By
MOSES GBENGA OKEWANDE
enyistevens@gmail.com , +23480-3440-4498
Moses Gbenga Okewande is a postgraduate student in the Faculty of Education at The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso. He is the pastor of New Life Baptist Church Owolaake, Ogbomoso. He specializes in Church Administration and Leadership.
ABSTRACT
This paper examines “Pastor’s Administrative Skills and its Impact on Effective Church Management in a Local Baptist Church” as it explains Administration as an effective and efficient organization of people, material, information, and other resources. Four essential management functions are explained, which are planning, leading, organizing, and controlling (PLOC). Biblical survey of the use of Administration, nature, and characteristics of planning, the importance of planning, and the explanation of some administrative skills are not left without being explained, as well. Hence, this paper examines some basic administrative skills and how such skills especially planning can be used to enhance effective management of the church of God. The paper narrows its focus on planning as a basic function of management. This paper would be helpful to church pastors irrespective of the denomination to take the bull by the horn in order to perform effectively and efficiently in the various divisions of Church Administration and to equip the church workers accordingly; taking the cognizance of adequate planning in effective management of God’s household.
Introduction
Administration is about people in organization such as the church of God. It involves functions such as planning, leading, organizing, and controlling. These four are the essential management functions (PLOC). “Management in God’s church or Christian circles is basically the stewardship of talents of persons entrusted to our care” (Ishola-Esan 2014, p. 33).Hardin (1991, p. 3) noted that “ineffective and inadequate church leadership or administration is the bane of many churches.” Therefore, the essential thing needed in these churches is the understanding and the effective use of pastoral, administrative, and leadership skills which in turn would bring about effective church management and growth.
Ishola-Esan (2014, p. 35) collaborated Hardin by saying that “when it comes to administrative work in the church, success often eluded some pastors. Enlisting workers, establishing policies, planning for a big event, administrative duties present their share of headaches”. This assertion is very evident in some local churches, many of the Pastors see pastoral leadership as a weekend affair, to preach the Word. Every other administrative responsibility is left for the lay leaders or laity alone. Therefore, this seminar will examine some necessary administrative skills for effective church management and focus on planning as a useful organizational skill.
Operational Definition of Terms
Pastor: God called person to lead a local church.
Skill: This refers to the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively.
Administration: It involves the efficient organization of people, information, and other resources
Church: This refers to the baptized believer in Christ, the body of Christ, and God’s people.
Management: This is the act of engaging with an organization’s human talent and its resources to accomplish desired goals and objectives.
CONCEPT OF ADMINISTRATION
Adegunde, and Ishola (2018, p. 115) explained that Administration had been defined by many scholars and practitioners both from academic and pragmatic points of view. However, some definitions focus on things, processes, activities, and paper works, while some other definitions focus on dealing with real people and not just objects. Adetunji (2010, p. 6) stated that the word Administration comes from the Latin word “adminitrare” which means to serve. Church administration, therefore, involves serving God’s people and fulfilling the purposes of the church through various administrative functions. Falwell (1979, p. 435) defined administration “as getting things done through other people.” From this definition, this writer discovered that Administration is about people who could be referred to as the principal element. Besides, the definition placed more emphasis on the usage of people in the organization yet, Falwell failed to include other administrative functions in the description. Furthermore, Falwellviewed Administration to be an array of tasks of almost everything done to make an organization what it should be and do what it is established to do.
In addition, Ishola-Esan (2014, p. 33) stated that Administration is about people in organizations (such as the church of God). “It involves functions such as planning, leading, organizing, and controlling.”This writer deduced that this definition is from a functional perspective and the functions of Administration are planning, leading, organizing, and controlling.
Bridges (1999, p. 5) opined that “Administration is the art and science of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the work of others to achieve defined objectives and goals.” Art refers to sensitive people, relational individuals who are gifted with innate skills and abilities that they nurture and develop through learning, experience, and training. However, Science calls for process, analysis, decision, evaluation, and report. In addition, this definition highlighted some essential functions of Administration and placed on the significance of the work of other people.
CONCEPT OF MANAGEMENT
Mosley, Pietri and Megginson’s studies (as cited in Adetunji, 2010, p.5) defined management as “the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities of employees in combination with other resources to achieve organizational objectives.” Drucker’s work (as cited in Adetunji, 2000, p.5) defined management as “giving direction to organizations, providing leadership, and making decisions about the way the organization uses the resources available.” Dale Carnegie and Associates’ study (as cited in Adetunji, 2000, p.6) defined management as “the ability to obtain results through effective utilization of resources available to the organization.” The essential resources with which a manager works are money, material, machinery, methods, and man-power.
Management is the act of engaging with an organization’s human talent and using the physical resources at a manager’s disposal to accomplish desired goals and objectives efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading, directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.” (https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-management/chapter/principles-of-management/). This means that management operates through various functions, such as planning, organizing, staffing, leading, directing, controlling, monitoring, and motivating.