do what we do to share good, relevant, transformation news with those whom we encounter – and to nudge folk along that spectrum of discipleship…
Brainstorming
Stephen Covey spoke of ‘First things First’, important things first. He borrowed Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Matrix Michael Heppell and others speak of allocating time to the categories: ‘Me’, ‘Key’, ‘stuff’ – where ‘Key’ projects are the mission critical important ones… yet how often all the urgent stuff pushes out the important. ‘Me’ times – are, well it says it on the tin doesn’t it – times for YOU – and that’s important too.
Change
In our fast paced world when communication can be instant there can be the temptation to react swiftly with an email reply. Remember though the slightly older technology that facilitates full duplex synchronistic conversation – the telephone – and its modern counterparts the Voice call or video call. You can engage much better, reach a full solution rather than just the next step… and there’s less opportunity for misunderstanding.
See also: Before you click SEND, think TRACKS
Change
The late Eli Goldratt (1947-2011) was a scientist who building on models and ideas from the natural world and turned the focus of his work to the leadership of change. He coined the phrase ‘Theory of Constraints’ – which at its simplest says ‘No system is operating at maximum potential, if it were there would be infinite and perfect output, there will always be at least one limiting factor, or constraint, be it machinery, a person, policy, belief, behaviour or whatever. Any system is only as strong as its weakest link. To improve efficiency focus on overcoming the most significant constraint, work on that until it’s no longer the biggest bottleneck. Identify new biggest constraint, and repeat.’
If you are making widgets – in theory you can create an infinite number of widgets – but there are constraints: the size of the factory, the availability of raw materials, the number of workers, their competence…. And you can improve efficiency by reducing the constraints – building a larger factory, training staff, researching other sources of raw materials and so on…
In the Church context in theory our ministry and mission could impact every soul in the world. But there are constraints: number of leaders, ministers, teachers to motivate and inspire, availability of human, financial and material resources, competence of human resource, and external constraints in the willingness to engage, competing pressures on time and so on…
Goldratt also said that many constraints are unwittingly set up when we change a part of the system but omit to undo the rules required to uphold the old process! Have you ever seen that around the Church..? But we have always done it that way! The XYZ committee has to approve that because 30 tum years ago it was remitted to them…. We created the rules, laws, acts – and we can change them…
Wikipedia has a good overview of TOC
Goldratt also taught the importance of exploring the benefits and challenges not only of taking a particular action to reduce the constraints – but of exploring the benefits and challenges of NOT TAKING a particular action. This is helpfully – and amusingly illustrated in the video below.
In the context of your Church experience what are the big bottlenecks? Can you think of times when old rules are carried into new processes?