Assessing The Current Administration In Your Church Research Paper

Assessing The Current Administration In Your Church - Research Paper Example Administration and management describes to the organization’s individual processes and assists institution utilize their resources effectively. In our church, administration is all about growing the people. Administration is very important if the church has to realize its mission2. Church management or administration is an art, a gift, and a science. As an art, administration entails relational timing, intuition, and sensitivity. The skills of these artistic individuals are mostly natural talents but can be improved to some extent through training and experience. As a science, the management of church entails processes that can be learned through practice and study. In the book of 1 Corinthians 12:38, Apostle Paul defines administration as a spiritual gift. Various translations of the New Statement describe this gift with phrases such as forms of leadership, workers of spiritual power, power to guide, and governments3. Our church’s administration firmly believes in the leadership of the holy spirit even as the church relies on the direction of the church leaders. Good administration starts with the purpose of the church and attempts to assist the church in realizing its purpose. Church management and administration permits the church to yoke individuals and use material resources in an effective manner. It is important to states that administrative department of the church should consist of the following five purposes and they include human/personnel resources, accounts/finance, information technology (IT), and maintenance unit. Every purpose should entail a unit/team in the church for effectiveness and ease of administration. Thus, everything done in the church must follow the five purposes4. In our church, there are several departments/ministries including youth, children, ushering, worship, among others. The various ministries work together to achieve the five purposes mainly through the leaders and with the participation of the lay people. The strategic design of a church based ministry is a collection of all the strategic plans of the different departments or arms of the church. For instance, the children’s group leader should design a strategic plan (short or long-term plan) for children ministry. The plan is based on the vision that was offered to the pastor5. The rest of the strategic plans are brought together, discussed and agreed upon to be the action guide for the ministry to carry out its vision. As aforementioned, planning can be long or short-term6. In our church, plans are normally drawn by the church leaders that cover the activities to be done for the entire year. A church strategic plan can entail a strategic spiritual growth plan. This plan entails an understandable programme of events that enables the members of the church to grow spiritually. It is important to note here that the relevance of the programmes matters a lot. At times, it is better to list programmes for spaced growth of the people. Individuals do not grow through the church programs but by what they do at their homes through the teachings, they received7. Each ministry in our church normally comes up with a strategic plan for the spiritual growth of the church. These plans are discussed, ironed out and implemented by the church administration. Planning is thinking about how

Art and Protest in Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Art and Protest in Writing - Essay Example It is a tool that communicates the thoughts, ideas and proposition of writers effectively if proper skills are adopted. Writing as an art would basically involve the writer using writing as a medium for expressing the intended long lasting communication, an avenue for personal interactions or as a means to convey feelings and ideas to the reader, at the present or future times. Taken as an art, there would be need for motivation to actually cause the potential writer to go into the trouble of writing, creativity and attribution to make the writing interesting and to give an indication that the writer reads from the works of other authors. To a new writer, attitude would be a critical component especially when sharing what has been written with other writers. Wiggins (41) argues that every successful writer needs to posses some degree of arrogance. For example, Alvarez is a renowned novelist. In her novel Something to Declare, the author includes a reader’s comment claiming tha t after finishing one book by the author, the reader would automatically be led to buy another of the author’s books. This has been used as an intentional strategy by most writers to gain trust from the readers and thus make it easy to manipulate their minds in line with their purpose of the writing. Cambridge Educational Services introduces an important aspect in writing referred to as â€Å"wordsmithing† (20). ... The author chose to use the America beauty pageant instead thus reduces chances of undesirable consequences. Most people would write about others but their works would not last. But for writers like Alvarez, their works become constantly new in the reader’s mind. There is much difference between disclosing one’s life in writing without any purpose and using one’s emotions and concerns in constructing a bond between the reader and the author or writer. Therefore, knowing the purpose for writing would be critical before engaging in any writing works. This would also be an important phase in the determination of the target audience so as to choose an appropriate delivery technique depending on whether the writing is aimed at informing, entertaining, demonstrating or persuading. With the development of skills for identification of purpose, together with organization, the tone and texture of the writing automatically gets to the required standards. It just resembles t alking to the target audience only that in this case, it would be done in writing. The author should be careful on the language used depending on the knowledge and exposure of the targeted audience. Although Alvarez has her poems and essays done from an American-Hispanic perspective, she thoroughly analyses human behaviors. The art of writing surpasses language and cultural barriers to achieve the intended objective as long as the purpose has been outlined. In her I want to be Miss America works, Alvarez portrays the image being sent out of the American culture. Through narrative writing in her novel, the author protests at the society’s Americanization of beauty. Through the story of Julia Alvarez and her sisters watching the

