Resources e-letter 13:6 - December 2013
Two more sets of Training Notes have today been added to the website: TN78, The role of a church leader and TN79, 'One another' teams. There is also a reminder about another set of notes already on the site which tell you how not to write your Christmas round robin.
NEW: The role of a church leader
These notes attempt a generic ‘role definition’ or ‘job description’ of a church leader by freely adapting the wording of the Church of England service of ordination into such a format. The result is applicable to the leaders of any church tradition and provides a perspective that is often lacking today.
The headings that arise are:
- To proclaim the gospel
- To baptise new disciples
- To teach the Scriptures
- To lead in worship
- To minister to the world
- To foster people’s gifts
- To stir up your own gift
- To accept discipline
- To order your life
Here is a wise and biblical template on which to build a specific role definition so that this does not lose the true purpose of a Christian leader.
Training Notes TN78, The role of a church leader, are now available online.
NEW: One another teams
There are over 50 commands in the New Testament epistles that are instructions about how to live in harmony “with one another”. These were written to small church fellowships and in these notes are applied to Christian teams working together.
The various verses are all analysed under the following headings:
- Love one another
- Live at peace with one another
- Serve one another
- Encourage one another
- Greet one another
- Teach and admonish one another
- Be honest with one another
But the key to understanding these is in the fact that we belong to one another.
One of the features of any group that calls itself a team is ‘a committed membership’. This analysis of these verses shows how this needs to be worked out in daily life. These notes are designed for team study rather than an individual read. Questions to be answered are suggested at the end.
Training Notes TN79, ’One another’ teams, are now available online.
A PS on Christmas letters
If you’ve not yet written that family newsletter everyone else dreads receiving, make sure you first read Training Notes TN63 on the website, How not to write a newsletter. If you’ve already sent yours out, never mind but you can now assess all the ones you receive on these simple tests. Just remember that they are all how NOT to’s!
Thank you for your interest in the website. Please tell others about it. I welcome feedback so that I can be constantly improving it. It is updated every two or three days and there is a constant stream of new material being added to its various sections. If you’ve not visited recently, have a good look round. Log in and check the members-only pages in the Administrators section.
The website is currently undergoing a major redesign to enable it to work well on smartphones and tablets and to simplify UCAN log in. This should be live by March 2014. The next UCAN Update is due out in January.
With my greetings to you all in Christ at this busy time of the year for a true understanding of Emmanuel, God with us.