Our church’s pastoral interns give several hours each week to assisting our administrative staff with various tasks, and they sometimes struggle. When confronted with shoddy work, however, I’ve not infrequently heard something like “OK, so I’m not very gifted with admin. But I’m going to be a pastor, right?”
Interesting question. Do pastors need to care about administration? The classic passage in the New Testament about the division between pastoral and administrative work is Acts 6:1–7. In this passage, the apostles tell the church to select deacons to organize care for widows so that they can “devote [themselves] to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.” Yet in the Ephesian church, who assembled the list of eligible widows? Timothy, their pastor (1 Timothy 5). That example, plus the very fact that elders are often called “overseers” (Acts 20:28, 1 Tim. 3:1, Titus 1:7, etc.) would suggest that there is an administrative component to pastoring. To be sure, not every pastor is equally gifted with administration, just like not every pastor is equally gifted with counseling.
HOW PASTORS ARE INVOLVED IN ADMINISTRATION
So in what ways should pastors be involved in administration? Consider these four answers to that question.
1.
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