From page 14
Those six headings, I find, successfully cover all aspects of church operations. I admit that the split into two is somewhat arbitrary as they are all to do with people and all are concerned with organisation. There is, however, a slight distinction between the two in my mind. I might do it differently if starting all over again but I have tweaked things over the years rather than taking up time in any major reorganisation. Filing must remain a servant of finding and I need to minimise time put into it.
I use the six headings together as a breakdown of the topic of church operations, and so my website resources are all categorised under these six headings. I feel that these six provide a simple but comprehensive categorisation of what church operations is all about.
The three other top line categories are then broken down as follows.
Church life
L1 God-ward L2 Us-ward L3 Out-ward
These three I hold are the key purposes of any church and I use this division for my Church Health Model and in much of my thinking about church purpose and vision. So L1 covers matters concerned with our relationship with God, L2 our life as Christian community, and L3 is all about outreach, service and the culture in which we live.
There is of course overlap with my six operations
categories already listed and many items I have are coded with both a P or O category and, secondly, an L one. So an item on small group structures in a church fits primarily in P3 (and as stated above the P and O categories will always be primary) but also in the L2 category. I am concerned in my particular ministry with how you structure home groups more than on materials that you might study in home groups. Others would see things the other way round.
Church issues
C1 Health C2 Debates C3 Overview
Needs here will vary person to person, but my work is concerned with church health (C1), I need to keep abreast of and understand various points of disagreement in church life (C2), and C3 is concerned with understanding the Church in the UK and globally.
Discipleship
D1 Study D2 Bible D3 Life
This is more of a personal category for myself as a Christian disciple.
Third level categories
These then break down one more time (omitting some detail) in the following way. By this stage the detail is designed to match my work as a church consultant and trainer and is given here as an example, not as any recommendation that this is the only way to subdivide everything!
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For example, P1 is not designed to cover leadership as such, so there is only one category on this (P11 below) but more as my topic of operations impacts on leaders (hence P12, P13 & P14). These are the categories I use in hard-copy filing for my bookshelves, my box files (for cuttings and articles) and my digital files for what I write.
P Operations - People P1 Leadership
P11 The leader (role, character, training, gift…)
P12 Self-awareness (style, personality, collaboration…)
P13 Work management (time, priorities, diary, delegation)
P14 Life management (stress, family, criticism, burnout…)
P2 Management
P21 The manager (skills, developing staff, supervision…)
P22 Worker care (staff support, training, appraisal, HR…)
P23 Teamwork (group dynamics, conflict, personality types…)
P24 Volunteers (volunteering, all member ministry, support…)
P25 Membership (church members, integration, leaving…)
P3 Structures
P31 Governance (trustees, charity law, church structures…)
P32 Employment (staffing, selection, legislation…)
P33 Leadership structures (eldership, PCCs, staff teams…)
P34 Staff payment (stipends, salaries, expenses…)
P35 Meetings (decisions, chairing, secretary, committees…)
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