These sessions will be an overview of what is entailed in the work of ministry support personnel. They have been written for ministry support professionals as a learning experience in office procedures, technical and professional skills development, and spiritual enrichment.
The sessions are:
Managing the Administrative Task of the Church – Join us as we dive into the administrative tasks of the church and how to do a professional job dealing with the tasks.
Know What Your Church/Denomination Believes and Why – Have you had people come into your office or call on the phone and ask questions about the beliefs of your church/denomination? We will examine our beliefs and look at scripture for the answers.
Leadership -Every ministry assistant is a leader in her ministry office. Let’s spend time looking at our roles and how to improve our skills.
Ministering in Your Support Position – Every Christian is a minister. We will discuss how we, as ministry assistants, can minister in different situations and circumstances.
Enabling Your Church/Ministry Office Through Your Organization Skills – Do you realize how you organize your desk tells a lot about you? We work so much more effectively if we are organized. Let’s look at ways to organize ourselves to be more efficient.
Communicating Effectively – We need to face it communication has changed over the years and we need to change with it. Looking at some of the changes will help us to get excited about communicating with others.
Knowing Yourself and Being True to Yourself and Christ – lf we are going to minister and serve in a ministry office we need to know ourselves and what God expects of us. Join us for a look at what a ministry assistant should be.
Understanding How Your Church/Ministry Office Manages Finances – This module is for anyone who serves in a ministry position. Everyone should understand how the finances work in every ministry office. You could be called on at a moments notice to help the financial assistant.
Each session requires 3 hours of teaching time. You can take all of the sessions or just take the sessions that most interest you. There is an additional $25 fee for each session. lf you complete all eight sessions you will receive a certificate of completion. You do not receive a certificate for completing one session.
IMPORTANT: Completing all courses for the certification does take a special commitment. It will take time away from other classes you might want to attend. There is nothing we can do about that. The good thing is that it can take as much or as little time as you would like! While at the conference, if you do nothing but certification courses to try and finish as quickly as possible, it will take about 3 years. You could also just do one course per year. It would take longer to finish all of the courses, but that would allow you time to take other classes at the conference as well.
Recommendations
I took these courses early on in my now 29+ year career as a church secretary/ministry assistant. I cannot pinpoint specifics but do remember how invaluable the training was to me. Most of us are hired and the position is an ongoing hands-on learning process.I would venture to say that many times this position comes with very little ‘training’ and we just have to jump in there and figure it out as we go.
My #1 pet-peeve about being a Ministry Assistant is that it is a CALLING, not just a job that many think may accommodate our ‘kid’ schedules or be more flexible schedule wise and whatnot than a ‘regular’ job. The MC courses give training grounding in this ‘calling’ that are invaluable to know-how and longevity and emphasize the calling in making a difference in Kingdom service.
I wish ALL pastors would REQUIRE new hires take these courses. Our church offices would certainly run more smoothly, efficiently, be more productive and be a ‘difference-making’ kind of place that would make our churches stand out for His glory in our communities.
Nancy P. Gill
I enjoyed the courses and being a young secretary, they really helped in the ministry professional setting. They meant so much to me and I was so proud that I had accomplished something, in my opinion, that was like a college course to make me a better person, employee and ministry assistant. Thank you for offering these. They truly were of great help.
Cheryl Gilley