60 people responded to the survey.
Earlier today, we released a podcast with Gavin and Lewis Roderick, one of the pastors at Christchurch, talking about their experiences of working together and some areas where they had challenges when they first started working together. They took some time to talk through the results we'd had to the first part of our 'Check-in' survey from where people are experiencing grace in their work to verses that have encouraged them recently. (If you've not listened yet, you can catch it here!)
We thought it would be nice for you to be able to see the results for yourselves. 60 people kindly responded, we have anonymised the answers and so, without further ado, here's the first part of the 'Check-in' results:
1) Who do you work for?
· 86% Church
· 10% Christian Organisation
· 4% Other
2) What is your role?
· 18% Operations Director
· 16% Church Administrator
· 16% Church Manager
· 16% Trustee/PCC member
· 10% Administrative support
· 10% Other
· 4% Pastor/Vicar/Church Leader
· 4% External Hire Manager
· 4% Facilities Manager
· 2% Finance Manager
· 2% Communications Manager
· 0% Children’s Ministry Worker
3) From the following list, which of these is included in your role?
Most people’s roles included health and safety and finance, then compliance and governance and managing staff and volunteers, followed by facility management and organisation management. The lowest numbers of people covered IT support.
4) Where are you currently experiencing grace in your work?
- I am being given opportunities to grow in my leadership from a spiritual aspect
- New highly motivated & competent volunteers have emerged
- We are a very small rural church, but the numbers are growing, and with that have come responsibilities which were not required when there were only a dozen of us.
- Very supportive leadership team, colleagues and congregation. God who hears and responds to our prayers.
- Facility management and traditional warden duties on Sundays as we now have trained teams of volunteers doing it too.
- We have moved into a place of being able to start the recruitment process for an administrator!
- Commitment through support, education and giving to others.
- Meeting the poor and needy and sharing their life experiences.
- Grace is the provision of food for those in crisis, seeing them come into a church and being welcomed, loved and supported when needs arise .
- Working with an excellent body of trustees who are full of integrity, intensely prayerful and humility and with volunteers who are doing much of the work of the orgnisation.
- A wonderful team and a job that I love.
- We have a church that love to serve. It’s a joy to coordinate.
- Wonderful staff and church volunteers.
- God seems to know when I need a less busy time to catch up on jobs that need to be done but get put on a back burner as they are not part of the daily whirlwind!
- The pleasure of working with like minded people in a beautiful setting in order to support the work we do in the community (hire revenues cross subsidise our charitable work)
- Services and Fellowship.
- Provision of community volunteers from places of emergency / temporary accommodation and the privilege of working alongside and trying to disciple some of these guys.
- Financial provision, exceeding our World Mission Gift Day target.
- Via Acts 435 being able to help hundreds of people.
- Collaboration in the City - Street Support and Christian Action Brighton
- Fantastic team, great new building, supportive family, strong admin team
- Blessing of the team I work with and how we support each other
- Dealing with people
- Support of church trustees
- Migrating off traditional copper phones. Complicated for us in that we have a separate phone line for the emergency button in the lift and a third line dedicated to the fire alarm.
- Accessing trusted and affordable support for basic IT - file sharing, desktop, OS management, etc
- Getting the most out of software that we have - eg churchsuite. It would be great to see instructional videos to show optimal use of calendars & flows to organise things such as weddings / funerals flowing through to DBF payments & reconciliation.
- In networking, in wellbeing and being looked after.
- Congregational support.
- Having amazing systems that are starting to work for us and make all of the extra compliance manageable.
- So many ways. Vicar is very flexible about my working hours. She is great about the challenges I have had.
- Benefits of collaboration with other organisations and churches. Partnerships have been a real source of joy.
- In the fact that I've managed to develop the systems to support the running of our organisation/churches to a point where less daily management is needed, freeing up some time for broader vision/planning work.
- Just broken my ankle and my colleagues have been great at rallying round!
- Great Church Leaders who are working together well, great unity.
- External Hire is slowly returning after covid. Love the people I work with.
- Church is growing.
- Great colleagues, understanding towards my situation.
- I experience grace when I feel supported by my colleagues and also from members of the congregation. When I have conversations with people that are not critical or judgemental I experience grace.
- Our income is slowly growing after covid.
5) What are some of the challenges you face?
· 26%- Volunteers
· 20%- Staffing
· 18%- Policy
· 14%- Support
· 10%- Financial
· 6%- Other
6) On a scale from 1-10, how would you describe your capacity? (1 being under used to 10 overstretched)
Every respondent placed themselves above 5 on the scale, with most answering 8.
7) What scripture has really encouraged youin your work this year?
Micah 6:8
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Philippians 4:13
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
Matthew 16:18 - remembering that God is the Lord of the harvest
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Psalm 19:1
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
Psalm 29:11 "The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace."
Matthew 16:18 - The Lord Jesus will build HIS church!
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Jeremiah 29-11
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Hebrew 11
Psalm 73 verses 1 and 2.
“Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.”
Colossians 3
Feeding the five thousand ,five loaves and fishes
He is at work in you both to will ands to do of His good pleasure - also the dwelling place of the Lord is with "the humble and contrite heart".
Esther 4v14 adapted 'called for such a time as this.'
“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Jesus feeding the 5000
1 Corinthians 15 vs 58
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
Col 3 vs 17
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
I know this is not Scripture, but as a staff team we are reading "serving without sinking" by John Hindley and it's brilliant - so easy to read, very encouraging but also challenging. Highly recommend it.
Psalms 19:1
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
Mark
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Blessed are the peacemakers
1 Corinthians 12.28
“And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.”
Psalm 62
Isaiah 9:6-7
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Whatever you do, work as for the lord.
Yes always
I use Daily Bread each day
Be still and know that I am God
Ephesians 4:12
“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ”
Acts 6 - organisational/operational work enabling word ministry to happen
We have been working through the Psalms as a staff team this year, reading, reflecting on and praying over a Psalm a week and these have been incredibly helpful at restoring my view to be upon God and the reason I am doing the work I am doing - so not a specific scripture in that respect, but really helpful encouragement and challenge in my work from the Psalms.
Our church verse for the year - Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. Acts 4 v 29b-30
Nehemiah 4 v 14
“And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the rest of the people, ‘Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Col 3 vs 17
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
1 Peter
Acts 6
1 Corinthians 12:28
28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
Administration is listed alongside gifts that may be considered more spiritual gifts.
