Church job descriptions tend to fall into one of three categories.
- They’re excellent tools for clarifying expectations.
- They are outdated documents only used when looking for a new staff member.
- They don’t exist.
Obviously, you’d prefer to have job descriptions that fall into the first category. Job descriptions, when written well, can be powerful tools for staff development, recruiting, and evaluating potential candidates.
Here are five key components of church job descriptions:
#1 – Job Title
The job title should be the first indicator of what’s involved in this role. Keep these clear and simple such as, “Office Administrator,” “Finance Director,” “Marriage & Family Pastor,” etc.
#2 – Overview
In this section, provide a high-level summary of the role.
#3 – Essential Responsibilities
List the tasks that are central to this role. For example: Is this person responsible for planning all outreach events, maintaining the offices and grounds, producing monthly financial reports, etc.?
What tasks does this person perform daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or annually? For a role in your Finance Office, this may include providing monthly financial reports and analysis. A Ministry Director might manage an event calendar and develop goals for that department.
#4 – Educational Requirements
Does this role require a college education? If so, what degree field(s) would be the best fit? Should a candidate have a seminary degree? Are any professional certifications required such as a CPA?
#5 – Experience
Include a list of specific skills and experience someone would need to be successful in this role.
- Does this person need to be proficient in leading and directing teams?
- Do they need to know how to handle complicated formulas in Microsoft Excel?
- Should they have experience using a certain software program? If so, which one(s)?
- How many years of leadership or management experience should this person have?
Considering each role and documenting the items listed above can help you identify what success looks like for each member of your staff. If you don’t already have job descriptions, it’s worth the investment to start developing them.
The process of creating job descriptions will encourage conversations between you and your staff about expectations. It will also help when you need to hire someone new as you’re communicating the position and evaluating candidates against a single set of criteria.
If you’d rather not start developing job descriptions from scratch, join The Church Operations Toolkit and get instant access to job descriptions for church leadership roles and volunteer positions.