Functions and Importance of Communication

Functions and Importance of Communication Any attempt to emphasise the importance of communication in modern day existence, clichà ©d as it may sound, is bound to be superfluous. In all probability, human life would cease to exist in its present form if communication were to be taken out of the picture. Communication helps humans in a myriad ways, by defining their identities and in satisfying their needs for affection, inclusion, assertion, relaxation and control. It is necessary at all waking hours; during work and at play. It is essential for gaining knowledge and building relationships, for doing daily tasks, and for achieving progress in life. Over the years extensive research, by social scientists and human relations experts, has given rise to an extensive body of literature on the subject. It is the purpose of this essay to take up the issue of communication within organisations and groups; evaluate its functions, and analyse its importance. All organisations, large or small, business, governmental or not for profit, have agendas that could range from the very complex to the extremely simple. Communication is a demanding organisational issue and vitally important to organizational functioning for the execution of these agendas, regardless of size, nature or industry type. Professor Leif Aberg (1998) of the Department of Communication, University of Helsinki states that communication gives these organisations momentum by fulfilling four basic functions, namely (a) supporting core functions, (b) profiling, (c) informing and (d) socialising. While the relative importance and scope of these four functions depends, to a great extent upon the size and nature of individual organisations, all four functions, taken together, undoubtedly account for most of the formal communication that occurs within organisations. Core functions of different organisations could range from manufacturing products to providing services; or as is the case with many governmental bodies, executing administrative work. Core processes, irrespective of their nature, can occur only through effective communication between organisational members. Communication can be top down, bottom up, horizontal or diagonal. Again it can relate to any or more of the issues involved in the carrying out of core functions. Incidences of such communication can occur in multifarious ways and can vary from production instructions given to a machine attendant to the distribution of work schedules by a supervisor or the routing of a customer order to the kitchen of a restaurant. Ineffective communication results in the creation of intra-organisational barriers and stifles efficient operations. Effective communication between the management and the workforce has, as such, become an accepted imperative for organisational excellence, and breakdow ns in this area are inevitably regarded as issues of major concern Profiling comes into play when long term corporate, product, service, or manager profiles are created. These profiles basically relate to crucial strategic choices made by organisations concerning their long term goals and objectives. A long term product or service profile, for example, represents the business strategy of an organisation. It would thus necessarily need to be communicated to all members of the organisations to make them aware about key organisational decisions and road maps. The dissemination of information within an organisation is another key component of organisational communication structure. Very typically, significant amounts of information are regularly processed within an organisation. These can (a) relate to events as well as developments that are internal or external to the organisation, or (b) concern organisational decisions taken at senior levels. Such information may need to be conveyed to members of the establishment. Decisions to communicate this sort of information are usually taken by members of senior management in consultation with communication managers. Recent developments in Internet Communication Technology, for example, could be of interest to all members of a communications company. In such a case, the communications manager might well decide to select and convey information that could be relevant to the employees or which pertains to developments that could well impact the company in the short or medium term. Information about internal decisions could cover a very broad ambit and possibly include details about organisational performance, targets, personnel policies, promotions, increments and the like. It is imperative to ensure that real time business information reaches all ranks and functions in the organization. Considering the bulk of such information, it is thus but appropriate that the majority of communication matters within organisations deal primarily with dissemination of routine information. The last regular function of communication concerns socialisation. Socialisation is primarily a process wherein members of an organisation or group learn to assimilate and internalise the behavioural norms, attitudes, thought processes and work ethics of the parent body. In most cases socialisation occurs when new entrants join organisations and take up their responsibilities. Its need could arise for existing organisational members too if they have to be transferred to different locations or departments. Socialisation is essentially a learning process and could be needed, both at the time of induction of employees into an organisation, or at the time of their induction to work. It is one of the primarily responsibilities of the Human Resources function and normally takes place through training and induction protocols. These protocols are obviously dependent on communication through written, audiovisual, personal interaction, mentoring, or classroom mediums for their actual operation . Apart from these four standard functions, informal communication takes place constantly within organisations and groups and serves to increase social interaction between colleagues and co-workers; thereby helping in building relationships, inculcating feelings of belonging and strengthening organisational loyalty and commitment. The British Army, for example, encourages officers to get together at regimental messes, after the days work, to bond and build relationships of trust, regimental pride, camaraderie, and loyalty towards the country and the Queen. Informal communication takes place, most commonly between people who share the same workplace, as well as within small groups who build relationships in canteens, office gyms and during informal group activity events. While this type of communication is generally outside the administrative control of organisation, most organisational leaders try to ensure that informal communication remains healthy, or rather, that it does not dispar age anybody. Most HR managers feel that informal communication should protect the interests of the organisation and remain free of gender or race abuse. Communication is not thought of any more as a routine and peripheral function. Its role as a driver of organisational success is well accepted and managements are increasingly trying to ensure its optimal use in the shaping and steering of organisations. Richard Luss and Steven Nice (2004) of Watson Wyatt state that communication serves organisations in two major ways. Firstly it drives superior performance by ensuring the following. Employees feel connected to the business and understand how their actions can support it. New employees exhibit solid connections to the company culture starting from their initial days on the job. Communication quickly connects employees to changing business challenges, facilitating faster adjustments to fluctuating market conditions. Management effectively connects with employees through strong leadership during times of organizational change Secondly, it helps in improving business performance by â€Å"(a) building a strong foundation of formal communication structure and processes, which rely on employee feedback and effectively use technology to connect with employees, dealing directly with the strategic issues of change, continuous improvement and business strategy integration and alignment, and (b) by changing employee behavior by inducing changes in managers’ and supervisors’ behavior and by creating a line of sight between employees and customers† (Luss and Nice, 2004) The challenges of modern business and the intense and ever-increasing competition that have become its distinguishing features demand sharp and cutting edge operational efficiencies. The use of excellent communication is proving to be one of the most effective tools in the hands of organisational leadership for routing their companies towards ambitious targets and greater successes. References Aberg, L, (1998), Organisational communication as a strategic resource, Retrieved January 10, 2007 from www.valt.helsinki.fi/staff/aberg/iabclast/ Harris, T. E. (2002). Applied Organizational Communication: Principles and Pragmatics for Future Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kramer, M. W. (2004). Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Luss, R and Nyce, S, (2004), Connecting Organizational Communication to Financial Performance: The Methodology behind the 2003/2004 Communication ROI Study, Retrieved January 10, 2007 from www.ociabc.org/events/presentations/ROI_Study_Methodology.pdf Manning, P. K. (1992). Organizational Communication. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Tourish, D. Hargie, O. (Eds.). (2004). Key Issues in Organizational Communication. New York: Routledge.

