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An assistant is essential to the success of many a great leader and the pastor is no exception. It has been said, “Behind every successful man is a woman.” Even though that quote most likely refers to the worth and supportive nature of a good wife, the principle still applies. Or, we could defer to Groucho Marx’ quote, “Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.” Then again, maybe not.

Working with a secretary or an administrative assistant can be a fruitful aspect of your ministry that can produce tremendous results. Here are some tips on how to work and relate with your secretary/assistant. For the purposes of this post (and especially point #8), I’ll assume that the secretary/assistant you work with is your administrative assistant and not labeled as the Church Secretary.

1. Make sure you have an assistant you can work with. She should be someone who takes instructions and criticisms.
2. Set up clear guidelines about the environment and being alone together in the church.
3. Know yours and her strengths, weaknesses, skills, and abilities. Put them to use… or not.
4. Remember, she’s there to assist you and make you successful, not merely to do busy-work.
5. Make sure she’s in the know about projects and events so she can field questions that come to you via phone or personal visit.
6. Keep her informed about other higher-level decisions. She should be aware of many things before the congregation finds out.
7. As you correspond with people, direct them to contact you assistant with any follow-up or questions.
8. Protect her from others giving her work to do. She is your assistant. Guard her workload.
9. Make sure she has the right tools, equipment, and environment to do her job well (software, office chair, lighting, etc.)
10. Regularly demonstrate your appreciation for her (not just on the last Wednesday in April… Administrative Professionals’ Day).

Here are some tasks she can do for you so that you can focus on pastoral duties such as leading, counseling, visiting, studying, and preparing.

• Screen calls. Don’t take every call that comes to you. Allow her to say, “Pastor Scheenen is not available at the moment. Did you have a question I might be able to help with?” If you’ve done number five, she can field questions about activities or projects and save you some time.
• Keep your schedule. Let her dictate which tasks need to be done by you today. However, you can always adjust your schedule if your creative, homiletical juices are flowing at a different time this week than normal.
• Do your filing, typing, copying, and some research.
• Run errands such as picking up books at the library or collecting materials for use in the weekend service.
• Prepare cards for you to sign and send (get well, sympathy, birthday, anniversary).
• Organize receipts for reimbursements or tax purposes.
• Type and file handwritten notes from meetings and possibly counseling sessions.
• Sit in on meetings and take notes.

I hope these tips will help you as you strive to be a more successful leader and pastor. Have any other tips for working with a secretary/administrative assistant? Share it through the comments.

Tags: Pastor, Productivity