The What and Why of the Church Administration and Leadership Development Ministries
“to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ”
(Ephesians 4:12-13 – NLT)
Introduction
What you will read in this book is what I have learned after 30 years of being actively involved in administration for Christian ministries. This includes churches with over 10,000 members, planting a church, serving as an assistant pastor of a medium-sized church, and being a member in small congregations. This also includes major denominations and non-denominational churches.
I have read a lot of books on church administration and leadership. Many of those books are listed in the bibliography of this book. Most recently, I have learned that Administration and Leadership, in most cases, are interchangeable. And, that leadership is often distinguished as “doing the right things” and administration is “doing things right.” I was also introduced to the term “Administry”. Administry is the coming alongside ministry to help it reach the intended results (mirroring the work of the Holy Spirit). Administry is there to serve ministry, not ministry serving administration.
Even if you do not have the Spiritual gift of Administration, you should have a desire for the church to operate in decency and order. Church Administration provides systems, processes, and procedures to avoid confusion and ambiguity in the work of the ministry. It is “providing ministry to the ministry”. Throughout this book, you will be given an introduction and insight to areas and topics that will free up ministries in the church to achieve their mission and purpose
I have learned a great deal from church administration and leadership books, but the one thing I missed was a direct correlation between what is needed administratively and what the Bible says we should be doing. That is why I invite you now to examine Church Administration God’s Way. Why should you want to do this? The reasons are stated in Ephesians 4, in particular, verses 12 and 13 (NLT):
“to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ”
The main reasons are:
We have not yet achieved unity in our faith
We have not yet achieved unity in our knowledge of God’s Son
We are not yet mature in the Lord
We are not yet full grown in the Lord
We are not yet measuring up to the full stature of Christ
Therefore, until that time, we need to continue to do His work and build up the Church, which is the Body of Christ. This book is designed to assist you in meeting that mandate. I hope it is a blessing to you, your ministry, and your ministry team.