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Remembrance Hymn
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Colin Webster

A new piano score of a song that was written for 2018’s Remembrance services has been published in time for this year’s commemorations.

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Family Fun with a Gospel Purpose
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Jane Beckett

Woodgreen Church relocated to be at the heart of a huge new housing estate. Here's an insight into the planning behind their annual Family Fun Day.

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A Call to Prayer
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Mark Howson

As the political turmoil in our nation continues, how should we, as evangelical Christians, respond?

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Growth from Transatlantic Partnership
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Daphney Byrd

A church on a deprived housing estate is increasing its community impact with the help of American missionaries.

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A Church Weekend with a Difference
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Pete Greasley

Would your church join with others for a weekend away? Christchurch in Newport did, and is now celebrating stronger links with five FIEC churches.

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Leading All-Age Services
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Adrian Reynolds

How can you plan good all-age services where the whole congregation benefits? Here are five pointers.

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Another Learning Experience
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Dave Williams

Are you one of the thousands of teenagers heading to University this year? If so, how will you decide which church to be part of?

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Music Without Musicians
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Adrian Reynolds

How do you resource a church with sung worship when there are very few (or no) musicians? Here's one tool that offers a solution.

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Moving Forwards in Faith
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Hannah Langley

Magdalen Road Church have left their home of 140 years and moved into a new building which the church hopes to call home for generations to come.

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What kind of church would I like to belong to?
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Trevor Archer

Trevor Archer offers six answers to the question – based on a weekend away with an eldership team.

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Inner City Planting
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Sam Gibb

Sam Gibb tells the story of Hope Church Vauxhall, a church plant on an inner-city housing estate in England’s capital.

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A Pastoral Podcast
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Phil Topham

Graham Nicholls explains to Phil Topham why Christ Church Haywards Heath started a weekly podcast called 'Ordinary'.

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From Revitalisation to Planting
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Rachel Dalby

Beginning to see gospel fruit from its three years of revitalisation, Calvary Baptist Church in Spalding is now looking to plant.

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Evangelism in a Skeptical World
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Adrian Reynolds

Adrian Reynolds reviews a book on evangelism which goes one better than “yep, I could do that.”

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Prayers led to Plant
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Karen O’Byrne

Almost two years ago, two groups of Christians agreed that something was missing in Cornwall's largest town.

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Premises Pledges Smash Target
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John Douglas

A little over a year after launching as a new church, Hope City Church Edinburgh were looking for a new meeting place. This is their story.

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Evangelistic Momentum 5: The Example of Acts 16
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Ray Evans

In the final part of this series on building evangelistic momentum, Ray Evans takes Acts 16 as his starting point to stimulate us to action.

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Evangelistic Momentum 4: Practical Steps
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Ray Evans

How leaders can start to move their churches into intentional evangelistic growth.

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Taking the Gospel to Sportspeople
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Jonny Reid

Jonny Reid explains how his church in Oxfordshire is engaging with sportspeople of all ages this summer.

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Evangelistic Momentum 3: Contemporary Morality
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Ray Evans

How do we shape our evangelism based on the trends we’ve seen in society over the past decade?

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Evangelistic Momentum 2: Overwhelming Need
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Ray Evans

Ray Evans and Jon Putt draw implications for our gospel witness from 'Our Times' by A N Wilson.

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Primer 08: How Great a Being
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Exploring and applying the classical doctrine of God.

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Evangelistic Momentum 1: Looking Carefully
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Ray Evans

How can we build evangelistic momentum in our churches? We begin by looking carefully.

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59 ‘One Anothers’
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Ray Evans

A lot is written about how church leaders can work smarter to take a ministry forward. But less is said about how members can support one another.

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Revitalisation: Costly but Vital
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Mark Herbert

True partnership between churches is costly. It can involve ‘giving away’ valuable time, people and resources. So why bother?

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Team Structures
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Ray Evans

Most churches know that they need to develop effective structures as a church grows. But how do you go about it?

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Training Women: A Priority for Pastors
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Johnny Prime

The elders at Christ Church Haywards Heath are seeking to provide ministry training for women in the church. Johnny Prime finds out what's involved.

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Developing Deacons
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Ray Evans

Ray Evans has been considering the role of deacons. How does a church go about appointing them and how does that work in churches of different sizes?

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Honouring God’s Servants
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Derek Prime

How do we properly honour and support our pastors? Derek Prime offers some advice gleaned from more than 50 years in pastoral ministry.

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Developing Elders
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Ray Evans

How do we develop teams of elders in local churches? It doesn’t matter if your church is small, medium or large. This question is always vital.

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Pruning Enables Growth
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Rachel Dalby

When change-management expert Kevin Cowdrey arrived to pastor a Lincolnshire church in 2016, he found it on ‘life-support’.

