Church Management and Ministerial Ethics Made Simple: Revised

By Michael Charway

Managing a church has never been easy; because one is dealing with both the spiritual and the physical, amongst other things. Most often, the physical aspect is completely neglected, resulting in administrative chaos. At times, ethics is thrown to the background, resulting in moral failures. This book addresses all this issues and is a perfect hand book for any minister.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781543499841

Michael Charway

Michael M. Charway is a minister of the Gospel. Here he gives us a manual on Church Administration and Ministerial Ethics; all in one book. If you are looking for simple but effective ideas to run your ministry, certainly this book has a lot to offer.

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Copyright © 2021 by Michael Charway.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/24/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

835341

CONTENTS

Foreword

What it is all about

1.     Qualifications and qualities of a minister

2.     The shepherd’s duty to the sheep

3.     Lest you may not know (1)

4.     Ordaining people

5.     Code of conduct for the minister’s wife

6.     Ministerial duties for the pastor’s wife

7.     Appreciate those working with you

8.     Anointing and character

9.     The minister’s relationship with women

10.   Blamelessness

11.   Lest you may not know (2)

12.   When behind the pulpit

13.   Church premises

14.   Yearly calendar

15.   Your sermon

16.   Be ready to answer questions

17.   Praying for results

18.   Lest you may not know (3)

19.   Conflict resolution

20.   Serving tables

21.   Growth by addition

22.   Visitation: why you must visit

23.   Keeping secrets secret

24.   Let members know

25.   Lest you may not know (4)

26.   Announcements

27.   Usher’s ministry

28.   How to function properly

29.   Lest you may not know (5)

30.   The pastor and church services

31.   Grapevine reporters

32.   The ‘I’ factor

33.   Internet perils

34.   Keeping company

35.   Who is your spouse?

36.   Lest you may not know (6)

37.   Where something is happening

38.   Fearlessness

39.   Perils of legalism and formalism

40.   Television ministry

41.   The choir ministry

42.   Beware of self exaltation

43.   Avoid the leaven of the pharisees

44.   Areas of importance

45.   Having time for all

46.   When it involves your leader

47.   How to avoid loosing members

48.   Lest you may not know (7)

49.   Showing concern for other ministers

50.   Avoiding being misunderstood

51.   Reverencing sacred things

52.   Partisan politics

53.   Position and titles

54.   Lest you may not know (8)

55.   Double standards

56.   Beware of certain gifts

57.   Lest you may not know (9)

58.   Simple steps for soul winning

59.   Callings and governments

60.   Don’t doctrinize issues

61.   When leaving a church

62.   Don’t undermine your leader

63.   Lest you may not know (10)

64.   Why you must teach

65.   Star and celebrity mentality

66.   Lest you may not know (11)

67.   Maintaining a disciplined home

68.   Helping the poor

69.   Dealing with rebellion

70.   Have a good report

71.   Things you must avoid

72.   Lest you may not know (12)

73.   Building on Christ’s foundation

74.   Loyalty to god and his word

75.   Humility

76.   Things to remember

77.   Lest you may not know (13)

78.   Baptism

79.   Questions you alone can answer

In memory of:

His Grace Emeritus

Dr. Abraham DeLove,

(The Patriach)

who blazed the trail of evangelism.

FOREWORD

There certainly are many books out there about church management and so on. What this book has done is to present an easy to understand information in a simple format for easy assimilation. The subject matters treated in this book are real life narratives and has come about by the direct experiences of the author and others over a period of years, through interactions with churches and other ministers, studies of issues and matters arising in the churches and so on. Where extracts has been taken from other sources, due credits has been given.

Still, some has come about from teachings and ministrations from others which the author fine tuned for the benefit of this book. In the light of this, it is possible extracts and quotations might have been taken from some sources which the author may not know; in which case due credit is not given. Should there be such ommisions, it is purely incidental and not intentional. The entire write up is devoid of intellectual jargons, so the average reader could easily grasp the knowledge it impacts.

The reader will easily notice that certain topical headings, (Lest you may not know) are spread at intervals throughout the book instead of being under one heading. The whole idea is to constantly draw the minister’s attention to these subject matters since they are issues the minister comes across everyday in his ministerial duties. Issues of church management and ministerial ethics are wide and certainly this book cannot in anyway exhaust everything concerning the subjects. The writer however hopes that whatever information this book has to offer may be added to what the reader already knows. This edition is revised and expanded.

WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT

Church management is all about people and the church as a whole. It involves both physical and spiritual issues, conflict resolution, financial management; just to name some few. In a corporate entity which the church is, it is important that the minister have an indepth knowledge of administration and church management, so he can have a good grip of things. Failure to properly understand matters concerning church management and ministerial ethics most often will lead to serious errors and misjudgements, which is what has led to many churches litterally breaking up or forced to live with staunted growth. This book offers the minister a lot of simple but practical information that will help him to properly administer the church.

Ethics, simply defined, is the moral principles that guides our actions. Ethics guides us to the right behaviour patterns and good character moulding. Without proper ethics, we will be lost in a world of avoidable mistakes, moral laxity, lack of achievements and many more. Ministerial ethics therefore seek to properly guide the minister to wholesome behavior patterns and actions both inside and outside the church. Ministerial ethics places on the minister an enormous amount of pressure to do everything properly, as both the congregation and the puplic watches his daily life to see how he lives his christian life.

QUALIFICATIONS AND QUALITIES OF A MINISTER

This is a true saying, If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work (1Timothy 3:1) KJV

Definitions:

Qualifications- A quality or accomplishment that is required by law or an institution for somebody to have the right to hold an office or a position.

Qualities- An essential and perculiar characteristics of a person that stands him out or that makes him unique

1. He must have assurance of salvation.

2. He must be a born again child of God.

3. He must be knowledgeable and diligent in the word of God.

4. He must be blameless in all things.

5. He must be a man of prayer.

6. He must be well informed in whatever topic he ministers on.

7. He must have a vision and a mission to bring the vision to pass.

8. His moral intergrity must be unquestionable and above doubt.

9. He must avoid putting on airs.

10. He must be given to hospitality and love in every sense of the word.

11. He must know what church management is all about.

12. He must be a good reader and given to study the Word.

13. He must be a lover of souls.

14. He must see preaching as a calling and not just as a profession and means of financial income.

15. He must be a good administrator.

16. He must be a good listener.

17. He must have the fruit of the spirit.

18. His family should be God fearing and well behaved.

19. He must have a family altar; calling his family to devotion everyday.

**Further Scripture reading**

1 Tim. 3:2-7

THE SHEPHERD’S DUTY TO THE SHEEP

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28) KJV

1. He must know the sheep and their needs.

2. If a sheep is not in church, he must find out and know why.

3. He must protect the familly; that is, the church, from wolves. He must be fully alert in order to make sure the sheep do not go astray and fall prey to false teachers, false doctrines, distractions, evil communication etc.

4. He must feed the sheep properly. The shepherd must have the right word to feed the sheep. He must be the one to lead them to green pastures and not the other way round.

5. He must search for the sheep. Sometimes the sheep go astray. He must not give up on them but search for them and bring them back to the fold.

6. He must cultivate the habit of visiting the sheep; especially those who are spiritual babies. Discuss one on one with them in order to know their individual needs and figure out what can be done to help them.

7. Nurse the sheep. Sometimes they are weak in the spirit; burdened with emotional and domestic issues. You need to counsel, admonish, encourage and pray for them.

8. Make sure the sheep recognize you as the shepherd. They must know your voice if they are to answer your call. Should the sheep doubt your shepherdship, they will hesitate when it comes to following you.

9. You must feed them spiritualy- By the Word and prayer.

You must feed them physically and matearially- Through hospitality and welfare.

You must feed them emotionaly- Through moral support.

LEST YOU MAY NOT KNOW (1)

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." (1Tim. 6:10) KJV

1. Don’t let money govern your emotions. That is, the day you have money in your pocket, you are all smiles and handshakes, but the day your finances is not up to what you expected, you become a lion waiting to spring at somebody at the least provocation. That is not the hallmark of a good leader.

2. Don’t chase the rich because of their money. They should see you as a blessing to their lives and be willing to bless you with their material substance.

3. Don’t be servile to the rich because of their money; it will destroy your authority.

4. Don’t decide a case in favour of the rich when you know they are wrong, because of the fear they might withdraw their financial support if you don’t decide in their favour.

5. While we may not know the source of the