I’m sick of Admin!

Dear Pastors

We live in a fairly (some would say highly) regulated society. Laws, bi-//laws, rules, regulations, policies, compliance and the list goes on. This invariably creates a lot of necessary but ‘unproductive’ work. By unproductive I mean, ‘not contributing //to the essential or core work of our mission’. If the core work of a local church is evangelism and discipleship then anything that doesn’t do that could be deemed to be unproductive…….but necessary.

On the one hand pastors want to stick to core business (after all that’s why we are in ministry), on the other they are pulled into spending a good chunk of each week in admin related tasks and therefore taking them away from moving the mission forward. When I casually ask a pastor, “what has taken up your time this morning or today or this week”, the amount of administration they refer to is…….well……BIG to say the least. Here’s a list:- Building WOF, health and safety issues, employment, child protection, insurances, tithes and offering admin, financial management, charities commission, facilities management, agendas, meetings, minutes and on and on.

Has anybody made a list of the laws the average church interacts with in an average month? My guess it would be a surprisingly large number.

The huge challenge in the ‘charities sector’ is that there is generally speaking very little money for this kind of activity so money is allocated from general funds that could otherwise be used for ministry purposes. Unlike the commercial sector where these costs are factored into the pricing of their products and services.

So we have a huge conundrum. Administration must be done. I doubt that any one will argue differently, surely? But the question is how can admin be streamlined? How can we relieve the majority of pastors in NZ churches getting bogged down in the quagmire of administration. How can we most efficiently and effectively ‘skin this cat’ because skin it we must.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

• Four or five smaller churches get together and hire a whizz administrator part or full time depending on the Job description. In this internet age such a person could work from anywhere.
• Contract out as much as you can to ‘specialist’ organisations e.g. Accounting, Wages admin, H&S etc. Generally speaking doing this will give you good ‘bang for your buck’.
• More ‘bulk’ buying of services by denominational HQ.
• Consider ‘hiring’ a former mid-level manager who is now retired but wants to contribute on a volunteer basis. Again this kind of work can be done off site in his or her own time…..as long as it is done in a professional and timely manner.

The challenge we all face in the NFP sector is thinking very creatively as to how we can keep our overheads and administration costs as low as we possibly can.

Blessings

Alan

And since we have all been watching a bit of tennis these last few weeks……..

Tennis Consumed by Greed-Sunday Star Times 21st Jan.

Forbes estimate that Roger Federer earned NZ$87.6 million dollars last year. Novak Djokovic $51.5m, Kei Nishikori $46.4m, Rafa Nadal $43.1m and Andy Murray $39.4m. Three of those players missed large parts of their working year through injury. I am sure all of us would like sickness benefits like these guys are on. Federer is estimated to have earned $924m over his career, the majority in sponsorship and endorsements.

Question: Is this all a bit over the top? What’s happened to the sports industry that this kind of thing is even possible?

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.