People (Michael Berens)

Week 5
Michael Berens
Thursday Essay
02/11/09

People

I think that it is about an understanding that the things that Church administration accomplishes eventually lead to helping people. Of course church revolves around people. That is why a church prints out a bulletin, or creates a database for people to meet each other. Church Administration gets a bad rap for being the boring parts of being a pastor, but I think it is just part of the stepping stones that are part of the path of leading to God’s kingdom.

If you were to meet with people the whole time that you spent in ministry, I think you would burn out. Church administration relieves a pastor of giving himself or herself too much socially, emotionally and spiritually. It breaks up the work of a pastor’s shepherding. God may give grace, but I think that God also gives administrative breaks in the relationship building process.
Church administration can be worship in itself. If you look at what the Levites had to do in the temple (exodus and Numbers), you would see that most of the things they did were routine jobs that involved cleaning and packing up the tabernacle. To them the honor of taking care of the Tabernacle was worshipping God the way they were supposing to. The special stuff they got to do, like teaching torah and entering the holy of holies, one day of the year, has a much smaller section in the first five books of the bible. The Levites worshipped God in every process and in turn helped the people.

If we see that Church administration is a means to an end then it becomes a lot easier to do. If we realize that it is important to serve the “people” by dong some of the mundane church work, then we see that Church is not just having coffee or sitting at a table. It is about paying the water bill so that you can fill up the baptismal pool fro everyone to be baptized in. It is about making sermon DVDs so that people can hear the word all week. Eventually, when your mind transfers to the “means to an end” approach, then church administration becomes a lot easier to do.