Church Administration in a Nutshell

Church administration is an equipping ministry. The church is God’s people. It is a voluntary fellowship of believers in Christ. It belongs to God. Christ is the Head of the body, the church. Some are given to lead in equipping the church for ministry, which is the work of the church. Ministering utilizes resources. Effective ministering requires leadership. Church administration is leadership which equips the church.

Leadership is guiding along a way. Church leadership is under Christ. Its reason for existence is to equip. The ministry of administration is equipping persons for service. Some persons disdain administration. Some of these have faulty concepts of what church administration is. Some equate administration with poor administration. Some prefer “spiritual” things. Some reject “executive image,” a result of poor executive conduct. Some have unfortunate attitudes toward self. Some have ego problems. Some have low opinions of others. Some hide in busy work. Some love doing everything themselves. Some need to reexamine their view of persons and of the church.

Church administration involves people and things. The administrator must favor people. Many relate poorly to people. Good administrators specialize in working with people. One should avoid the trap of a feigned interest in persons. The administrator leads members to do the work of the church.

There are biblical models of this equipping Ministry Concepts. Three Models which are instructive are the Jethro-Moses model, Jesus, and Paul. The church has the assignment; leaders’ assignment is to equip the church. The early church practiced this concept, and expanded thereby.

Church administration is an equipping ministry. Church administration is a functional field. That is the primary perspective of this book. However, identifying some of the groups found in church administration helps give visibility to the field. Some of these groups are the church staff, church officers, basic church programs, service programs, and the church members as a group.

The field of church administration when viewed as groups might be arranged in several clusters which classify the various groups. Broadly, all administrative work in a church is church administration. To study church administration as functional areas seems best. A functional area is a part of the field.

The administrator performs certain basic skills in the functional areas. Functional areas together comprise the church administration field. The basic leader skills together comprise leadership for ministry.

There is completeness, logic, and sequence in the order of the functional areas presented in this chapter. In a given enterprise, one leads down the list to plan, and up the list to implement plans. But there is, in reality, much dynamic movement among functional areas.

The list of functional areas also provides an orderly checklist for the administrator. Not all functional areas are of the same kind. There are ideas, people, and things represented on the list. Some are ends, and some are means.

The administrator must avoid end-means inversion. Such confusion has no place in church administration, a ministry of equipping and enabling persons for ministry.