Current Administration in My Church - Research Paper Example

?Current Administration in My Church Administration is word commonly used to refer to any duties or tasks associated with the management and running of an organization or a business. Administration similarly applies in the context of a mission or a church. Administration is based on communication and keeping its record and making sure that interest is noted or an action is taken. Administrative guidelines should be instituted to ensure that any correspondence sent is in line with the standard format and internal correspondence based on the set guidelines. Powers1 states that church administration in not the methods, paperwork, inhumane policies, and manipulation; instead, it relates to ministry and its people, human processes, and management. Administration and management describes to the organization’s individual processes and assists institution utilize their resources effectively. In our church, administration is all about growing the people. Administration is very important if the church has to realize its mission2. Church management or administration is an art, a gift, and a science. As an art, administration entails relational timing, intuition, and sensitivity. The skills of these artistic individuals are mostly natural talents but can be improved to some extent through training and experience. As a science, the management of church entails processes that can be learned through practice and study. In the book of 1 Corinthians 12:38, Apostle Paul defines administration as a spiritual gift. Various translations of the New Statement describe this gift with phrases such as forms of leadership, workers of spiritual power, power to guide, and governments3. Our church’s administration firmly believes in the leadership of the holy spirit even as the church relies on the direction of the church leaders. Good administration starts with the purpose of the church and attempts to assist the church in realizing its purpose. Church management and administration permits the church to yoke individuals and use material resources in an effective manner. It is important to states that administrative department of the church should consist of the following five purposes and they include human/personnel resources, accounts/finance, information technology (IT), and maintenance unit. Every purpose should entail a unit/team in the church for effectiveness and ease of administration. Thus, everything done in the church must follow the five purposes4. In our church, there are several departments/ministries including youth, children, ushering, worship, among others. The various ministries work together to achieve the five purposes mainly through the leaders and with the participation of the lay people. The strategic design of a church based ministry is a collection of all the strategic plans of the different departments or arms of the church. For instance, the children’s group leader should design a strategic plan (short or long-term plan) for children ministry. The plan is based on the vision that was offered to the pastor5. The rest of the strategic plans are brought together, discussed and agreed upon to be the action guide for the ministry to carry out its vision. As aforementioned, planning can be long or short-term6. In our church, plans are normally drawn by the church leaders that cover the activities to be done for the entire year. A church strategic plan can entail a strategic spiritual growth plan. This plan entails an understandable programme of events that enables the members of the church to grow spiritually. It is important to note here that the relevance of the programmes matters a lot. At times, it is better to list programmes for spaced growth of the people. Individuals do not grow through the church programs but by what they do at their homes through the teachings, they received7. Each ministry in our church normally comes up with a strategic plan for the spiritual growth of the church. These plans are discussed, ironed out and implemented by the church administration. Planning is thinking about how an organization or a church will get where it wants to be. The basic role of an all-inclusive planning is to see the mission as the leaders of the church envisioned and to visualize the church going into the future. There are important features when considering planning and they include that it takes times, it entails people, and it is a process. There are administrative activities that the leaders of the church must consider as they move in the process of planning8. The first administrative activity is estimating the future (that is, the work done to anticipate what tomorrow will be like). A smart administrator will continuously deliberate the future and its consequences. It is suggested that demographic features of culture are changing drastically each day. Smart administrators will continuously relate the historical authenticity of the organization or the church with the current events and “draw an estimate of what the future will look like within the next few years – and what type of organization it will take to move the church there”9. It is worth noting that predicting the future is not scheduling for the future; it is offering a database towards generating those plans10. The second administrative activity is establishing the objectives, that is, the work done by the administrators to determine targets or goals. Issues in this case are addressed based on how the administrator sees the future as it correlates to the church or organization. This is the period when prayerful discussion and brainstorming attempts to discover exactly how the church is supposed to address what is supposed to be attained. The formulated objectives become the attention for resource allocation and administrative efforts. Objectives are accounts of ultimate end through which the organization or the church aims its activities (it is mostly referred to as the vision of the church and is conveyed in master plans and mission statements). From the objectives, strategies and goals for accomplishment are developed11. For instance, in this case the church has set its mission objective to spread the good news to the community surrounding it. The third administrative activity is developing policies and this entails the creation or formulation of standing answers to the recurring questions. A policy is defined as a command decision or resolution from the top management to conduct in a particular manner. It institutes definite limits of authority. These policies specify a means to attain the end defined in the objective. Additionally, policies state how the organization or the church will conduct itself12. The fourth activity is establishing implementing processes (that is, the plans that execute the policies of the organization or the church). Processes become guides to taking action instead of guides to thinking. They explain the precise manner a particular activity will be done. Processes are best created by people who must implement the policies governing action13. In this case, the church administration has established several policies to make sure that there are no gaps in the execution of duties. For instance, the