3 Toughest Jobs for College Ministers #3

A veteran College Minister said his three toughest jobs were supervision, networking, and administration.

Most College Ministers would say their toughest job is administration, I think.  Most tend to be people extrovert types and "paperwork" is not their thing.  But, I think one of the keys it to realize that good administration reaches more students.

All of us want to lead a ministry that is larger than our personal ministry.  Every College Minister can only meet with so many students, plan so many events, and speak at a certain number of events.  It is administration that multiplies that.  Part of doing administration well is realizing that it is a multiplier of your ministry.

The Simplest Key to doing administration well is to have set times to do it.  My set times were Tuesday morning and Friday afternoon.  For some reason, Tuesday morning was slower on my campus and Friday afternoon students were leaning hard into the weekend and wanted nothing to do with me unless we had an event or they had an emergency.  Friday afternoon was "clear my desk day" which made Mondays better.

When we do not have a set time to do reports, respond to letters, etc, we tend to do it in much more of a slap dash kind of way.  Having time set aside tends to help us think and focus more.

A high priority for me has always been meeting with students one to one....especially our student leaders.  I learned if I grouped those individual meetings as much as possible, that freed up some time that worked well for administering and I did better in those one to one times.

So, what do you do during administration times?  Required reports and budget planning is always a part of these times.  Another part is writing thank you notes and letters.  One rule was, "a check from an individual cannot be deposited until the thank you letter has been written."  Planning and thinking are other key components of this time.  What is going to happen next month?  Why is our attendance up or down?  Thinking time is often in short supply.

Thinking about reports rather than just dashing them off usually produces a better report. Remember, a good report not only goes to your supervisor, but gives your supervisor more ammunition to represent or even defend you well, if and when that is needed.

Don't forget:  Good administration multiplies your ministry!  And, remembering that can change your mindset about it.

Arliss Dickerson's book, Tips for College Freshmen:  124 Tips for Fun, Faith & Good Grades, is available at Amazon.com/dp/B09QFB9DJ9 and A 3 Part College Ministry Success Formula is at Amazon.com/dp/B0BZ6Q7HSV.