The Church Office

This week we had the opportunity to speak to Jonathan Carswell, the Founder and CEO of 10ofThose. 10ofThose is a book ministry that hand picks the best books from across a wide range of publishers; ensures that they hold to the Bible; and then discounts them so that more can go out. Their profits are then used to support missions around the world. We loved Jonathan's heart to help everyone in the church to read books that excite them about Jesus and to give away books that point others to Jesus. There are numerous ways that churches can partner with them- check out their website for more information at www.10ofthose.com  

In this Podcast Phil Swann the Pastor at Llanelli Free Evangelical Church in West Wales, shares a little bit about his experience of partnering with the church office. Gavin completed what he calls a " Back Office Review" looking at the work that happens behind the scenes and hopefully offering some support and advice to improve the running of the church which we pray will ultimately serve the gospel. The second half of the podcast focussed on caring for our Pastors or Church Leaders. It was great to talk to Phil and learn more about some of these pressures and how we as deacons and operational staff can serve and care for our leaders better.   We hope this video is a blessing to you and your Pastor. To find out more about what a back office review looks like please click here www.thechurchoffice.co.uk/services During the Podcast Phil mentioned a conference that he is involved in to find out more please follow the link below. The Affinity book link is https://www.affinity.org.uk/challengingleaders/ The Affinity conference link is https://www.affinity.org.uk/challengingleaders/events/

Gavin had the opportunity this week to chat to Gaz Sim's one of the staff members behind Newday, tasked with organising this brilliant event for young people. We love his passion for the local church and the gift of administration. In the podcast he talks about his calling and describes it as "facilitating people to meet with Jesus.' Love that Gaz! If you have not heard of Newday it is one of the largest Christian events for young people that takes place in the UK every year. Thousands of young people aged 12-18 descend on Norfolk Showground, near Norwich to join hundreds of churches from all over the UK and Europe to learn about and worship God, camp out together and soak in the summer festival feeling, leaving Newday further along in their relationship with Jesus.   Newday take place this year between Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August 2023. For more information please check out the following links below. Website: newdaygeneration.org Bookings: bookings.newdaygeneration.org Be on team: newdaygeneration.org/be-on-team Contact: bookings@newdaygeneration.org 020 3488 5241

In this podcast Gavin talks to Andy Bagwell one of the Executive Director of UCAN who has helped launch a new HR Support Service for Churches in the UK. Andy is passionate about creating healthly church cultures and wants our churches to be excellent employers. To find out more about the HR Support Service that UCAN offer please check out the link below.    www.churchworkers.net  

In this video Gavin got the opportunity to talk to Tim Wyatt about Managing Church Finances and provided some practical examples around budgeting and forecasting. Gavin and Tim also discussed deficit budgets and the challenges that some churches are facing over the next couple of years . A big thank you too Wyatt and Co for giving the time for Tim to share his experience and wisdom with our viewers. Here is a link to a helpful Finance Procedure Document and further videos that Tim has recorded to support churches in the area of finances. https://www.thechurchoffice.co.uk/blog/church-finance-procedure-document https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqpRatRvipg  

Whether documented or not, we all likely follow some type of work flow. Sometimes they can be a bit random or inefficient, other times they can work really well. But in order to effectively carry out the vision of our churches, we need to be reviewing them- from our newcomer welcome process to how we process our orders and deliveries. Join us as Gavin talks to Mark Parsons from Christchurch Bristol about a really helpful seminar he did on work flows behind the scenes.

Gavin recently sat down with John Truscott to discuss the opportunity January presents to look through how things are going in your church. John has developed a fantastic tool on his website that supports leadership teams to review the health of their church.  He has cleverly broken it down in to 5 key themes with 9 questions to work through under each theme. John is passionate about the local church and offers loads of great tips and insights. Very helpful tool Here is the link to the church office website where you can download the tool for free.  https://www.thechurchoffice.co.uk/blog/church-health-review-part-1 https://www.thechurchoffice.co.uk/blog/church-health-review-part-2      

Listen in as Gavin chats with Neil Tallamy from Baglan Community Church about why and how we can be making the most of christmas events in our churches. Christmas can be the start of people having exposure to the gospel and to the church so we want to be maximising the opportunity to meet as many different people as possible. This starts with good hospitality and care, so that they're in the best disposition possible to listen the gospel. 

In this podcast Gavin had the wonderful opportunity to interview Nigel Ring who has served Terry Virgo and Newfrontiers leadership team behind the scenes for over 40 years. I loved hearing his heart and encouragement for church administrators. A great opportunity to learn from the best! A big thank you to our listeners for sending in their questions. 1. Do you have any tips on recruiting volunteers? This is a really challenging part of my job at the minute. 2. Do you have any suggestions of how we can better recognise volunteers contribution and thank them? 3. How do you sustain a long service in Christian Ministry? 4. How do you know when it is time to stop your involvement in a christian activity and how do you explain this to your friends who are still very much involved with and committed to that activity? 5. What kind of gifting do you need on a church planting team? 6. From your experience is there a link between good church management and a church successfully growing? 7. What advice do you have for churches who face financial challenges over the next few months and years? Any practical application? 8. When it comes to church finances and budgeting there can be a tension between faith and finances, how did you navigated that tension? I loved every minute of this interview with Nigel, grateful for him and his faithful service to the wider church.

In this podcast Gavin got the opportunity to interview Nick Coles the Uk Director for Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child is the world’s largest children's Christmas Project that sends shoe boxes filled with gifts to children all over the world. As church administrators we love a good statistic and since Operation Christmas Child started they have delivered 198 millions shoe boxes to children in 100 different countries. What an incredible achievement and a wonderful demonstration of God's Love in Action. It was great to hear Nick's passion for the project but we loved his heart to reach out with the gospel Locally, Nationally and Internationally. The shoe boxes provide the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus! There is nothing better!   To Find out more please check out their website. There are so many ways to get involved!   https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/