Effective governance is essential for church growth and sustainability. Practices such as sound financial management, transparent record-keeping, ethical data handling, and supportive community outreach allow a church to spread the Gospel and function as a community pillar. These strategies help the church serve congregants and build the trust and positive reputation that attracts new members.
This underscores the importance of the church administrator role—a crucial calling that ensures the church functions smoothly and aligns with its mission. Without skilled administrators, even the best intentions may fall short of being realized, leaving the church struggling to fulfill its mission.
Church administration can be a rewarding career path for those interested in pursuing a business or ministry degree to consider. Examining the typical church administrator job description can be a good way to determine if it’s a good fit both professionally and spiritually.
What Is a Church Administrator?
Church administrators manage the business of a church’s operation. Their work typically involves overseeing essential functions, including office management, financial oversight, and effective communication. They can also function as the intermediary between the church’s clergy and both its congregants and the public, communicating key information regarding the church’s ultimate mission of sharing the word of God, such as by doing congregational or community outreach.
The scope of a church administrator’s responsibilities often depends on the size of the church. Those working in a smaller church may handle every aspect of church administration, while those in a larger church may concentrate on a specific aspect.
Job Responsibilities: What a Church Administrator Does
A typical church administrator job description can be divided into three different categories. Together, these functions help churches conduct their ministry effectively.
Office Management
Office management often represents the majority of the tasks performed by church administrators. These duties often include church-specific tasks like managing prayer requests and maintaining active member lists, alongside general office duties such as ordering supplies and organizing records. Others are similar to the office duties in any standard business setting, such as ordering supplies, organizing the office and its records, maintaining a calendar of activities, and documenting the proceedings of various meetings.
Financial Management
Managing the church’s financial obligations is another key role of church administrators. This includes collecting time sheets from staff members, tracking monthly bills, accepting invoices for outsourced labor, tracking church spending, and creating monthly budget reports. As liaisons between the clergy and the congregation, they may also manage congregants’ donations. Additionally, they may be responsible for preparing tax documents for review by accountants.
Communication Management
Church administrators handle several tasks that ensure the lines of communication remain open between the clergy and both the congregation and the public. This can include basic tasks such as sorting the mail and answering the phones. More complex responsibilities may include creating event schedules, coordinating volunteers, organizing church bulletins, and keeping the clergy informed of important administrative updates.
Steps to Become a Church Administrator
The first step that most prospective church administrators take is to earn an undergraduate degree in a field such as business or ministry. Individuals can also choose to pursue a graduate degree, which can allow them to demonstrate they have a level of expertise that helps them stand out to hiring churches.
Earning a ministry degree, such as a Bachelor of Science in Christian Ministries or a Master of Ministry, fosters critical thinking, enhances religious discourse skills, and prepares individuals for servant leadership roles. Earning a business degree, such as a Bachelor of Business Administration or a Master of Arts in Leadership, creates a solid foundation in advanced business and leadership principles while preparing individuals to make the world a better place through ethical decision-making.
Gaining relevant experience in management, secretarial duties, accounting, or customer service is also beneficial for aspiring church administrators.
Aspiring administrators also need to become involved with the church community. Churches typically offer plenty of opportunities for individuals to volunteer for various events and tasks. Pursuing these opportunities can demonstrate a belief in the church’s mission of cultivating trusted, faith-centered relationships with its congregants and its community.
Church Administrator Salary
The median annual salary for church administrators was approximately $41,000 as of July 2024, according to the compensation data site Payscale. A church administrator’s salary can vary based on factors such as experience, education, church size, and location.
Get Ready to Reach Others
While the church administrator job description focuses on management and fiscal duties, their work contributes to a higher mission. When its administrative operations are run efficiently, a church can concentrate on amplifying faith and kindness through community action and involvement.
Mid-America Christian University’s undergraduate and graduate business and ministry degree programs can prepare students to enter this unique role with confidence.
Our business degree programs help students develop the knowledge and skills they need to manage the wide range of tasks involved with church operations. The programs are guided by Christian principles, which can prepare students to enter any role as a servant leader ready to ethically lead others.
Our ministry degree programs also help students develop strong leadership qualities, while allowing them to develop a deeper understanding of faith through exposure to practical ministry, homiletics, and Christian literature. This foundation can help students develop into a guiding voice in their congregation and inspire them to share their faith through their work.
Discover how MACU can equip you to make a meaningful impact in your church and community.
Recommended Readings
Business Administration vs. Business Management: Differences in Career Paths
How to Become a Minister
Types of Business Degrees and When To Pursue Them
Sources:
ChurchLeaders, “4 Critical Roles of Church Administration”
Indeed, “How to Become a Church Administrator”
Internal Revenue Service, Tax Information for Churches and Religious Organizations
Payscale, Average Church Administrator Salary
Table Stewards, “Good Governance in Church Administration — 9 Areas to Get Right”