School Shootings and Gun Laws Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Imagine your child was nearing high school graduation with their whole life ahead of them. Next year, they will be going to college and you will see them bloom into the wonderful person you know they are. Now imagine the horror of hearing that your child had been shot and killed while they were at school. It is difficult to fathom the enormous amount of grief and anger that would flood the body of a person in a situation like this. No one should have to endure such pain. Now imagine how much this pain would be intensified if there was a possibility that the whole incident could have been prevented. This scene is an all too familiar one in this country. A kid, who for some reason is mad at the world, goes to school with a gun and kills innocent people. If you do not think this could ever happen to you, ask the parents of the victims of the Columbine High School incident. They will tell you they never dreamed it would happen to them either. Is it not reasonable to say that we must do everything we can to prevent this kind of thing from happening again? This is exactly why we desperately need to close the gun show loophole. Non-licensed dealers and private collectors who sell weapons at the thousands of gun shows in this country each year should be required to ask for identification and have licensed dealers run background checks before selling any weapons to potential customers. If these measures are not required, anyone – including convicted felons, underage kids, and even terrorists – will be able to obtain firearms at any local gun show. This provides nightmares not only about Columbine, but also about innocent civilians being killed by terrorists with weapons they bought at gun shows in the United States. ... .... If there are so many guns being sold in this unregulated market that the paperwork for background checks of those who are purchasing these weapons would be unmanageable, doesn’t this prove how big of a problem the gun show loophole is and how desperately it needs to be closed? No one wants to think about taking â€Å"inalienable† rights away from law-abiding citizens of the United States which is exactly what this type of legislation would not do. The only people that could be affected by such legislation would be sportsmen, and if you have any questions lingering in your mind on this issue, ask a sportsman this question: â€Å"Which is more important to you, being able to buy a gun a little faster or doing everything possible to avoid getting a call that says your child has been shot and killed?† I think any sportsman’s answer will settle your lingering questions.

