Meet the Author
Robert H. Welch currently serves as Chair of the Christian Education Division and professor of Church Administration at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to this position, he retired from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he had also served as a professor of Administration. In addition to his academic background in church administration, Welch served in administrative capacities in multiple Baptist churches after retiring from the military. He is the author of two books: Serving by Safeguarding Your Church (2002) and Church Administration: Creating Efficiency for Effective Ministry.
Book Basics
Pastors spend a significant part of most work weeks involved in administration, yet often receive little or no training for it as part of their seminary studies. Welch finds that only 21 of 148 Protestant institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools or the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools required students to take a course in church administration. When the group is considered as a whole, the average seminary graduate “will only spend slightly more than 1 percent (1.351 percent) of their total academic course preparation in study for the administrative or leadership responsibilities of the church” (ix).
Church Administration: Creating Efficiency for Effective Ministry is an introductory text originally published in 2005 and updated in 2011 for its second edition. For pastors who never received any education in church administration and do not have a background in business administration, the text is a helpful starting point. Likewise, it is well designed for use as a textbook at the seminary or undergraduate level, including questions at the end of each chapter. Readers will find abbreviated historical sketches of varying models alongside theologically conservative use of Scripture. For all readers, it serves best as a reference guide since it offers a how to or step-by-step approach to many matters with which a pastor or other church leader may have limited familiarity.
While I have not read the first edition, I find the second edition is lacking in substantive updates for the challenges of church administration in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Specifically, the author seems to be very out of touch with technology both as a tool for the role he names “church business administrator” and as an essential part of the job description of most church staff members. Additionally, while Welch is clearly cognizant of traditions beyond his own Baptist view, his attempts to explore polity differences and the differing language for and roles of volunteer church leaders among traditions are limited in number and even more limited in scope.
So What?
Depending on the size of a local church, its congregational culture, and its polity, church administration is overseen primarily by either a solo or senior/lead pastor, a group of volunteer lay leaders or an individual leader, a church business administrator or an executive pastor. It is an incredibly important area of ministry and one that is often undervalued.
Welch does cover many ministry basics that should be understood as normative, yet are absent in many congregations. An example follows:
Who should have job descriptions? The complete answer is “everyone who has a leadership position in the organization” (p.84).
Does your local congregation value the ministry of administration? Who has primary responsibility for this ministry? Do you have job descriptions in place for all leaders, including volunteers?
Robert H. Welch. Church Administration: Creating Efficiency for Effective Ministry, 2nd ed. (B&H Academic, 2011). ISBN: 978143367371.