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Rethinking Sundays
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Rachel Dalby

While some churches struggle to maintain attendance levels, an FIEC church in Hampshire has been experiencing a different kind of issue.

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Stress at Work
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Ray Evans

Stress is something that will come to every ministry worker, so church leaders need to work out what de-stresses them and develop a healthy balance.

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Jesus in the Middle
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Johnny Prime

What reassurances does the horrific crucifixion of Christ give to all believers? Johnny Prime helps us to reflect on the Easter story.

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Pray for the World
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Nathan Weston

There are sound biblical reasons why we should be praying publicly for the world.

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Barbie Girl, Barbie World
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Linda Allcock

The Bible teaches us about the importance of godly women as role models. But society usually peddles a different type of role model.

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Changing Times
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Elinor Magowan

Elinor Magowan reflects on the assurances we’re given by God when we experience changing seasons in our own lives.

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Bringing Church to the Community
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Debbie Hurdle

Send Evangelical Church is in a semi-rural village near Guildford in Surrey. What does evangelism look like in a large village setting like this?

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Navigating Change
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Ray Evans

Organisations and churches will always need to be on a journey of change if they are to see growth and maturity.

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A Recurring Ministry Problem
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Ray Evans

One of the great dangers in church leadership is the temptation to work harder and longer because we think that’s the only way to make a difference.

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Communication 101: What’s Getting in the Way?
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Ray Evans

PART 6: At the end of his series on giving a great talk, Ray focuses on the way a talk is delivered, heard and received.

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How to Avoid Lazy Praying
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Adrian Reynolds

How do we avoid laziness when it comes to our public and private prayer life? Here are five practical guidelines.

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Communication 101: The Place of Prayer
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Ray Evans

PART 5: In this penultimate part of Communication 101, Ray Evans focuses on the key ingredient of a great talk.

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Should Your Church Become a CIO?
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Edward Connor Solicitors

What are the advantages of your church becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)? And how would you go about making the change?

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Communication 101: Mind Your Language
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Ray Evans

PART 4: How can we engage our audiences more effectively? Ray Evans considers the preacher’s use of words and illustrations.

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Property Transactions
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Edward Connor Solicitors

What do you need to think about when your church is looking to buy or sell property?

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Communication 101: Loving Your Listeners
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Ray Evans

PART 3: There may be a difference between what people hear when you preach and what you think they should hear.

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Communication 101: Making it Personal
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Ray Evans

PART 2: As preachers work on the passage in front of them, they need to pay special attention to sermon headings.

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The Whole Counsel of God
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Oli Tucker

Which parts of Scripture are most popular with Bible-preaching churches? Oli Tucker has spent some time exploring selection bias by preachers.

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Communication 101: Preaching the Passage
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Ray Evans

PART 1: Ray Evans unpacks some advice for preachers. Here he begins to explore what it means to preach the passage.

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Rediscovering Spurgeon’s Treasure
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Adrian Reynolds

Adrian Reynolds outlines Spurgeon’s sermon on ‘progress’ from ‘An All Round Ministry’. It's a subject close to Adrian’s own heart.

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Primer 07: Show & Tell
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The meaning and the role of apologetics.

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Prioritising “Together Prayer”
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Johnny Prime

This article is a “how to” guide for holding a prayer meeting in your church.

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Organic or Organised?
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Ray Evans

Following his article on the marks of a healthy church in Acts 2, Ray Evans reflects on Acts 6.

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Copyright and Your Church
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Edward Connor Solicitors

If you're using images, film or music in your church activities or advertising then you need to make sure you're not infringing copyright law.

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They Were Devoted
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Ray Evans

What does Acts 2 teach us is distinctive about a true church?

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Not an Exact Science
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Ray Evans

Sometimes it’s not clear what the right leadership decision should be. So here's some guidance from a couple of chapters in Acts.

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Vivid Imagery
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Adrian Reynolds

Many Bible stories contain vivid imagery, so how can preachers and teachers wrestle communicate these colourful pictures in their ministry?

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Why Read One-to-One?
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Johnny Prime

Reading the Bible with others, one-to-one, is a vital part of pastoral ministry. Find out why and get some practical advice to help you along.

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Training Women to use their Gifts
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Linda Allcock

How does a complementarian perspective affect what Biblical women’s ministry can look like in our churches?

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First Aid
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Edward Connor Solicitors

What do churches need to think about when it comes to first aid requirements on a Sunday and for regular clubs and church events?

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Who’s to blame?
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Adrian Reynolds

In a culture that doesn’t like to take responsibility, our gospel preaching needs to constantly address the heart.

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Effective Lay Leadership 2
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Ray Evans

In the second of this two-part series, we see how lay leaders can effectively work alongside other unpaid leaders and use their gifts.

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Five Ways to Spend a Legacy
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Adrian Reynolds

If you unexpectedly received some money for your church, what would you do with it? Here are a few different ways you could invest it for the Kingdom.

