Everything in the right order……God, people, task – a reminder we may need from time to time!

In less than one 24hr period, two friends and a bible daily reading App had all independently sent me the same verses of Scripture:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths”.

Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV

That was such an encouragement because there were significant and challenging work decisions looming that I needed a reminder to trust God in, and with. But I almost went ‘thanks that’s encouraging’ and moved on. Then a third friend sent me the same verse the next day saying, “I think the Lord wants to highlight this for your Jules”. That made me take time out to sit, read the verses, think about their context, and ask God what he was trying to get my attention on.

We’re really excited about the opportunity to see each other, in person again. This month we’re aware that some of our local groups have been gathering to meet and our two ’Managing Church Well’ cohorts are busy planning their next in person meet-ups for July.

The conference platform is up and running, road-tested and raring to go, packed with 4 keynotes, live Q&A and breakout rooms, accompanying on demand seminars, and a fun social evening involving a kitchen cupboard (?!).

80 UCAN+ subscribers joined us and Douglas Mullen from Anthony Collins Solicitors for an employment briefing for churches. Free for all UCAN+ subscribers, Jules Morgan opened with a spiritual tonic, followed by Doug guiding us through a number of employment principles and updates that churches need to be aware of. A live Q&A session helped churches ask direct questions, and break-out rooms enabled delegates to follow up some of the issues raised.

This month we’re talking about our staff. In Exodus 17:11 we read:

11 As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage.

Here we have a picture of Moses being instructed by God to uphold his staff as he surveyed the battle before him. It was a physical sign of Moses being visible, watching, and prayerfully upholding the Israelite army before God. Moses’ role was not to be fighting, but to be looking out for the men who rallied to his call. It was a spiritual relationship between a team and its captain; between crew and pilot; between a community and its leader who was following God.

Whether you are a Minister or CEO moving on, an employee who is leaving, or a volunteer handing over a major responsibility, it makes good sense to prepare a ‘handover paper’ of some kind to help your successor get off to a great start.

If your church employs paid staff the Trustees are legally responsible for their selection, employment and management. But most Trustees fail to appreciate this. So the advice here is to appoint a specialist group to take on this role on behalf of the legal employers as delegated responsibility.

“It is hopeless”; “We’re never going to be able to recover from this”; “I can’t see the way through”

Even if those are words you haven’t actually uttered out loud over the last 12months, perhaps you - or others you work alongside in your team - have silently listened to those thoughts surface in minds and hearts.

God is used to it when his people get to this place. Sometimes, it is ONLY when we get to this place that He can step in and transform a situation and transform us. If we cannot see the answer or the next step forwards, it means we’re finally trusting completely on God rather than being ‘god’ of our own plans.

We’re excited to announce following this week’s UCAN involvement with the new Operations stream at the New Wine Leadership Conference, that UCAN will be formally partnering with New Wine in their ongoing support of Operations and Administration.