Church Officers At Work

Churches of all kinds and sizes will value these time-tested, practical, and contemporary ideas for efficient church management. Especially useful for lay persons.

This timely new leadership guide for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is written for church officers who are looking for a deepened relationship with God. Joan Gray challenges elders and deacons to see themselves as spiritual leaders and equips them to lead alongside their pastors. Gray lays out a variety of leadership styles and helps leaders understand when each is appropriate. She also provides resources for dealing with relationships in the church and identifies ways churches can be supportive of the spiritual leadership of elders and deacons.

This book offers a model for selecting and training church officers that is grounded in spiritual discernment and development. The book begins with a biblical understanding of leadership, moves into consideration for how to train a Nominating Committee to select leaders according to the biblical vision, and then offers a step-by-step plan for a training event with three components. The training plan is designed to build up the church leaders spiritually and to set their work in the context of discipleship, as well as to teach them some of the fundamentals of the rules of governance of their denomination. The book concludes with concrete suggestions for how future work of the church board can be structured to reflect the emphasis highlighted in the training session.

How can well-meaning but sometimes ill-prepared laypeople guide the path of a church body? A leadership expert provides the secret, which lies in offering effective, practical training.

Most churches don’t have written job descriptions for any or all of their church’s ministry positions! Here is your answer! The book is reproducible—you can use each description as is—or use the CD-ROM to customize each description to fit your unique needs. • Any church or organization can use to develop comprehensive job descriptions for recruiting and evaluation • Job descriptions range far—from executive pastor to pantry organizer! • You may discover a new ministry your church has never have thought of!

Previously published as: Church officers at work. 1977.