Randi Meyer
Thursday 2/12/09
5. People
The best way I believe to do church administration in a way that still focuses on the people is to involve them with the work. Honestly, that is very difficult for me to say. I am a person who likes to get office work and assignments done efficiently, and I often enjoy doing it individually. There will still be certain administrative tasks that one will have to do alone, but there are also many that can involve people at the same time.
This summer I learned this lesson big time during a summer internship I had at a church. Each month the high school youth group receives a news letter called the Bridge. My task was to fold them and get the address labels on them. It took forever, because it was a large youth group. I became frustrated that I was wasting time folding the news letters, instead of doing affective ministry. However, when I finished them for the second time the pastor told me that he did not intend me to do that alone. He usually gets a few youth around to help him. He stated that it not only allows them to feel useful, but it was an easy way for him to hang out with them in a non-threatening way. I realized through this experience that people want to be used and allowing others to help with administrative work is a good time for fellowship.
God created people with different talents and abilities. There is going to be plenty of administrative work that I am not good at. It would be wise to use what God has given me within the church. If someone is good at editing things, why not ask them to help me with that? Not only will they feel like they are helping the church, but it will give me time to get to know that person along with their special abilities. Delegating work will free up more of my time in the end to be with people too. This concept of delegating is biblical. In Acts 6:1-10, one can clearly see that a certain job had to be delegated to others who had a gift to do so. This whole idea may not be that profound and specific, but it is truth. As a minister, we need to balance administrative work and people. The best answer I can come up with is to allow the people to help!