Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I worked at a church in which the fire alarm would occasionally go off. There were never any fires, just a little too much incense or something like that. I was the parish administrator, and occasionally I’d be working on the service and the lights would start flashing, followed by the ear-piercing blare of the alarms. I’d wait outside for the firemen, who would show up in their gear with axes and helmets so that I could tell them it was a false alarm.

It would be awhile before I was able to focus again.

These sorts of interruptions happen in just about any administrative job. A church, especially a large urban church, will have a number of visitors, in addition to the phone calls to be answered and requests from staff to be handled. With so many disruptions, it can sometimes be hard for the administrator to get things done.

Of course, distractions are a problem for anyone trying to get work done. Some staff members can simply reduce interruptions by shutting their door or working from home. This is not usually an option for a parish administrator, especially in churches in which he or she is also the receptionist. Interruptions are simply part of the job. The best way to deal with this fact is to prepare for interruptions and make sure everyone, including church leaders, is aware of how they affect job.

To begin with, interruptions must be factored into the job description of the parish administrator. Though the number of tasks in the job description may seem relatively small at first, you must consider the time answering phone calls and greeting guests. Church leaders should make sure the job is manageable, and not just on paper. Can everything still get done when the phone is ringing off the hook?

In addition, church leaders and administrators will find it easier to work together if they all understand that the job of a parish administrator is somewhat unpredictable. More than once I set aside some time to file or pay the bills only to spend the day answering the phone or dealing with a leak in the roof. Church leaders should understand that it might not be possible to fulfill last minute requests for this reason, and extra time should be built in for time sensitive tasks.

Nonetheless, the parish administrator should have a schedule, and the church leaders should try to respect this as much as possible. When I started at one administrative job, the previous parish administrator had a calendar for the week. The schedule was simple and somewhat flexible: print the bulletins on Thursday, pay the bills on Tuesday. There wasn’t much to the schedule, but I knew what the minimum I had to get done each day was.

Constant interruptions may also mean that certain responsibilities that require long periods of concentration may not be appropriate for the parish administrator if he or she is also the receptionist. If the administrator does need time to focus, or just a few hours to file and organize and catch up, there are ways that this can be arranged as well. Volunteers can answer the phones and greet visitors for a few hours a day, for example. At one job, I would occasionally let the phone people leave messages on Friday afternoons (with the permission of the rector, of course), so that I could take care of some bookkeeping tasks. I checked messages, and there was never any problem.

Finally, there should be a place for everything. Incoming mail, vestry minutes, copies of the bulletin for the archives, receipts, insurance documents – everything should have a place in a filing cabinet or folder and should be put there immediately. Big stacks of unfiled documents can be a headache for everyone. Having a good filing system allows the administrator to put things away if something urgent or unexpected comes up and know where to find it later. For church leaders, this mainly means making hiring an organized person and making sure there are enough filing cabinets in the office.

It’s easy for vestry members and priests to forget about the interruptions a parish administrator will encounter on a daily basis, and to underestimate the effect this can have on the job. Because many parish administrators, like administrators at many small organizations, wear many hats, including that of receptionist, it’s important that these interruptions be acknowledged and prepared for. Coupled with staying organized, this can make it possible to answer the phone, greet visitors, and get everything else done too. Most days, anyway.