Angela J Elliott

Yes we compost and recycle. As our garbage pick up is private and doesn't include composting, we have dedicated people who take it home and put it in the city's compost bins. That way, when we do use paper plates, cups and napkins, like at our Kick-Off Party, we can compost them along with the food. Plastic ware goes in the recycle. That way a big event ends up with little garbage.

We also have a recycling station in our church hallway with clearly labeled bins. These too are emptied and recycled by volunteers.

I encouraged you to look into this for your church.

I was going to suggest the Building Blocks of Faith also. It depends what your reason and/or objective is for evaluating your ministries. Once you are clear about that, then you can look for a tool to evaluate them.

I watch the Calvin Student Service LOFT Sunday nights. They also livestream and archive the Chapels. Go to https://calvin.edu/studentlife/faith-worship/ to find the links. I am so blessed by seeing college students lead worship and by Pastor Mary Hulst's preaching. Even though it's directed to college students, I always learn or am challenged by something.

Hi, at Nelson Avenue Community Church (CRC) in Burnaby, BC we have a Safe Church protocol that requires all those who work with children, youth and lead adults to have filled out an application with 2 references, attend an interview, have a criminal record check and attend Safe Church training and yearly refreshers. This is for all people including the parents of the children in the ministries. Our denominational Safe Church Ministry would be able to help you with that. 

I'm afraid I don't have an answer as we do not train our post-service prayer volunteers. I'm realizing what an oversight that is. We choose people who are mature in their Christian life, model a life of prayer and wish to be there for others. I can see where training can be affective and bring more depth and meaning to the prayers that are prayed. I look forward to other people's answers.

Hi Tim,

The study is from Faith Alive's "Discover Your Bible" series and is called "Discover Prayer". The link to the leadership guide is http://www.faithaliveresources.org/Products/152705/discover-prayer-leader-guide.aspx

Thanks Mark. However, the webinar does not appear under the scheduled section of the webinar site. It is only listed as proposed so people will not be able to register. Can you get that changed.

I've been reading the Prayer Saturated Church by Cheryl Sacks that has a section on developing job descriptions. It might be helpful.

We have people in the congregation read the scripture before the sermon and that is one place people from all generations can participate. Youth also participate in choir and praise teams.

Hi, Sorry it took so long to get back to you. For scripture readers I simply compile an ongoing list of people of all ages who would like to read the scripture. Sometimes I try and find someone that matches the service, but mostly I just schedule according to whomever is available. It makes it more natural rather than focussing on age. The only criteria is that they can read well and that they use the NIV translation.

As a worship planning team we're reading the book "A Church For All Ages" which is helping us to understand and hopefully change how we do intergenerational worship.

We don't do anything specific with sermon outlines other than a general one. We have a large ESL group so we include the various scripture references. Other than that it's just the main points of the sermon with room for notes.

I like the idea of junior deacons. Can you tell me more about who they are and how they are selected?

Hello! Looking forward to another year on the Network.