This ministry guide has been written to provide information about how to provide support ministry to the people with whom you work. This guide is also for people who work in many different ministry settings, a church or denominational administrative office, a small or medium size church, a parachurch or missions focused organization, and large churches. It will assist them with how they look at their ministry, and the level of support that is needed for their particular setting. A call to ministry is an important thing to understand for an administrative assistant; your heart and the way you deal with people and tasks are different if you understand your position as a call to ministry rather than a job for a paycheck. If you understand that you represent not just your pastor and your church, but Christ to every person who calls, stops by, e-mails, etc., you approach your tasks and people differently. Working as the assistant to a pastor, or any person in ministry, you have to approach your tasks with an understanding of who you are serving, and you are serving Christ and his people. The position of Administrative Assistant is a vital part of the over-all ministry of your church and the congregation. You are the gate-keeper, bridge-builder, keeper of the “information”, soother of wounded feelings, and the deliverer of unwanted news. You are the person who has your finger on the pulse of your congregation and your community. You are the person people will come to for answers. You will handle thousands of details related to dozens of different projects and commitments for your pastor. You will help make your pastor’s ministry seamless. While all of these descriptions may make your head spin, this is a part of the ministry of being an assistant. You can look at each day as a challenge or an adventure. If you understand your job as a ministry and understand your call to this ministry you are ready for a great adventure. Begin each day with a prayer for wisdom and strength, surrender your mind and will to God, and prepare yourself to work with the heart of a servant. As Christ walks alongside you in your daily life, you will learn to walk along side your pastor and to be a partner in their ministry.

The church administrative assistant is a key part of effective ministry. Greeting weekday visitors, taking phone messages, managing paperwork, and keeping the pastor and staff organized are just a few of the daily tasks of an assistant's role. This myriad of duties and responsibilities, which are often unique to each individual church, makes training new assistants an often difficult and daunting task for pastors and staff.The Church Administrative Assistant's Handbook is a valuable training tool to help church administrators and assistants work together to achieve efficiency and maximize their church's ministry. It includes a variety of useful forms and information for the pastor and assistant to use together as they set up their requirements and expectations for a successful team.Resources include: Design expectations and qualifications to use when selecting an executive assistantQuestionnaires to help determine work style, personality, and spiritual gifts Practical tips, guidelines, and tools for accomplishing daily tasks A CD with reproducible files of policies, templates, forms, checklists, and procedures, which can be adapted to fit a person's various need

“When are you going to become a real pastor?”“When are you going to get your own church?”“How long will you be here?”During his thirty-one years serving in churches across the country, Doug Fagerstrom has both known the joys of being a ministry staff member and experienced many misconceptions of the role. In The Ministry Staff Member, he draws on his vast experience to correct false notions and provide a clear, accurate understanding. This comprehensive and practical handbook provides staff members—paid and volunteer, church and parachurch—with invaluable tools for success and helps those around them to better understand and appreciate the importance of what they do. Dozens of sidebar articles and suggested resource lists provide a useful toolbox you’ll want to turn to again and again.

Bureaucracy is an age-old form of government that has survived since ancient times; it has provided order and persisted with durability, dependability, and stability. The popularity of the first edition of this book, entitled Handbook of Bureaucracy, is testimony to the endurance of bureaucratic institutions. Reflecting the accelerated globalizatio

With contributions from nearly 80 international experts, this comprehensive resource covers diverse issues, aspects, and features of public administration and policy around the world. It focuses on bureaucracy and bureaucratic politics in developing and industrialized countries and emphasizing administrative performance and policy implementation, as well as political system maintenance and regime enhancement. The book covers the history of public administration and bureaucracy in Persia, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium and among the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas, public administration in small island states, Eastern Europe, and ethics and other contemporary issues in public administration.