The purpose of this series is to offer some basic “entry points” for beginning to explore your Minimum Factor graph.
This post is for those whose Minimum Factor is Loving Relationships.
Two initial points need to be made.
Currently 99 UK corps (churches) within The Salvation Army are actively engaging with NCD. 54 of these are part of the ‘Transforming Churches Process’ and many of them are slowly discovering that God is working through this new approach to ministry. What follows is a selection of comments from 8 of these corps, and all are being both challenged and inspired by NCD.
Write down the names of three friends or relatives, then write down three needs for each. Make time to offer a short prayer for each person every day based on those needs.
If there is a new Christian in your church, ask how they are going and how you might help meet any needs they have.
Next time you experience something from God during the worship service tell someone immediately after the service in a very matter-of-fact way.
Ask anyone you come across in your church, who seems to have some longer-term tension with another person, to tell you one or more positive things about that person, then encourage them to communicate those to the other person in some way.
Make eye contact and shake hands or greet someone from your church with whom you have had even the slightest relational tension and ask how they are going generally or with one of their specific areas of interest.
Speak out about the positives of a person or current situation (or how things could clearly be worse) when in any negative sounding discussions this week (but then of course work to make the situation better).
Take time before meetings this week (e.g. at meals with your family, a leadership or team meeting, a mentoring appointment, etc.) to think about a celebration point that relates to that individual or group as a whole and then share that point in the meeting.
Make a list of ten reasons for celebration from your life this week (eg. from your work, church, ministry, family and friendships, the Bible, etc.) and share some of those points with at least three people from your church.
Share with your congregation or team about the most recent recreation time you enjoyed and why you found it renewing.
Allow more time than usual in an upcoming personal or group meeting when you will visibly put aside the agenda, your diary, your phone and all other distractions and purely focus your interest and attention on the person with whom you are meeting, as a person.
Speak with at least one person you do not normally speak to at the worship service this week.
Are there any scriptures outside of the Psalms that combine the Justice, Truth, and Grace into Love?
In meinem Dienst als NCD Coach und nationaler Partner werde ich regelmäßig von dem Ausmaß Gottes' Gnade beeindruckt. Zumeist rührt es daher, dass ich Gemeinden sehe, die sich von sehr wenig Gesundheit zu einem Platz bewegen, an dem Hoffnung wieder auf erlebt und Auslöschung nun komplett außer Frage steht. Aber auch wenn Durchschnittsgemeinden beginnen deutlich mehr zu erfahren als sie hätten fragen oder träumen können.
Dabei gibt es eine andere besondere Art, die ich oft sehe, wenn Gottes' Gnade weit über unsere eigenen Bemühungen hinausgeht.
Whether you like the term or not, it can be demonstrated that growing churches display a higher "love quotient” than stagnant or declining ones. Whenever I use this term at a conference there are a few Christians who can't stand it: "What a terrible expression!” I can imagine that you might feel the same way. So let me explain what we did in order to measure this "love quotient.”...I've been getting upset by a lot of Christians for a long time. Why? Because in my opinion there are to many people who call themselves Christians but you can hardly tell the difference between these Christians and Non-Christians. I think it's just natural that there are these many Non-Christians who call Christianity hypocritical or useless.
Ich habe mich schon lange über viele Christen von heute geärgert. Wieso? Meiner Meinung gibt es so viele Menschen, die sich als Christen bezeichnen, bei denen allerdings kaum ein Unterschied zu Nichtchristen festzustellen ist. Ich finde, dass es kein Wunder ist, dass so viele Nichtchristen das Christentum als scheinheilig und nutzlos abtun.
Mein Ehemann Ash und ich haben typischerweise mehr Gemeinsamkeiten in den Testergebnissen des Drei Farben der Liebe Tests gehabt. Vor ein paar Jahren jedoch gab es eine Frucht, in der wir uns erheblich unterschieden. Es war Freude. Ich habe immer wieder festgestellt, dass schwierige Situationen mich erschlugen. Und dazu noch ein offensichtlicher Mangel an Selbstdisziplin verstrickten mich öfters in die Situation. Auf der anderen Seite, wenn das Leben verzwickte Situationen für Ash bereit hatte, hatte es äußerst selten Auswirkungen auf ihn.
My husband Ash and I have typically had more similar results from the three colours of love test. A couple of years ago, however, there was one fruit that we differed significantly on. It was joy. I always found that my difficult situations would take over my mind, and with a lack of self-control also apparent I would more often than not get tied up in the situation. On the other hand, tricky situations that life threw at Ash would very rarely affect him.
Empowering Leadership (EL) and Need-Oriented Evangelism (NOE) are the two Qaulity Characteristics (QCs) which I often lack to have enthusiasm for especially when it comes to me personally contributing something in these areas for the positive growth of my Church. I don't have leadership and evangelism in my "gift mix”, and together with a lack of NCD knowledge, it was little wonder that a while back I ended up concluding there was no point to even thinking about them. Thankfully, since then, God has shown me ways in which I can contribute to these QCs without "chea
Hey everybody I was reading the other day in 1 john 5:3 "Loving God means keeping his commandments, and really, that isn't difficult.” When I first read this I thought, "what the heck was this guy smoking.”
But as I started to write what I was thinking God showed me a deeper understanding of how we are supposed to grow. It kind of relates to stewardship of the love that we are able to show. "Keeping His commandments” can be summed up in showing love to God and people, in a full expression and replicating all the facets of His perfect love. (Matt 22:37-39)
Here are some 'Quality Characteristic Hand' photos I took that made up part of a thematic photo panel in the foyer of our church. At the bottom is a mock up of the photo panel itself.
You can click the photos to download the originals if you like.
Hope it is useful or prompts your own ideas.
