The gift of administration

It's been a paperwork day. Or a paperwork, phone, email and word-processing day. I've been sweating the keyboard, inbox, and sticking stamps to get things off my desk and away.

It's easy to dismiss administration as a chore, something necessary but essentially unrelated to the mission of the church. But Paul tells the Corinthians that administration is ranked among the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12.28). The word rendered as administration in the NIV is leadership in the NRSV.

Perhaps it's what he means when he tells Titus that he appointed him to put things in order (NRSV) or straighten out what was left unfinished (NIV) in Crete (Titus 1.5). I wonder if Paul was the pioneering initiator and Titus had to set things up sustainably.

We need to re-think adminstration as leadership. Done accurately and effectively, without fuss or show, and the church is enabled and people served well. So let's hear it for the administrators in all walks of life.

Breakfast at Barney's 8 June 2008

Anita is taking bookings for the last Breakfast at Barney's before the summer break. To reserve a place for a cooked or light breakfast served between 8.30 and 9.30am, please email Anita. Cost is £2 for adults and £1 for younger children.

Ministry with free software

One or two people have asked me about the software I use to keep on top of things. Now I realise that this is really a minority-interest topic, so skip this if computers aren't your thing. But if you really want to know what's running on the vicar's computer, here's a list of the programs I use pretty well everyday, most of which are free:

1. I use Windows XP Home Edition for my operating system. It came bundled with the budget PC that I bought three years ago and it's adequate for my needs. What I would buy if I had the money? Probably Windows Vista, but I'd need a new machine to get decent performance from it and, at the moment I can't really see the point. I love the slinkiness of the Mac but it's in a different league cost-wise and not easily compatible with my Pocket PC. Cost: free with PC.
   
2. Firefox as my web browser. It's years since I made the switch from Internet Explorer. As well as being open-source and free, it's just so much better than IE in performance and extensibility. I use the Mouse Gestures, Adblock Plus, and RTM extensions. At the moment I'm using Firefox 3 Beta RC1, expect to see FF3 released in June. Cost: free.
   
3. I love Gmail. The best things are the vast storage capacity, the way it links messages and replies into conversations, its fabulous search facility and tagging capabilities. Cost: free.
4. For my word-processing, spreadsheets, presentations and database needs I run OpenOffice. I rather resent the cost of Microsoft Office and while OpenOffice isn't quite as slick, it runs very well. It's open-source and, yes, it's free.
   
5. To make sure I don't miss an appointment, I use Google Calendar. It's flexible and reliable and I particulary like the way it integrates lots of calendars into one view. On the same screen I can see my personal calendar, the church and Barnabas Centre calendars, the Church of England calendar and Leicestershire school holidays. Cost: free.
   
6. For contacts, I use a combination of Gmail (for email contacts) and Thunderbird. Thunderbird comes from the Mozilla Foundation (the movement behind Firefox) so it's open-source too. Cost: free.
7. To keep my to-do list in shape and to make sure I don't overlook anything crucial I use Remember-the-Milk. I tried it first a couple of years ago and wasn't that impressed. But I've since taken another look and in recent months it's really paid off. I like the integration with Gmail that means that the list of things I need to do is right in front of me.
8. I use Copernic Desktop Search to find files on my computer (though I am a bit of an anorak when it comes to maintaining neat and tidy folders). Copernic also searches for contact details and a variety of file formats, so it's a very fast way of retrieving information. Cost: free.
   
9. For snappy application launching and the keyboard shortcuts that make things faster nothing works better than the open-source Launchy. Cost: free.
10. For synchronising appointments and contacts between my desktop PC and my Pocket PC, I use BirdieSync (via Thunderbird and the Lightning calendar extension). Cost: 19.95 euro.
    
11. I keep lots of lists in Listpro, everything from a list of church keyholders to my shopping list. It's not free but I've not found anything better. Cost: $29.95
    
12. This blog is written with Blogger from Google. I did try Windows Live Writer, which has a much smarter interface than Blogger, but after the reinstall of Windows I've tried to keep the list of applications running on my PC to a minimum, to keep things as responsive and snappy as possible. Cost:free.
13. All my photographs are catalogued and edited with Picasa. Cost:free.
14. I've created a few nifty scripts to automate things from email signatures to funeral forms, with Autohotkey. Cost: free.
    
