News & Notes With Jeremy Bell

Dear Folks,

To paraphrase an old expression, ”If you don’t plan where you are going, you will always get there’. There is a real internal and organizational conflict over how to measure things in the question of faith. While we talked about this a little earlier in the summer, let me expand on it in this newsletter. I am provoked by the writing I am doing for a workshop for the Canadian Council of Christian Charities at their annual meeting in Mississauga on September 27th.

Measuring the Unmeasurable: How to Convincingly Show You Are Doing Good Work

 

(Tuesday 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM)

Jeremy Bell, Executive Minister, Canadian Baptists of Western Canada

 

The need for not-for-profits to measure effectively what they do has never been more important because of the sheer scale, breadth and influence that charitable organizations have in society. This seminar attempts to bring together quantitative and narrative measurements that are meaningful to multiple stakeholders. We trust that this process does not bog us down in detail, but within a sound structure, frees us to do good work like never before

There are three essential challenges for not-for-profits and charities or churches. The first is that we continue to follow our pattern of encouraging a meaningful engagement of belong, believe, become. The second is that we consider all the different stakeholders that have committed themselves to the ministries we are apart of. The third and final important piece for consideration is that we need not to focus on just numbers or just stories, but learn that stories about people must be related to statistics and financial concerns and that statistics and financial considerations must be rooted in the narrative of people’s lives. To put it in a rather tacky phrase – we need always to be in possession of ‘people embedded numbers’ or in short, ‘pen’. This is a primer for the discussion so far.

Warmly,

In Christ,

Jeremy

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News & Notes With Jeremy Bell

Dear Folks,

Much of what I am about to say can be gleamed from the following link, which takes you to the Banff Pastor and Spouses Conference. Take particular note of the registration information. For further information you can call Liz Swab at 1-800-820-8479 ext. 300. The conference this year is being held a little earlier than the conference last year; the October 31-Nov.3 dates do not conflict with Remembrance Day mercifully. This year’s conference comes with four speakers and four powerful messages.

Bruce Clemenger, our Plenary Speaker, is well known as the President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. He is a person who relates easily and well with Evangelicals, Roman Catholics and the mainline churches. I count him as a friend and have a profound respect for his ability to apply an orthodox theology to the very wide cultural experience that is our country.

Darrell Johnson, Senior Minister at First Baptist Church, Vancouver, will be our Bible Study leader. I will let him develop his theme through the Bible studies with you, without revealing any of it for now.

Myrna Sears, whom I have known for almost 30 years, is the Vice President of the Carey Institute and the Director of Distributed Learning. She will unpack for us a topic close to her heart – ‘Learning as a Lifelong Journey’. She understands the value of this concept and she lives it.

Nadia Vanderkuip works with Carey in the role of Marketing and Communications Coordinator. She is also well known in our family of churches and to many individuals as the Director of Short Term Ministries. Nadia is going to lead us through the challenging journey of ‘Building Community by Serving One Another’ with particular emphasis on churches serving each other and their neighbourhoods.

The Banff Pastor’s Conference is an opportunity for Sabbath, studying of Scripture, continuing education, building and rebuilding of relationships and community and frankly to be able to relax. It is a deeply encouraging time containing many opportunities for continuing education as well as personal renewal.

I would like to thank the CBWC Foundation for providing scholarship funds this year, as they did last year. I would ask that if you inquire about these scholarship funds, that you would please contact your Regional Minister.

Hope to see you all in Banff.

Warmly,

In Christ,

Jeremy

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