Peter Kolchin, American Slavery

For the past quarter century Edmund S. Morgan has been one of the most prolific and respected authors of early American history. This is an excellent, in depth survey of Virginia?s colonial experience, with an emphasis on how the seemingly contradictory institutions of slavery and equalitarian republicanism developed simultaneously. Indeed, Morgan argues that Virginians? definition of freedom, and their very ability to establish a republican political system, rested upon the creation of African slavery. Morgan shows that institutionalized slavery did not necessarily have to become part of British colonization; the earliest Englishmen to dream of a colonial empire hoped for the establishment of a utopian community in which natives could benefit from enlightened English governance that recognized the inherent rights of all men. Early English explorers even helped to organize revolts against the Spanish by their slaves in Latin America, and while they were motivated by their own interests in doing so, they clearly were willing to treat their slave co-conspirators as equals. However, the utopian phase of colonization died with the failed settlement at Roanoke in the 1580s. The founders of Jamestown quickly learned racism towards the Indians, whom Morgan speculates they goaded into warfare out of frustration at their own inability to support themselves. The settlement eventually became prosperous as the colonists learned to produce tobacco for market, but it was hardly the ideal society envisioned by the founders. Labor shortages were endemic, as to make a profit planters needed to control a large number of indentured servants. Unfortunately (for the planters), laborers needed only to serve for a limited period before setting up business for themselves, and thus creating competition for the planters. To check this competition, planters made it difficult for freedmen to buy lands of their own (land was plentiful, but acreage with access to shipping had been almost totally monopolized by the large planters), which resulted in freedmen foregoing planting, and becoming lazy, shiftless, and at times rebellious. Moreover, planters treated their indentured servants so poorly that as news of their condition drifted back to England, fewer of the mother country?s poor were willing to indenture themselves, especially as the burdens of overpopulation were being reduced at home.