15. With such a lot of vital information on the computer, I'd be pretty lost when the hard disk fails, without up to date copies of all my data. So I keep everything backed up automatically with the wonderful Mozy. I've gone for the paid version, so I get all the space I need to save precious family photographs etc. Cost: $4.95 per month - well worth it for the peace of mind it brings.
    
16. To read PDF files I use the lean Foxit Reader, rather than Adobe Acrobat. Cost: free.
17. I run Avast antivirus, which has a relatively light memory footprint compared with Norton and other paid products. Cost: free.
    

You'll see from all this that I don't spend much money on software. It's not just that I'm mean, but there are lots of quality programs that are available for nothing. Most of them come from the open-source community, which means that you can do a lot without breaking the bank.

In the church, it's good to use formats for documents which don't oblige people to spend lots of money on software to read them. Having lived and worked successfully without the Microsoft Office suite, I'm sure that in Leicestershire alone we could save tens of thousands of pounds by using free software.

Fragments - 25 May 2008

• "No one can be filled with the Holy Spirit if they're full of themselves"
• A quote from Martin Cavender of Resource: "40 years ago people were asking, 'Is this true?' 25 years ago they asked, 'Will this work?' Today they're asking, 'How can I be sure God loves me?'"
• God doesn't play tricks when his children ask for good things (Luke 11.11-13).
• When did you first realise that God loves you?

Hope where you live

From Hope 08



Be someone's hope today.

Keith Waddell

During our ten o'clock service this Sunday 25 May, Keith will be sharing information about his work in Africa in recent months. Keith is a highly skilled eye surgeon who has worked for many years to restore sight to people and to develop effective treatments for eye diseases in some of the most disadvantaged parts of the world. He is in the process of "retiring to Oadby" but he joked with me last week that his retirement is an annual event, which is quickly followed by packed bags and the resumption of work in Africa.

We are delighted to support Keith's work as part of our mission giving.

Church grounds and gardening morning

Not being much of a gardener myself, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to keeping things in trim.

But thankfully, a small number of volunteers keeps on top of the regular grass cutting and upkeep of our modest grounds. Their work is much appreciated.

Twice a year we invite the congregation to come out with their tools and gloves to get things really sorted out. Vivien has planned for this again this coming Saturday, 24 May, from 9.00am until 12.00 at the latest. Do come and help out. I always find the conversation far more interesting than the gardening but that says more about me than the task itself. Sadly I won't be there as I shall be chairing the AGM of the Diocesan Association of Readers. Oh well, there's always my own humble patch.

What's the best date for a Harvest service?

It's mid May and the summer's almost upon us, which means it's time to draft the rotas for the autumn and Christmas!

I've been thinking about the best time to celebrate Harvest. It's traditionally been in October but in 2007 we heeded the voices of those who pleaded that the fields, gardens and allotments were all empty and celebrated Harvest on 9 September. This felt a bit early, but the attendance was good and I think it worked.

But what do you think? Would you rather we celebrated Harvest on 13 September 2008 or on 12 October 2008? Let the people speak...

Send me an email or use the comments facility beneath this post to let us know which you prefer and, even more helpfully, why.

Update 29 May: Every response, email and conversation I've had with people confirms that 13 September is much the better date. So there you go, time to get on with the marrows, carrots and beans.

Jane Wood

You may remember that last year we were joined by Jane Wood, an ordinand training for ministry at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. Jane spent several weeks working with me and exploring how St Paul's ministers to the community and parish.

I've been able to keep in touch with Jane and she tells me that she will be ordained as deacon on 29 June at Leicester Cathedral and will serve as Curate in the Parish of Kirby Muxloe and Leicester Forest East.

We'll be praying for Jane and others who will be ordained this Petertide.

District Church Council - May 2008 meeting

At its meeting this month, among other things the DCC:

• elected its officers for the coming year (Aileen Tincello as Lay Chair, Anita Chettle as Secretary, Diane Wright as Treasurer, Diana Courtney as Electoral Roll Officer).
• reviewed the purpose of the DCC in the life of the parish and the mission of St Paul's.
• reviewed administration of the church.
• considered new possibilities for lay ministry in the church.
  
• discussed the plans of the Gartree Mission Partnership.
• decided to purchase stoles for the use of visiting clergy when mine are elsewhere.
• decided to try a different brand of Fairtrade communion wine in services.