Administrating the Local Church

By Dr. Rob Tucker, Ph.D., M.B.A

A handbook for new pastors and church administrators

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zion Christian Publishers
• Release date: Jun 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781596657014

Book preview

www.zcpublishers.com

Chapter 1

The Administrative Problem

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this handbook is to help the reader determine the best process for setting up the administrative policies and procedures for a small church.  It is the author’s desire to assist the church administrator by providing an overall framework from which a small church can work.  Much information has been accumulated relating to the administrative procedures of large, well-staffed churches.  However, very little information has been gathered to assist a small local church set up its organizational structure.

Setting of the Problem

There are hundreds of thousands of churches established worldwide every year by pastors who have very little or no experience in setting up the organizational structure by which the church should be run.  Eventually, many of these small churches begin to grow and realize too late that a well-defined administrative structure has never been set up.  Rarely, do pastors or lay workers have the expertise or time to implement an effective solution.  For lack of knowledge, administrative duties are overlooked or completely ignored.  In the end, small churches many times fail because adequate organization has never been implemented.  Administrative duties are often ignored because new pastors do not understand what needs to be done, let alone how to do it.  Many long books, manuals, and seminars have been geared towards the administrative needs of churches.  However, many of these books are filled with legal jargon that tends to further alienate a small church administrator even further.  Pastors need a simple, easily understood, inexpensive way of understanding church administration so that it can be implemented in a new church. 

History and Background of the Problem

Throughout the years, small churches, for the most part, have been very unorganized, crudely joined organizations.  In the past, there has been very little administrative work in setting up a small local assembly.  Over the years, however, this has changed.  Some of these changes have been a direct result of the negligence of church organizations.  In the 1970’s and 1980’s, many stories came out in the press showing how some churches or para-church organizations misused power and money, as well as preyed upon the trust of other honest Christians.  For reasons such as this, government has become more involved, and administrative systems need to be put into place.  Churches are now expected to live up to the standards that the business community has had to deal with for several decades.  Catching up on policies and procedures for larger organizations has not been such a problem.  Churches with adequate income are able to hire experts or consultants to come in, clean house and establish proper operating procedures.  This, however, is not possible for a small local church.  For the most part, small indigenous churches rely completely upon the skills of its laity or pastor. 

It is unfortunate that most new pastors do not have the training necessary to establish the secular aspects of starting a new church.  Many Bible schools and seminaries are very good at preparing preachers, but spend very little time training pastors the everyday, down to earth concepts of church business or church administration.

Scope

It is the scope of this handbook to provide a new pastor of a small church the knowledge that is necessary for establishing the church with good business sense.  This handbook is not meant to be an end all manual for every church congregation.  Its main focus is the small church with very little staff, income, and complexity.  It is anticipated that most pastors have very little time to spend on administration.  Therefore, a guidebook of this type should be concise and easily read.  Hopefully, this will not be a legal dissertation, but a guidebook that is written in everyday language, easily understood, and easily implemented.  A pastor does not need a manual that necessarily answers all his or her questions regarding church administration, but does need a guide that is helpful in letting him or her know what needs to be considered.   It is the purpose of this handbook to do that.  It is anticipated that this will be an impetus to the pastor or lay leader to further study in this area.  This book should direct the new pastor and provide a path or direction he or she should take. 

In order to understand what aspects of administration are most important to small churches, a survey was conducted, in preparation of writing this handbook, asking pastors what they consider to be the problems of establishing a new church.  Systems have been developed that will assist pastors in solving these problems or at least making them easier to manage.

Importance of this Topic

I believe that this project is important because, as a pastor of a smaller church, I have seen the need for it.  I have served overseas in several organizations that helps pastors establish new churches.  From my perspective, I have observed that churches fail, not always because of doctrinal issues, but many times because administrative duties were either neglected or completely ignored.  If this area of church administration could be cleared up by giving new pastors some simple tools to work with, pastors could then focus on the more important aspects of the church.

Chapter 2

Gaining and Understanding

In order to gain a better understanding of the needs of a small church administrator, much material was investigated and a survey was conducted.  The purpose of this handbook is to give a basic understanding of principles and procedures of administration for operating a small church effectively.  It is recognized that the church administrator will have to do further study in this area.  This handbook is a good starting point to assist in bringing to light some of the things to be considered.  This chapter is devoted to introducing the reader to some other sources of information that are available.  In the past, the topic of church administration has been limited and unresearched.  However, as the need continues to grow and the administration problem becomes more complex, much material on the topic is being produced.

The first place a new church pastor / administrator should go for information is to other pastoral acquaintances who have gone through a similar process in the past.  It has been said that experience is the best teacher.  Tapping into the resources of other individuals is certainly a valuable asset.  Talking with others who have set up administrative systems introduces the apprentice to items of consideration, as well as acclimates him to the vocabulary and language of the topic.  Many times the most difficult thing is not implementing a policy or procedure but knowing that a policy or procedure is needed in the first place.  By having a mentor nearby