Church Administration

A Devotional and Motivational Guide

Mushishi

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781498272315
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This book on church administration is a tool for all pastors and leaders in all churches. It provides ideas, methods, guidelines, and styles of administering and supervising modern day congregations and religious organizations in an easy to follow language. It can be used for any clergy or lay training, retreat, spiritual formation workshops, and seminars. Theological or Bible institutions or universities which offer courses in church administration will find this book most helpful. Individuals can use it for their personal spiritual development. It also carries a devotional and motivational aspect which every spiritual leader cannot afford to miss.

1

Introduction

The aim of this book is to share ideas about effective church administration in modern times and contexts. It is a practical guide intended to motivate pastors and other church leaders in the ministry of leadership. To be an effective leader one must anchor all wisdom and faith on Christ. This must be done through prayer, fasting, obedience, and humility.

In this book the church is defined as an organization headed by Christ, the source of our faith. The church is like a body with many parts (1 Cor. 12:12), symbolized here by our different denominations, all doing God’s work in various forms. This body must function properly to sustain its purpose of existence. In this text an attempt is made to show how the church must be run efficiently to bring people to Christ, and make him known and be accepted for personal salvation.

The guidelines for effectively running the church, to achieve this goal, are given within the different chapters. Each chapter provides some ideas and guidelines for which the reader can use in supervising the church in any context. The reader has the freedom to add or subtract from the list of suggestions given in the interest of the church. Leadership qualities and styles in the work of the church, for example, are gifts of the Holy Spirit. But it is important for church leaders to always remember to have a special closeness and quiet time with the Holy Spirit to listen attentively and take instructions as required all the time. It may be a temptation for most leaders to keep busy with administrative programs and fail to have special time alone with the Holy Spirit for guidance and direction. If you have no time to read this book, it is enough just to say the prayer at the end of one of the chapters after a difficult meeting or pastoral visit or a great worship service or any situation you consider important. This is important because the pastor must manage God’s people with a passion for the ministry through which worship, evangelism, and finance are critical pillars. To lead the church with wisdom, we all must hold on to the cross to provide a leadership that sustains the church to eternity. We must therefore keep our communication lines with God open and direct. All financial administration, pastoral visitation, care and counseling, leadership styles, professional conduct, teachings, and sermons must be anchored on the cross through this open and direct communication.

Several chapters of this book, such as the ones on stress management and motivation, are discussed with a view to sharing tested ideas which can be used in church administration to manage our attitudes, feelings, aspirations, ambitions, and programs in any given circumstances. We must seek God’s guidance at every stage of our work. After going through this book, it is possible to teach and train our congregations to witness, reach out, and nurture all souls to a point where the whole world can live like Christ, talk like Christ, sing like Christ, walk like Christ, see like Christ, smile like Christ, hear like Christ, and enjoy eternity like Christ.

Prayer: Loving God, help me to continue your work even in difficult times or the best of times. I trust your presence in all situations. I hold on to your promise that you will always be with me until the end of time. Teach me how to be patient with people and situations all the time, even if I can’t change them. Guide me O Lord, I pray. Make me an ambassador for peace and an instrument of healing and reconciliation in all circumstances. Amen.

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What is Church Administration?

Definition of Church

Before answering the question: What is church administration? it is important to define the word “church.” The word church means assembly. It has its roots in Christ who is the head of the church (Eph 5:23). All administrators of the church today are an extension of this headship. Church administration can therefore be described as a science, an art, and a gift.1 As a science it involves procedures and techniques that can be learned by study and practice. As an art it calls for relational activity, intuition, and timing. St. Paul said that administration is a spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:28).

Church administration is ministry, not methods.2 Further, it is people, not paper work. It is human processes, not inhumane policies. It is management, not manipulation. Church administration is helping people and organizations use their resources well.3 It involves growing people spiritually and professionally, not simply doing things.4 It operates within a structure where leaders are chosen to administer it (Acts 6:3). Traced from its original meaning “church,” in Greek “ekklesia,” refers to those who are called by a common confession of Jesus Christ as their Lord.

