Administration job at church

[Iambuffy]

I've seen a job advertised as pt administrator for a local church.

The situation is that the parish is changing rapidly and has a new female vicar who obv has her own ideas of mission she wants to pursue.

I think I want to apply bug have never worked for a church (NHS experience)

Has anyone done a similar role?

What were the pros and cons?

Thank you x

I do! Expect to have to turn your hand to anything, that as the person who answers the phone you will be dealing with bereavement, abuse, very upset people, homeless situations, begging - you need to be quite strong mentally. I also handle the accounts, but can be found filling the urn and cleaning the loos if the caretaker isn't around!

Ha! Yes that's what I thought :)

I am used to dealing with vulnerable people and those with additional needs.

I get the feeling she wants a "clean" sweep iyswim?

Any tips or things you would do/suggest to make your job easier or more streamlined as I may get a big say on how the office is run.

There is often a lot of politics in any role to do with a church. In a way it's good that you are not an 'insider'. Some people can get upset easily, especially older people, when things are changed too drastically. I have seen three different vicars in the last 20 years in our church, every one of them wanting to make their mark and changing a lot of things, and there are often tears and people getting very upset. As well as what PP said about people asking for money, begging, in a vulnerable state, elderly people needing extra care, etc.

Make sure you agree your hours, very clearly.

Yes, that's a good point.

The last vicar left things in a bit of s state understatement

Hours very definitely will be agreed in advance!

The pay is generally terrible - and you will have people telling you that you should be doing it for nothing! The upside is a free funeral should you need it, so my old (vicar) boss used to tell me😁

Um...I guess that's a perk? 🤣

I have heard that the church tends not to be great employer and you may be taken advantage of. I looked into a role locally and they stated it was self employed but terms and hours were not flexible

Lots to think about...

My boss was great and definitely was the other way - always thanking me for my work and saying if I ever needed time off etc etc. Pay was dreadful though. Some of the ‘coven’ were tricky to work with but hey, that’s any workplace isn’t it?

And when it was my birthday not only did I get cake, the music director would arrange a ukulele serenade of ‘happy birthday’. And we had an office dog...

I see it as mostly supporting the vicar and being answerable to him and the PCC.

Is that your experience?

Also, what IT package do you use?

I wasn’t quite doing the same job but it was a parish office role. I used the usual MS office suite and some database - I fight the name (but they are all much of a muchness).

Excel?

I assumed office suite would be adequate

Yes - word, excel, ppt, in-design - nothing out of the ordinary. Some terrible free website ‘design’ package (dreadful and worth every penny).

I work in the church (not admin, but similar to a pp I'll turn my hand to most things).

Pros:
Wonderful colleagues, great work environment because people genuinely want to live a virtuous life and treat each other with love.

Flexible hours (I can always do the school run). Generally lots of holiday (I balance it out with long hours at other times).

Time off for spiritual retreats.

Decent pension provision.

Everyone very appreciative and grateful. I do come across some difficult people, but priests and other colleagues are always super supportive.

Work feels meaningful and with a purpose.

Enjoyable variety of tasks.

(Depending on churchmanship) things like confession are very easy because you know the priests so well.

Cons
If it's also the church where you worship, it can be difficult to get some quiet time to pray as a) people will come up to ask you things (even when you're kneeling with eyes closed, which you'd think would be a fairly strong 'unavailable' sign) and b) you keep seeing things that need doing. How you cope with this depends on personality.

Pay is pretty poor.

Thank you all.

Very helpful.

Sort out a job description, make sure the extras are added on to it and the hours you work aren't taken advantage of - expect to work more hours but the flip side is flexibility when you need it and overtime if it's regularly lots of extra work. If you take the job pm me and I can give you lots of links to the various resources. I'm unusual in that I do the payroll and the full statutory accounts, plus manage one staff member, if that's the case make sure you are being paid appropriately for your skills!

Thank you very much!

I won't be in a HR role afaik and not sure re: accounts (they have a treasurer) but I may take you up on that! :)

I use Microsoft office suite mostly but specific church accounts software for that side. There's quite a lot of database solutions on the market but we are sticking to excel

DW is a part time parish administrator.
She suggests if possible to speak to the current person in post to get a feel for the job (since churches vary so much).
The job varies seasonally so DW does work from home at busy times to get the work done, but all hours worked are recorded and paid for or taken as flexi.
Rotas can be a nightmare!

I can tell you where to get cases of alcohol free communion wine. Not a popular choice!

Alcohol free???

I imagine not :)

Thank you. All really good tips. Keep em coming!

I can tell you where to get cases of alcohol free communion wine. Not a popular choice!

Also, not valid as communion wine in some churches.

Tbh when I was young the only "perk" of going church every week was the grog! 😳🤣

Supposedly it was for the AA group we hosted in case they came along. It was met with a resounding ‘nooooooooooo’ so we stuck to the fortified wine.