The Pastor Administrator in Christian Leadership

The Pastor Administrator in Christian Leadership

Birmingham- Easonian Baptist Bible College

630 Ishkooda Road South West

Birmingham, Al 35221

Dr. Wilson Fallin Jr., President

Dr. Walter Sims, Dean

Course: Christian Leadership

Dr. Walter Sims, Instructor

Redelle Easley-Howell, Student

September 12, 2018

Introduction

Pastoral administration is the task of discovering and clarifying the goals and purpose of the field it serves and moves in a coherent, comprehensive manner toward its realization. However, the charge of pastoral administration has challenged the effectiveness of many pastors in which many of them have been labeled as being ineffective administrators. This label of ineffectiveness could be the result of some myths surrounding pastoral administration. Some common myths include (a) pastoral administration is a non-essential duty; (b) pastoral administration is uninteresting; and (c) pastoral administration is non-spiritual and has hindered many pastors from discovering the true purpose of effective church administration. Therefore, the purpose of assignment is to discuss the pastor’s administrative role in Christian leadership. Pastoral administration will be examined in three areas of concern: (1) the pastor as the chief administrator, (2) the delegation of responsibilities, and (3) qualities of an effective administrator.

The pastor is not the pastor just because he or she is called the pastor. He or she is the pastor as or when he or she pastors a church’s congregation. The pastor may have many key members of the congregation and all of the necessary financial and material resources to be a pastor, but the true test of one’s administrative skills are based on coordinating, correlating, and communicating all the components of the church to the congregation harmoniously in order for the Lord’s vision to be realized, developed, and implemented.

The Pastor as Chief Administrator

The pastor is the chief administrator of the church and must maintain a biblical based understanding of the purpose and mission of the New Testament church. .  The mission and purpose are to evangelize, educate, and edify. Thus, ministries, plans, and procedures that are used in church administration must be consistent with the mission and purpose of the church. The pastor-administrator will function correctly and effectively only as he realizes his task and has an understanding of how to fulfill his administrative responsibilities from a biblical perspective. If the pastor-administrator seeks or strives to propose anything that is not consistent with the New Testament church’s objective, that administration should be placed under scrutiny.

The pastor-administrator position is biblically based and is ordained of God. The pastor as an administrator appears in three forms in the New Testament, (1) master, Acts 27:11, (2) apostles, 1 Corinthians 12:28, and (3) shipmaster, Revelation 18:17. The pastor-administrator’s greatest challenge is to discover, enlist, and utilize the resources that are made available to meet the needs of parishioners.  Therefore, the pastor-administrator must rely on the Holy Spirit and His gift of administration to discharge the mission of the New Testament church. The Holy Spirit has equipped the pastor-administrator with the potential necessary lead the ministry of the church. The pastor-administrator must give the major direction to the administrative task with an understanding that he must not lead alone. He needs the leadership, input, and support of others; one can only lead as others to follow.  This entails recognizing the need, planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, communicating, budgeting, and above all, prayer.

The Delegation of Responsibilities

Historically pastors have failed to become good administrators due a lack of willingness to delegate responsibly to staff, church officers, and lay leaders. To assume all duties and responsibilities give the aggressive pastor a sense of power. This power brings importance and respect that may not be acknowledged if delegation of responsibilities were shared with competent and trained leaders. When the pastor-administrator delegates responsibilities to others, he demonstrates profound trust in and respect for others’ abilities. The more leadership feels a sense of involvement and influence, the greater the investment and motivation levels will be. A good pastor-administrator will work to build a good and effective leadership team by motivating team members, supervising team members with respect to their assigned tasks, and by developing team members potential. Delegating authority ensures leadership of their importance and value to the leadership team. The pastor-administrator role in delegating of authority is to delegate responsibly and demonstrate interest. Information concerning the affairs of the church should be communicated to the pastor and pastoral involvement is warranted at critical decision making interests. The pastor may not make all the decisions, but support those who are responsible for them.

         Delegating responsibilities to others allows the pastor to concentrate on areas that pertain to more important pastoral duties (Acts 6:2; 4). The apostles noted that there were more important duties to give attention to than serving tables.  Delegating the responsibility of serving tables to others allowed the apostles time to give themselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

Qualities of an Effective Pastor-Administrator

Good administration begins with the person, professionalism, and performance of the administrator. The pastor-administrator should possess certain qualities that work to help assure good success. Such qualities may include: (1) sensitivity to ones surroundings (2) independent judgment (3) keen perspective, (4) mental flexibility, (5) organized thinking, and (6) pride of workmanship. Though these are not conclusive, strength in these areas will enhance good pastoral administration.  

These qualities help the pastor-administrator to become aware of the needs of others and how each individual’s importance factor into the overall success of the ministry.  This knowledge is gained by the pastor-administrator’s discernment of skills and abilities of staff and leadership and how well the congregation achieves mission and ministry goals and objectives. The effective administrator relates the set church goals and objectives to the biblical perspective which helps maintain an awareness of what God is doing through the Holy Spirit and their continued efforts. Though maintaining morale and productivity is challenging, the pastor-administrator’s ability to maintain stability and alleviate stress among parishioner gives rise to good administration. Prearranged policies and procedures concerning conflict will also help to maintain order and stability.