In the Septuagint (earliest translation of the Old Testament), “church” refers to Israel as assembled for religious and cultic purposes (Deut 31, 1 Kgs). As such, Israel is God’s chosen race, called for a divine initiative into holy convocation (Gal 6:16). In the New Testament the church was created out of the band of disciples associated with the early ministry of Jesus who received the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, empowering them to witness and preach the risen Lord in all places. From this background, the church as we understand it today has taken an outward form of congregations of believers. These believers meet in various places for worship. Today the World Council of Churches defines “church” as an instrument or establishment of God’s will within which the mediation of salvation is communicated to humankind.5

Administration

Traced from its Latin roots the word “administration” derives from administrate which means “to serve.” Church administration guides the faith community into realizing its spiritual goals. Administration is therefore a ministry. Functionally, an administrator finds himself leading the way that things must be done in any organization. Or, for example, a leader often finds himself or herself involved in the administration of the church he or she leads. Administration in the church requires several sets or combinations of qualities including but not limited to humility, firmness, an active sense of accountability, responsibility, action oriented, time consciousness, well temperedness, spiritual maturity, giftedness in effective communication, selflessness, reliability, worthy of trust, and God fearing. The purpose of administration in the church is discovering and clarifying goals. The purpose for the existence of the church is providing direction to the church or congregation. Church administration refers to a process of directing or leading the people of God to realize their goals in serving the Lord through the church that they have chosen to be members.6 The administration of the church is God-centered (theocentric) and people-oriented7 (anthrocentric). Other forms of administration, which are not the church, are centered on their organizations and have less or no focus on the spiritual aspect of life. Church administration is a discipline of the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of church administration is to make known the love of God to humankind through well-organized spiritual programs. In addition, the phrase “church administration” refers to guiding the church to achieve its goals of witnessing the risen Christ to the world.

Leadership

In general, leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to believe in a common purpose and character which inspires confidence, as noted by the British Field Marshal, Bernard Montgomery.8 It means showing the way—not just the way but the right way. Sometimes it is often said that you can measure a leader by the problems he tackles.9 He often looks for ones his own size.10 To administer the church is to lead and give direction and guidance to the church on behalf of God Himself.

Christian leadership means influencing people to do what God desires them to do for the good of the church in response to the church’s spiritual objectives. To lead is to be ahead of others that are following. Leading means guiding the course of events and programs. To lead is to set a pace of how and what must be done, and why as well as when. So the leader must always be ahead of the people he or she is leading in thought, perception, planning, and organization of the church. To lead is to be in front, breaking new ground, conquering new worlds, and moving away from the status quo.11 Aim to do better. Great leaders must never be satisfied with current levels of performance.12 For example, a great preacher must aim to be a better preacher than his homiletics professor. Preachers must constantly strive for higher and greater levels of achievement; move beyond the status quo; and ask the same for those around them.13

Church administration must help the congregation realize set objectives. All church administrators and leaders must make a difference. This means communicating and interacting with the congregation but not commanding it. Leading the church means guiding spiritual programs that bring people to Christ. The administrator must therefore not be in doubt as to what needs to be done by the church at every stage of its life. Church leaders are expected to know everything about the church even though they may, in fact, not be able to know everything. They are expected to have all answers even though it is not possible for any human being to have all answers to all peoples’ questions. Church leaders must ask God to lead them so they can lead others. Ask God to show the way, the truth, and the life so others can follow this pattern of the faith journey.

Polity of the Church

Polity of the church means government of the church. Church polity refers to the way the church governs itself. This includes, for instance, how the denominations have come into existence or how are they instituted or who elects the leaders; what criteria are used for such an election and how long each elected leader keeps the post before the next leader is elected for the same post; and the description of the appointment system of officers of the church. Polity involves the way the church is governed in terms of financial and human resources. What are the electoral laws and spiritual framework of operation for the denomination upon which decisions are anchored? How is authority perceived by the entire membership of the denomination? This is church polity. The church has laws, a constitution, regulations that govern the parameters of operation, and systems that are followed to achieve certain objectives within a given period of time by certain pers...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: What is Church Administration?
• Chapter 3: Administration of the Local Church
• Chapter 4: Teaching People How to Accept Christ
• Chapter 5: Spiritual Formation
• Chapter 6: Managing People with Passion
• Chapter 7: Leadership Development
• Chapter 8: Financial Administration
• Chapter 9: Poverty Alleviation in the Church
• Chapter 10: Stress Management
• Chapter 11: Pastoral Care and Counseling
• Chapter 12: Motivation
• Chapter 13: Public Relations
• Chapter 14: Common Problems in Administration
• Chapter 15: Professional Conduct for Pastors
• Chapter 16: Cost of Administration
• Chapter 17: The Pastor’s Wife
• Chapter 18: Listening to the Holy Spirit
• Chapter 19: Pastoral Visitation
• Chapter 20: Being an Efficient Pastor
• Chapter 21: Leadership Styles in Ministry
• Chapter 22: Self-Evaluation
• Chapter 23: Conclusion
• Epilogue
• Bibliography