Creative Church Administration

Abstract

Why another book on church administration? In responding to that question it may be helpful first to review the changing emphases in church administration since the turn of the century. The first books to be published on church administration can be described simply as sharing experiences. They are to church administration, as we know it today, what reminiscences and autobiographies are to history. The value of these early efforts to systematize the experiences of a "successful" pastor should not be dismissed lightly, however. Their authors made several significant contributions, among them the sharing of "lessons from experience," the recognition that there were skills that could be transmitted from one person to another, and the focusing of attention on another dimension of the minister's work in addition to the traditional responsibilities of preaching, visitation, and evangelism.