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The Grid
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Adrian Reynolds

Establishing leadership training in the local church.

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Primer 06: Newness of Life
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Exploring the gift and the challenge of holiness.

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Effective Lay Leadership 1
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Ray Evans

The first part of a two-part series aimed at both pastors and lay leaders. How can lay leaders can be most effective in their calling?

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The Three Cs 3: Chemistry
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Ray Evans

In this final article on The Three Cs of leadership, we see how leaders need to work hard at making sure there is good Chemistry in a ministry team.

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Making up for Lost Time
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Reading the Bible one-to-one with another Christian was never part of the job description during ministry. Here's why I would recommend it now.

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The Three Cs 2: Capability
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Ray Evans

In this second article on The Three Cs of leadership we look at Capability: the vision and organisation that all capable leaders need.

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The Three Cs 1: Character
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Ray Evans

In this first of three articles exploring The Three Cs, we examine how Character relates to the work and ministry of a church leader.

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Lessons from Tesco
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Ray Evans

There's a book by the man who used to lead Tesco. What did he learn about leadership? And is there anything we can apply to church leadership.

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First Among Equals?
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Ray Evans

"Primus inter pares." First among equals. In theory that’s what the Prime Minister is. But what about in Independent church leadership?

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Ministry Discouragement
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Adrian Reynolds

How should we deal with discouragement in ministry? Here’s some advice from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.

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Moving the Family
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Carolyn Lacey

One of the realities of ministry is that God’s call might move you to pastures new. What effect can such a calling can have on your family?

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A Growing Staff Team
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Ray Evans

If your church grows and you have to take on more paid workers, you’ll need to clarify responsibilities. Otherwise things will soon get overstretched.

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Stand Up and Deliver
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Ray Evans

Connecting with your listeners is a vital part of your preaching ministry. So how can you make sure that connection happens?

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Staying Safe Online
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Linda Allcock

How can we help our children to navigate the digital world when they often know more about it than we do?

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Quality Teaching
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Ray Evans

How do you plan your church preaching programme? Here are some tips about long-term planning, short-term planning and how you should follow this up.

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Quality Control
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Ray Evans

The quality of your welcome, your teaching ministry and your hospitality are all vital to church health.

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Knowing Our Times
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John Stevens

In this short book, John Stevens helps us to interpret the times we are living in – both inside and outside the church.

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Three Pressure Points
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Ray Evans

Spiritual pressures will come for every leader. But how do you overcome them?

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Church Membership
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Ray Evans

How do you welcome new people into church membership? It’s an important question to ask because doing it well is vital to the health of your church.

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Attendance, Migration, Community
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Ray Evans

We held a small consultation with leaders from churches in rural, city and town locations. These are three big themes that stood out.

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Evangelistic Energy
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Ray Evans

Keeping your evangelistic zeal is one of the hardest things for church leaders. But it’s vital to maintain that energy.

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Learning to SOAR
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Ray Evans

Most of us have come across the term 'SWOT Analysis'. But have you heard of SOAR? It will help you move forward with a gospel vision.

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Confidentiality
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Ray Evans

How do leaders proceed when they are asked to "keep it confidential"? Let's explore this common leadership pitfall.

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Data Protection Law and Your Church
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Edward Connor Solicitors

From May 2018 it became a legal requirement for every church to conform to the General Data Protection Regulation. Find out what the entails.

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Dealing with Anger
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Ray Evans

There are three root causes of anger that I've faced in my years as a pastor. Leaders need to embrace one, understand the second and disarm the third.

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Primer 05: Coming Soon
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How to live and lead in light of the world to come.

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In Their Shoes
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Ray Evans

We’ve all been in situations where we felt like outsiders. So how do we make sure church isn’t like that?

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Church Business Meetings
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Ray Evans

How do you strike the right balance between involvement and decision-making in your church members’ meetings?

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Ministry Stress
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Ray Evans

How do you deal with division, decisions and development in church life?

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Are Your Meetings SMART?
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Ray Evans

How do you chair meetings well? It’s not something you always learn at College, so here's a tool which may help.

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Intentional Prayers
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Ray Evans

How do you make sure you’re intentional in your prayer life as you lead a church?

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The CARE Plan
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Ray Evans

The CARE acronym can help leaders to clarify their mission and goals. Here's how it works.

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Leadership Mistakes
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Ray Evans

Let me introduce a book that deals with some of the potential pitfalls for everyone in pastoral ministry.

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Team Time
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Ray Evans

"Retreat!" The word might have negative connotations, but whatever you call it, does your leadership team have one?

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Effective Communication
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Ray Evans

Every church leader is in the communication business. It’s obvious when it comes to preaching, but what about communicating with your fellow leaders?

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Succession Planning
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Ray Evans

What will happen to the church you lead when you move on? Who will take over? Every pastor should be thinking about these questions.

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