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Dealing With Admin vs Ministry Tension

Most ministers struggle with the day-to-day tension between administrative duties and pastoral duties. It sometimes feels like a competition: business versus ministry.

Can the two co-exist?

Some church staff roles are primarily operational, and some are primarily pastoral. But usually, whether it’s implied in your title or not, most roles are a combination of the two.

This is especially true for churches with smaller staffs. But whether your church has one staff-member or hundreds, most ministers face this tension everyday.

Meeting organizer or ministry in a home?

Controller of finances or stewardship teacher?

Staff manager or staff mentor?

Funding work or funeral work?

Preaching preparation or policy preparation?

The tension’s impact is highly visible on the resource of time. And in church ministry, it’s usually the “tyranny of the urgent” that wins out.

There’s also tension placed on a minister’s calling. Like many who lead staff, many of my role responsibilities are executive in nature (strategic direction, implementation, managing budgets, and staff). But God didn’t call me to be just an executive – He called me to participate in shepherding His church.

Do I use my spiritual gifts and executive experience to accomplish work for the church? Yes. But for me to be fulfilled in my Gospel Ministry calling, I must be able to connect performance reviews, rainy day funds, and information technology to people pursuing Christ. I need to perceive a clear connection between my executive work and the church working as God designed it.

If all my work is in the admin sector, then my work can seem meaningless, and unappreciated. If I’m all pastoral, well, usually the train begins to leave the track and it impedes ministry for me and even the church.

Does this resonate with you? If, like me, you need some help balancing these two elements of your role, here are a few techniques:

Know and be comfortable with your role’s ebb and flow. There are seasons when one role may be dominant – and that’s okay.
Be involved in hands-on ministry. Without it you lose touch, and your ministry becomes all head and no heart.
Do an exercise with your team where you try to connect administrative duties you’re all engaged in to life-change outcomes. Can you connect the dots?
Do some pastoral care, regularly – even if it’s not in your job description.
Embrace those around you who are better at balancing these roles. See what they can teach you about working efficiently in each role, without losing balance.
Be intentional in looking for and listening to stories of life-change.
Even if it’s not you on the front-line, celebrate when work you’ve contributed to has an ultimate impact for Jesus.
Plan for both ministry and administration in each day. A consistent disregard for administration for the sake of sermon preparation can have negative impacts. And a disregard for administrative tasks can really get in the way of sustainable ministry work.

All ministry matters, even it’s budget planning. You are a resource to the church and you need to allocate your time effectively so the church can be all that God called it to be.

3 Words That Make Delegation Clear

Check. Do. Report.

You might hear a sentence like this spoken at the place I work:

Supervisor to assistant: “This is a ‘Do – Report’ task. Please reach out to the senior leaders for their input from our calendaring meeting, and then report back to me with a summary of their comments.”

“Check – Do – Report” is called the Delegation Triangle model in a leadership training course we require of all staff at our church, called Model-Netics. I’ve blogged previously on the what and why of this course for us. This simple delegation language is known by our employees.

Do items: Full discretion to complete task

Do – Report items: Full authority to do task, but report back when complete

Check – Do – Report items: Check with supervisor first for instructions and authority; do the work; report back

Early on in a delegation relationship, many delegated tasks will be “Check – Do – Report.” Over time, as trust and competence increases, delegation of many tasks moves to “Do – Report,” and finally, “Do.”

When it’s taught in Model-Netics, this principle is demonstrated by a triangle (pictured). Overtime, the supervisor wants to flip the triangle so only 20% of the delegated tasks are in the “Check – Do – Report” compartment, and the majority of tasks are in the “Do” compartment.

“A common language sets clear expectations for the delegate”

Some delegated tasks will always require checking in before launching, doing, and then reporting back to you. But a common language sets clear expectations for the delegate. In contrast, when I tell someone this is a “Do” task, it communicates authority and trust for them to complete the task, and only put me in the loop if something goes awry.

Practical Takeaways:

Trial this with the person you delegate to most often;
Explain the concept and meaning behind words;
And try it out for a few weeks.

Like me, you’ll likely find that these three simple words communicate a lot and lessen the need for delegation follow-up.

Unfettered Fun With Your Staff – Special Olympics Style

Dodridge on a shelf For several years, I had the opportunity to chaperone the annual Special Olympics dance at the Summer Games. It was greatness. Thousands of Special Olympian athletes on a football field, loud music, unfettered dancing, and fun.

No pretenses. No wondering, “Is anyone watching?”

Everyone, including this chaperone, had a great time (but no twerking was involved).

While I’m not necessarily suggesting your church’s staff should have dances, I am suggesting you have fun together. For each staff, fun will look different. But as a leader, you’re either going to allow for it, or suppress it. Those who work with you have to know they can have fun without fearing “the boss”.

Mind you, no one is ever going to mistake me as “the fun guy” on our staff, but I do hope to allow for and participate in fun.

This past December, someone began posting photos of a little character on the church’s Twitter and Facebook. The character was given a hashtag, #DodridgeOnAShelf. Whoever started this had placed my likeness on the little elf who rules homes with mischievous behavior every day in December. Typically, our social media accounts are used for official communications. But for a few weeks, our church’s followers would see #DodridgeOnAShelf doing something funny each day. I didn’t directly encourage it, but our work environment allowed for it.

If you take yourself too seriously as the leader, it will negatively impact your team. The people on your staff work with you too many hours, for their organization not to allow for some fun.

The leader’s role in organizational fun:

1. Allow it

It shouldn’t be over the top, nor should it replace the work of your mission – but periodically, it should happen. And the fun should cause you to be a little tense (if it causes a leader to be slightly tense, it’s probably just right amount of fun for everyone else).

2. Encourage it

Sometimes you’re going to have suggest a fun idea, and ask others in your church to be open to it.

3. Participate in it, at times

Nothing says you’re not on the team more than standing in the proverbial corner of the dance floor with a curmudgeon face while everyone else dances.

4. Create it

You may have to fund (or ask for funding), to literally create fun moments. Parties, scavenger hunts, whatever… Get help with the details, but do your part to create fun moments.

5. Schedule it

If you’re serious-minded person and could work 80 hours every week, then you’ll likely miss all the fun and relationships unless you schedule it. Schedule 15 minutes in your day to walk around and have fun with people. Make fun of their cubicle décor, tell self-deprecating jokes (previous blog on that topic), or challenge a staffer to a Ping Pong game.

Fun is when you can be yourself without pretense, and enjoy the company of those you work with. There’s work to be done, but I’d propose that in a fun environment, more work is going to get done.

One last story of how fun was had at my expense when I took myself too seriously…

In my first ministry job as an intern at North Phoenix Baptist Church, I tried to impress those I worked for, with my ability to accomplish work. Apparently, my supervisor thought I was too serious about this. He initiated some fun.

In a nonchalant way, he dropped a note on my desk with a phone number and said, “This is the retreat center hosting our summer camp this year. Call them and ask about their dress code, so we can pass the info along to the students.” Like he knew I would, I picked up the phone immediately. A person answered with the name of their center, but I was focused on getting the information I needed. I began, “I’m Brian Dodridge, and I serve with North Phoenix Baptist Church. We’ll be at your retreat center soon, and I need to know your dress code.”

Awkward pause.

“We have no dress code, we’re a nudist retreat center.”

I sank in my chair. I heard commotion behind me, and turned to see a small group of people peering over the cube trying to restrain their laughter.

As a leader, often you’ll be responsible for infusing fun into your environment (even if it sometimes it comes at your expense).

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