One of the absolutely best things about being a ministry assistant is the opportunity the position gives to serve—and by your service to make a real difference in the lives of people. Your work has the potential to be more than a fulfilling job. Because working in the church requires skills beyond spelling and grammar, it really can be ministry in the best sense of the word.
While your work is more than managing records, fielding phone calls, scheduling events, and producing publications, how you manage those routine tasks is the heart of your responsibilities. Being involved in ministry does not justify being less than professional in your performance.
Your technical and organizational skills are vitally important.
One meaningful way to show people how much you care for them is to be conscientious in your service to them, to deliver excellence. And yet, in too many offices no one is evaluating administrative effectiveness.
A recent discussion turned to annual job evaluations. “I think I am doing a good job,” remarked one office professional, “but I suppose I don’t really know. We’ve talked about doing evaluations in our office, but no one is interested enough to set them up.”
If you’re not hearing complaints, if everything seems to be humming along, it’s natural to feel confident you are doing just fine. And, it is easy to get so consumed in the people/caring aspects of your work that the technical parts of the job get less than the attention they need.
An annual performance evaluation is the best way to monitor skills, but lacking a structured staff evaluation, doing a quick self-evaluation is a valuable reality check. The key is to give yourself an honest assessment on the issues that most often identify excellence.
These questions will get you started toward taking an objective look at what your job is and how well you are doing it. Before answering, read the questions through. Add any other questions that would help you examine your specific work; delete questions not applicable to what you do.
Then, take the time you need to thoughtfully reflect—and to honestly answer your list of questions.
- Do I come to work on time? Leave on time? Take my lunch hour? Take a break morning and afternoon?
(All these answers should be yes.)
- Do I keep schedules and routines? Or do I put things off or move randomly from one task to another?
- Can I locate needed material and information quickly?
- Have I mastered the basics of my computer programs?
- Am I improving my desktop publishing skills?
- Can I take a vacation without coming back to chaos?
- Does my work have a reputation for being error-free?
- Do I communicate well with others?
- Can I talk frankly with my supervisor?
- Do I generally feel comfortably in control of my workday?
- Do I face my workdays with enthusiasm?
- Do I leave the office each day with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment?
The absence of a formal evaluation need not keep you from assessing your performance. You owe it to yourself to do this for yourself.
Having confidence is good. Proving your work style is effective is even better. Do what it takes to do your job well!
Please share your thoughts, comments, questions!