custodians are supposed to vacuum the carpets every Wednesday and Saturday after the working hours. The fifth administrative activity is programming, that is, the establishment of priority and order of activities for the attainment of the goals and objectives. In other words, programming is establishing an order of events that will result to the completion of objectives. In most cases, programming is consistent with the creation of processes. It is a part of the procedure and it determines the major steps to attainment, creates priorities for attainment, and then determines the entire time frame for meeting the objective(s)14. The sixth administrative activity is scheduling and this entails putting an element of time on the program and inserting the program (with minutes, hours, and dates) into the organization or church calendar. In a programming, the leadership of the church establishes the time frame for attainment. From the time to completion estimate, an ending date can be established15. The seventh and last administrative activity is budgeting and this involves the application of all the church resources. This necessitates the determination of the amount of facilities, finances, and manpower required to accomplish the objective. Budgets are often expressed in terms of cents and dollars and they have become the driving factor that determines the level to which the objective is accomplished. On the other hand, budget entails various resources such as property, fiscal, and human. It is important to note that making a budget becomes easier if the administrator has efficiently prioritized the objectives; then it becomes simple to allocate resources to complete the activities16. After making plans, it is important that the church administration become organized. Good organization makes the distribution of work easy. In the book of Exodus 18:18 Jethro tells Moses concerning his assignment. He tells him that the work is too heavy for him and that he cannot do it alone. Therefore, it is clear that no one is smart enough or strong enough to perform it all. Good organization puts responsibility in its right place. Each spiritually gifted individual in the church is supposed to use his or her spiritual gift for the improvement of the church. A workable organizational structure will assist place and position the various gifts in their appropriate positions of ministry17. Administrative organizing involves grouping resources and individuals so that work can be performed better. There are three important elements of administrative organization and they include building relationships, the process of delegation, and the structure. The first element is organizational structure and it is a pattern or a blueprint in which the church administration relate individual roles to each other. The purpose of the structure is to establish an environment for human performance. In other words, it is the framework, which enables the work to get done. Depending on the features of administrative philosophy of the people used in the construction of the structure, the organization can adopt various forms. It is important that the philosophy for organization of the institution or the church is determined18. The second element is delegation and this entails assigning of work, task, or things to individuals. As aforementioned, Jethro told Moses to assign lesser tasks to others so that he could put more emphasis on the main issues such as leading Israel to the Promised Land. It is imperative to note that delegation entails three crucial elements and they include clearly delegating the responsibility to an individual entrusted with, giving the necessary ability and authority to finish he task assigned, and making the individual responsible for the accomplishment of the assigned work19. Accountability and responsibility are directly associated. Elements of defining the use of organizational authority include the utilization of an organizational chart that defines the chain of command. The third and last element is relationships and this involves the leaders of the organization or the church as the developers of people. The church administration manages people who get everything done. The institution of effective relationship with the individuals involved in completing the task is hard and at times, it becomes impossible in the absence of a well thought-through philosophy for church leadership. It necessitates sensitivity to the people in the process. Efficient relationships build the differentiation of workers and leaders instead of breaking it20. Administration involves the receiving and sending of documents and the management of the document contents. When creating relationships with members, sponsors, and government officials, it is supposed to be done in the correct format of addressing the recipients21. Additionally, the appropriate individual in the management or leadership has to approve the document before it is signed and sent. To make sure that administrative roles do not take most of the time through repetitive work, standard templates for faxes, presentations, proposals, and letters should be made available to the staff to offer a uniform image of the organization, mission, or church. Another important part of administration is the development of introduction material and brochures to be utilized when contacting sponsors, presenting the mission or church to governmental institution for support of a particular project or event or even when welcoming new church members22. At the start of each year, our church administration reviews the performance of the previous year in terms of spiritual growth, the number of congregation, and the various developments initiated and completed by the church. The church administration strictly follows the mentioned administrative activities (estimating the future, establishing objectives, developing policies, establishing implementing policies, programming, scheduling, and budgeting). For instance, the church has created a programme that engages all the groups of the church (such as the children, youth, and adults). Apart from planning, the church has clear organizational structure lead by the local church council down to leaders of various church groups. The structure clearly shows how various tasks have been delegated and relationships established between the administrators, workers and the church members. Bibliography Burger, Ferdinand, J. Church Management Basics. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2004). Heward-Mills, Dag. Church Administration and Management. Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2011. Oladimeji, Seyi. Church Administration and Management. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2011. Powers, Bruce, P. Church Administration Handbook. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2008. Stewart , Major. “Key Elements of an Effective Church Administration Strategy.” Last modified 2012. http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/pdf/dialogue/KeyElementsofanEffectiveChurchAdministrationStrategy.pdf. Welch, Robert, H. Church Administration: Creating Efficiency for Effective Ministry. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2011. Read More