We have a new church administrator called Alice. Having studied creative writing at uni, doing church book-keeping and managing databases must make her feel like Alice in a very weird kind of wonderland. I want you to share in a conversation I had with Alice that left me grinning like a….(you can finish the sentence).
Our vision as a church is ‘to present everyone fully mature in Christ’ (Col 1:28) - and this includes our administrator! So Alice gives an hour a week to thinking through what puts the ‘ministry’ in administration. An hour on how can she not just do tasks but help ‘present people fully mature in Christ’ through administration.
Just now she spends that hour reading The Trellis & the Vine (The Ministry Mind-set that Changes Everything) by Col Marshall and Tony Payne. This is what we chatted about this week, under a chapter that said…
WHY THE SERMON IS NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT
Alice read that
‘weak and inadequate preaching weakens our churches. Conversely - clear, strong and powerful preaching is the bedrock upon which all other ministry in the congregation is built. The sermon is a rallying call.’
And yet, it is not sufficient? Why?
We chatted about how a sermon is broadcast over 150 peoples’ heads with a kind of general call. It may be a great call to prayer that is preached. But what if the person next to you in church (or in your small group) has never prayed? Doesn’t know how? Doesn’t know where to begin? Has never read a word of scripture on prayer?
What could be better than an intentional conversation about it! Even better - a conversation between two people with the bible open in their laps. This is what we call ‘discipling’ and Jesus asked us all to do it: ‘Go, make disciples of all nations’. (Matthew 28:16-20) We all have a role to play in each others’ maturity - and it is a discipling role.
I challenge everyone in our church to ask the question of whether they could bless someone else by reading the bible one-to-one with them. I challenge Alice to make sure she has this DNA in her life too.
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE TO ALICE IN THE OFFICE?
Disciple first, administer second - and disciple while you do it
We discussed it. I said….
Christians need to be disciplers, first, and then whatever role they do most of the week second….even if it is administration.
To quote, “Alice, I hope you’ll better a better discipler than an administrator, though you spend much more time doing administration. I want you to be an excellent administrator, but you’ll never be an even half-good administrator if you don’t see that everything you do is service of discipling relationships.”
And Alice, if you see us as an organisation serving something more than discipling people in Jesus, you should ask some serious questions of us.
Pray while you work
She responded with a second thought….
Christian administrators can be prayerful.
This is true for all Christians in any workplace. Prayer is possible! Alice said, “Jim, I have felt free to be prayerful. One person I contact has faced such frustration in trying to get married during this time, and it has been great to pray for them and their family before I email them or call them.”
I said, “Amen”. Alice joins in 15 years of ministry to this person, alongside 5-6 other people who have previously reached out to serve and disciple this precious one. Wow.
We finished with a great conversation about how she can make me and other pastoral staff better biblical leaders. The Harvard Business Review talks about needing to ‘manage up’ - you have to manage your boss. They are human and faulty too. So how can we ‘manage up’ in churches in a way that helps others lead more biblically?
The book talked about 3 kinds of preachers and gives an insight on how to encourage the leader to do teh best work:
a. The Preacher who functions like a Clergy-person
This creates spiritual consumers in maintenance mode, while the clergy-person is in run-off-their-feet mode. Such a person can only care in this way for about 70 people, and each new staff member can only add another 70 well-cared for people. Then the organisation begins to struggle anyway as the clergy-people in the now larger than 70 church with multiple staff has to act like a clergyman and manager.
b. The Preacher who functions like a Manager
A ‘manager-preacher’ pursues an organisation that is excellent and growing. It sounds great. In many ways it is, but this alone produces consumers who seek and demand organisational growth. Ah, that’s a miserable performance-track to get on. Church leaders do need to be good managers, no escaping it, but they will be looking to create multiple centres of managerial leadership and not foster the idea of church as a mere ‘great organisation’.
c. The Preacher functions as a Discipler -Trainer
This is best. The preacher seeks to disciple. They disciple when they preach, they disciple when they meet people, they disciples when they manage, and they disciple when they train others to live for Christ - in their workplace, family, friendships, and at church.
And this training-mindset creates a ripple-effect of people who have the mindset of disciples who make other disciples. Now everyone is at work together (in the workplace, at home, at church) in the best work the world knows - the work of the Lord - work which will last into eternity.
Alice, part of your job is to help other staff not be clergy-service-providers, not be mere managers or spiritual service-providers. To hold them to be people who train and disciple people in the ways of Christ. So that might ripple out beautifully.
That’s some of what a Christian administrator seeking to be ‘fully mature’ needs to start thinking about.
WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS?
Because I would love you all to read such a book for an hour a week. And I’d love you to 150 hours to sit down with every one of you and ask how you can keep a disciple-making mindset wherever you work, and whatever you do.
If you want to have that chat - I’ll gladly share an hour of your life. Do ask me. Or John. Or Heather. Or Alice. Or Bec. Or Evelyn. Or Jeff. Or Jordan. Or Grant. Or Susan. Or Anne. or Stuart. Or Fiona. Or…..the list is wonderfully long. Add your name to it.