It's One to One week on the GBC blog

Hi everyone,

we all know that one-to-one personal work and Bible study is one of the most effective forms of Christian work. This week on The Good Book Company Blog it is ONE TO ONE WEEK - a week where we will publish a whole string of articles, video interviews and testimonies about the  principles and power of one to one ministry. Watch out for special features on teenage one-to-oneing, and interviews with students.
The intro is here.

THE TALKS ARE NOW ONLINE

Hi everyone,

just to say, the talks from the conference are now all online at The Good Book Company website here, or on this website here.

How not to do youthwork

Showed this clip at last year's conference. It's a classic. Useful to show your team. Introduce it like this:

• This is a video about a youth worker we want to hire.

•  Then ask - who would you hire?

TEACH THEM CHRIST IN THE BIBLE

Found this remarkable video on YouTube. After you've got over wondering how he managed to memorize it, and asked your questions about how "real" this is for him personally, then just use it to focus what we were doing on the Residential.
Don't just teach your children and young people the Bible. Teach them that our wonderful Lord Jesus is the subject of every part of the Bible.

Comments below

GROWING GODLY GIRLS

Here are the bullet points from Sarah Bradley's Most excellent seminar at the BCY residential this year.

Watch out for a new book for girls aged 11-14 that Sarah is writing with The Good Book Company later this year!

There are lots of things that can make it difficult for girls to live godly lives and we have a responsibility to teach the girls in our care. The truth that leads to godliness is found in God’s word. (Titus 1:1-2)

In amongst all the lies that they hear from films, TV, magazines, the internet, friends etc. we must teach them the truth - the truth of the gospel is crucial.

God created men and women: Equal but different.
We must teach our girls to be girls, and teach our boys to be boys. We need to recognise our equality, but also the brilliant God-given differences that we have. 

Three big things that affect girls, and challenge their godly living are

Image, Relationships and Success.

Image:
1 Samuel 16:7; Mark 7:20-23; 1 Peter 3:3-6; Colossians 3:12

The lie: Outward appearance is most important

The truth: God looks at the heart- that needs to be right with him.

Looks will fade, clothes will date or spoil, hair goes grey, skin goes wrinkly… but our relationship with God gets better and better the more that we get to know him. 

Proverbs 31:3 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Relationships:

Romans 8:28; Ephesians 5:1-5.

The lie: If you’re not in a relationship you’re not worth anything, there’s something wrong with you

The truth: Our worth is found in Jesus Christ; we can trust God for the good things in his timing

We want girl to see boys, not just as a potential boyfriend, but as ‘brothers in Christ’ (1 Timothy 5:1-2).  To encourage them to enjoy friendships with boys and girls, not to rush into relationships, and to make sure all their relationships are God centred not self-centred. 

Success
2 Timothy 1:5; Proverbs 31:10-31; Colossians 3:23.

The lie: Girls can and should have it all

The truth: We are created equal but different; we can rejoice in being the women God created us to be

Being a success is living for God in everything, working for him and not the approval of others. Working hard is important, using the gifts and skills that God has given us are important but we shouldn’t teach our girls that a career is the most important thing; they need to know that being a wife and a mother are essential and crucial roles.

Working with girls is a privilege and a joy

If we want to them to grow up to know and love Jesus, and to be godly women, we need to

• Pray for them 
• Teach them  
• Support them 
• Model godly living to them

GETTING THE ADMIN RIGHT

This is the second half of the seminar on Time management and Admin. Administration is utterly vital to Christian ministry. Done well, it honours Christ and advances the work of the Gospel. Done badly, and the opposite things happen. Our advice to anyone new in ministry (or old in it for that matter) is to urgently desire this spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:28). Jackie Moralee led this brilliantly

Two good reasons to work at admin:

• God's a planner - he brings order out of chaos and we reflect him when we impose order on the areas for which we are responsible (Proverbs 21:5)
• Jesus set us an example - John 13 - how we do our ministry impacts on those around us - we need a servant-hearted attitude in all areas

Good admin enhances ministry, bad admin gets in the way of ministry.

Practicalities

• Paperwork: make a home for everything, set up a system and use it (invest in storage)
• Computer: file strategically and regularly/designate specific times for checking email/mind your language
• Communication: clear, detailed, appropriate, gracious
• Meetings: organise well in advance, keep to time, clear action points, email summary after
• Events: thorough planning, delegation and reviewing
• Admin as encouragement: handwritten cards

TIME TO MANAGE YOUR TIME

Main points about time management from the seminar at the conference from Carl Laferton. And just to note - it over-ran! Will post the admin part of this separately.

Know why you’re here

Mark 1 v 38-45 – Jesus was being asked to heal people. But more important to him was to pray alone, and to preach to others. So he didn’t heal that day. It’s not that he never healed, but he knew that his priorities were his own relationship with his Father, and to preach throughout Galilee. So that’s where the bulk of his time went.

It's the same for us: it’s good to have a specific statement about why you’re in your ministry. It needs to be narrower that “I’m here to tell people about Jesus.”

This helps us to know whether to concentrate on our own Bible talks and studies, or helping others with theirs; on new ministries or maintaining existing ministry; on those on the periphery or those who are keenest; on taking evangelistic opportunities or training others in evangelism.

Know who you are
Psalm 127 v 1-2 – God is the one who builds, and he builds as his people labour. We mustn’t think that it all depends on us (which causes self-reliance, stress and overwork) or that God will “just do it” (which causes laziness and complacency).

If we remember who we are and what our part is (to labour) and who God is and what His part is (to build), we’ll be able to sleep (v 2) rather than lie awake worrying!

A useful summary of what we’re about is: “I am here to use the energy God gives me, with the gifts God has given me, in the time God has given me — and then look to him to do his work.”

Know your character

How we order our days, what we need to work on in terms of managing our time, will depend to some extent on who we are:

• Perfectionist, or last minute blagger?
• Extrovert, or introvert?
• Fixated (have to finish job before doing anything else) v flighty (constantly chopping and changing)

All of these characteristics have aspects that will help your ministry and the ministry of those around you; but they all have aspects that can hinder, too. It’s worth thinking through how your character is a great help and a potential hindrance.

Some tips

• Split your day into three parts – morning, afternoon, evening. Aim to work two, rest one.
• Split day into hours – plan what you’ll do in each hour (good for perfectionists – only give a job the time you allocated it. Good for job-avoiders – stops you putting things off)
• Daily to-do list. Write down and prioritise. And write down a not-to-do list, so you don’t panic about whether you need to do more!
• Don’t carry your diary – gives you chance to pray about things, and say “no” if you need to.
• Learn to say “no”. Remember to ask why you’re here, and know who you are!