Speaker at men's function: You really must be aiming to lead your family spiritually. Get the Bible out after dinner, and work through a passage with your wife and kids. Make every effort to teach them the things of God.Ordinary Christian Bloke: That's all well and good. My only problem
One of the graduates of MTS was a male model before training for the ministry. As far as I know, this experience has not contributed greatly to his training. But modelling is an important feature of Christian ministry in the New Testament.In the last edition of ‘Factotum’, we raised the
Apprenticeships are a familiar part of our community life. It is a well-established model of education and training where the master craftsman passes on his knowledge and skills to the trainee. Before our more formal educational institutions arose, apprenticing was the way craft and knowledge were handed down.There is a
Our last ‘Factotum’ examined leadership in small groups. In this edition, we continue to focus on the ministry done in small groups, this time looking at some of the problems that can arise. Most of us have been in small groups at different stages of our lives—youth groups, prayer cells,
Leadership is one of the pressing issues of today, and not only in the church. Time magazine recently had a special on the ‘leaders of tomorrow’, highlighting the need to prepare for the future or face a world that has little direction and little security.But it is harder than ever
If there is one sure-fire prayer point in small groups, it's praying that God will make us more prayerful! Everyone believes in prayer; everyone recognizes that we need to pray more, but everyone has trouble making it a priority. Put it down to the bustle of 90s life, or simply
Factotum is designed to equip us as slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each edition provides a new piece of ‘equipment’ for ministry to others. This time we look at one-to-one Bible reading and prayer.The following is a true story. Last Friday, two friends met to read the Bible, pray
A few weeks ago, I was evangelized in my front garden. There I was on a balmy Sunday evening quietly cultivating a few weeds when it was done to me. I was presented with the gospel of environmental salvation. It was very appropriate really, being Sunday and my hands creating
The ‘Pew Prayer’ Some years ago a pastor, Ray Ewers, instructed me in the finer art of how to walk into church. To most people, this might appear to be a rather basic accomplishment requiring little or no tutelage. Perhaps a family with five toddlers would appreciate some advice, but