Alien Crop Circles Order

Crop Circles are our most mysterious phenomena of our modern age. Are they a communication from alien beings or from humans? Governments have discussed the crop circles and have confused the population by misinformation through the control and the manipulation of the popular media. The military have also endangered their life and safety in order to investigate and monitor each crop circle, and yet they deny all involvement. Hollywood has manipulated the truth and credibility of scientific evidence and facts and yet people become even more intrigued.Some believe crop circles are man-made created by hoaxers who set out to confuse and muddy researched facts, the same way computer virus’s seek attention and attempt to contaminate researched data. Others believe crop circles are a source of communication by aliens. The crop circles can be seen as mankind’s view of human passion and its vulnerability or a condensed version of humanity’s egos, anger, and peace. However, you might interpret crop circles, there is no denying the profound effect it has on mankind these past decades. 2Crop circles first appeared in the fields of Southern England, in the mid 70’searly crop circles appeared simple in fields of wheat, oat and barley. The circles were flattened, the corn stalks bent and flattened however not broken. Whiltshire County is considered the center of this phenomenon. The county is home to some sacred Neolith sites in Europe, built as far back as 4,6000, including Stonehenge, Avebury, Silbury Hill, as well as burial grounds such as West Kennet Long Barrow. When the crop circles gained momentum formations were also found in Australia, South Africa, China, Russia, and other countries most notably in closeOrder#31117860 Alien Crop Circles Pg. 2 proximity of ancient sacred sites as well as the fields of Southern England. In 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley stepped forward to claim responsibility for the crop circles over the past 20 years, w hich began the battle between artists and other world believers. Known as the Circlemakers, they consider their practice an art. Lundberg estimates there are three or four dedicated crop circle operating in the United Kingdom today. To combat the theory that the crop circles were carved out by mini-whirlwindscrop artists were compelled to create more elaborate designs with straight lines to show that the circles are not a natural phenomenon and are man-made. 4 Opposing this theory are people who believe crop circles were created by aliens and not by humans. This belief is considered as not plausible and to be used to write science fiction stories. However, there is something to the formations of the crop circles that may show that it could be plausible of alien designs. First of all there is meteorite dust, magnetite, which comes from outer space. Secondly, are the usualsubstances found in crop circles, which are not found on Earth. Thirdly, there have been crop circles that appear very extraterrestrial such as the one that appeared in August 2001, in which the formation was in the shape of a face and the computers binary code. 3The first crop circle formation was in the shape of a human face, which is reminiscent of the Face on Mars. The second crop circle formation is a clear indication of alien design. British crop circle researcher and computer programmer, Paul Vigay, examined and analyzed the formation and cracked the code of its design.The design is an image of a slightly changed binary code sent into space by NASA in 1978. Order#31117860 Alien Crop Circles Pg. 3 This transmission occurred at the huge Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. A radio telescope was found next to the field at Chilbolton as well. This alien crop circle is formed like a binary code, with dots of standing crop and dots of flattened crops. It is said the image was adapted, as if the aliens circle makers replied to our own transmission from 1978. Earth’s message contained inform ation from our planet, its space in our solarsystem, our humanity, population density, our DNA, our decimal system, our most chemical element of life on our planet, and information about how we sent the message into space by means of radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The messages structure in the crop formation was identical, however the exact information differed from the changes in answer, and the content of the message disturbed researchers. First of our decimal system is unchanged. The first change was found in the basic chemical elements of life on Earth. NASA, in the original message had hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur.These elements were copied in the answer, however but one element was added: the element of 14, silicon. This discovery disturbed researchers for most of the unusual substances were found in crop circles are silicon compounds. Another difference in the answer was DNA information. Our DNA contains two strings, where the DNA in the answer clearly con sists of three strings. Also the information about the number of nucleotides in the DNA has been changed. More proof of crop circles are created by aliens is the information in the formations about Earth’ssolar system, humanity, and population density. The answer grants us a view into another world. Order#31117860 Alien Crop Circles Pg. 4 6 On Thursday August 15, 2002, an image of a human being is in place by the image of another being. A humanoid is shown complete with a trunk, arms, legs, and a head, however the proportions of the humanoid are different. The head is large with marked eyes. This is contrary to the original image of a human being, which the eyes are not, marked. In other words the human has large eyes in a large head and the height of thecreature according to the answer is only one meter, the height of the average human had been recorded in the original NASA message as 1. 78 m. All information shows a striking similarity with the Grey Aliens, according to eye witness- have been visiting our planet for several centuries. 5 So, depending on what you believe, these two theories need each other to thrive in our imagination. Because without the mystery of a fantastic, otherworldly theory real or imagined, would anyone still pay attention? – Works Cited- 3WWW. circularsite. com/feiten-eng.htm- Facts&Theories Are Crop Circles made by Aliens? Are Crop Circles made by man? 2,4WWW. news. nationalgeographic. com/news/2002/08/020801_cropcircles. html Crop Circles: Artworks or Aliens signs? 6WWW. cropcircleresearch. com/articles/alienface. html Crop Circle Research: The 2002 â€Å"Alien Face formation. † 5WWW. Cropcircleship. com- an introduction. WWW. Cropcircleinfo. com Alien Crop Circle information by Colin Andrews- Crop Circle research 1 WWW. Cropcircleresearch. com/index2. html. Crop Circle Research-Scientific research into Earth’s Mysteries.