Moving From Anemic Administration to Effective Administration

THERE ARE THOSE WHO OPPOSE any form of management or administration in the local church and other religious nonprofit ministries.

They view such efforts as secular and see their contributions as tantamount to accepting the methods of the devil.

These believers have little understanding of the biblical basis and theological foundation of management.

They are simply uninformed about what the Bible teaches about organizing the affairs of ministry.

As stewards, we are expected to administrate God’s work in a wise and efficient manner.

In fact, as ministry leaders we will one day give an account for our oversight when we stand before our Master.

A good steward is one who recognizes his responsibility to oversee the affairs of his master and focuses his efforts toward that end.

Very early in the Book of Acts we see evidence of organizational structure with the designation of Matthias as a replacement for Judas (Acts 1:24–26).

Peter, James, and John assumed the leadership of the church (Acts 1–3).

In chapter 6 of Acts the first deacons were selected to assist the apostles in the ministry of the church.

Qualifications of these men were clearly spelled out in terms of their moral character and in their work responsibilities.

Paul’s writings to the church he had established give evidence of his expectations for church organizational structure.

Though there is no prescribed structure that must be incorporated into every church, the qualifications for those serving as overseers or elders are unequivocal (1 Tim. 3:1–13).

There are two categories of elders: teaching and ruling (1 Tim. 4:14; 1 Pet. 5:2).

The ruling elders managed the business of the church, while the teaching elders focused on the instruction and application of God’s Word in the lives of the believers.

Staffing is a relatively straightforward process of selecting, orienting, training, and developing the competent people who are needed to accomplish the goals and objectives of the ministry.

One of the greatest challenges that church leaders face today is recruiting enough volunteers to staff the various departments in the church.

Nowhere is this more acute than in the children’s department, which requires the lion’s share of the volunteers.

Church ministry leaders during the past couple of decades have found themselves the target of lawsuits when they failed to follow a series of prescribed steps in the selection, orientation, and training of volunteer workers.

Staffing is critical to the success of a church ministry, but the days of standing in the pulpit and declaring “Whosoever will, come on down!” are over.

Staffing must be done with wisdom and discernment.

It was no less important in the days of the Old and New Testaments.

God placed a great deal of emphasis on the selection, orientation, training, and development of those whom he called into ministry service.

There are some important principles we can learn from how it was done in biblical days.

When the Lord rejected King Saul as his national leader because he lacked obedience and sincerity, God commanded the prophet Samuel to anoint a young shepherd boy by the name of David.

Samuel almost missed the opportunity to anoint David because he expected to find a strong, formidable warrior.

Instead, he discovered a young shepherd boy with no military experience, little, if any, formal schooling, and no diplomatic training.

God spoke to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him [Eliab]; for God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7 NASB).

Here we discover God’s criteria for selection into service: the condition of a person’s inward heart.

After selecting his disciples, Jesus began the arduous task of orienting and training them in the responsibilities of ministry leadership.

This involved more than three years of discipline, confrontation, teaching, mentoring, prayer, and close association in order to transform this band of unlikely men into a formidable ministry team that eventually confounded the Jewish Sanhedrin (Acts 5:34–39).

Jesus used teachable moments to present spiritual truth and often challenged them with questions to probe their critical thinking.

He taught by using every available method of instruction.

He used metaphors and parables, miracles and sermons to ensure their training was adequate for the task ahead.

As we summarize this staffing function, it is interesting to note that God frequently selects and trains his servants regardless of their formal preparation and training.

Those whom God chooses to use are generally qualified on the basis of their heart condition and spiritual sensitivity.

This serves as a good lesson for those who desire a role in ministry leadership today as well.

Being selected by God is the first important step in the process.

Appointing yourself to ministry leadership is a journey down a painful road.

God is jealous of his reputation and does not hesitate to intervene in the lives of those who are self-appointed prophets.

Today, just as in the days of the Old and New Testaments, God is searching the hearts of men and women to reveal his character and show himself strong (2 Chron. 16:9).

Being chosen, however, does not guarantee service.

The newly selected minister also requires sound training in biblical knowledge and interpretation.

The spiritual gift that one receives at conversion is a first step of many along the road of ministry service.

That gift must be developed, trained, and adapted for use within a particular context of application.

One does not simply become a believer and immediately begin the gospel ministry without a season of preparation (i.e., orientation, training, and development).

In an organization, An effective administrator is the link between an organization’s various departments and ensures the smooth flow of information from one part to the other.

Thus without an effective administration, an organization would not run professionally and smoothly

An effective administration; the secret ingredient to success, Smart and effective admins are worth their weight in any organization success.

A question to ponder is, how many of them have that kind of value your organization needs?

Building up a solid and reliable Admin team to serve your operations can be like planning a long-term investment.

So the best organizations will have a pretty clear idea of what they need right now and where they’d like to be in a year or two with the right admin support.

As a growing Church or business, you’ll want your admin team to have some core skills, but also the ability to leverage what they already know to build on them.

After all, not only is it impossible for a person to be familiar with all the skills and tools and best practices currently out there but it’s key to building on the foundation ground created for business success.

The essence of integrity, confidentiality, the importance of effective communications, and time management.

The three most important ingredients in Christian work are integrity, integrity, integrity.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Spiritual shepherding demands a godly, gifted, multiskilled man of integrity.

Other areas emphasized were on how admin professionals should be adaptive to social, economical, and political changes and they should develop their skills to match the current times.