While the administrative assistant role in a church is not a pastoral role, it is still an essential role that helps to keep the church running smoothly and efficiently. As a reminder the administrative assistant may handle a variety of jobs including the HR work, handling church finances, scheduling of appointments, sending out emails, and running the church phone. They deal heavily with the church congregation members in helping them to set up appointments for counseling and mentorship and work heavily with the rest of the church staff.
If you don’t know the questions you should ask your candidates during their interviews, then you’ve come to the right place! We at JustChurchJobs want to help in any way that we can and as such we have come up with a list of what we think are the best interview questions to ask in your search for the right candidate to fill your administrative assistant role! So, let’s get started then!
What is your testimony?
We here at JustChurchJobs believe that this question should always be asked first and foremost no matter what role it is you are trying to fill within your church. A testimony is an individual’s life story of what their life was like before they came to Christ, when they came to salvation in Christ, and their transformed life after salvation in Christ. Sharing a testimony requires vulnerability which is a key trait to have for any position in ministry and for sharing the gospel.
Do you have experience from previous administrative assistant roles?
This is a solid question to ask any of your candidates just to get a good idea of how much they know of the administrative assistant role and potentially how much training that they will need. Someone who already understands the ins and out of the role would be beneficial to hire.
Do you have experience handling finances?
This is another important question to ask especially if your administrative assistant role is the primary handler of the church finances. This is good experience for the candidate to have so that you do not have to train them on how to handle finances or must move the responsibility to another person.
What are some ways that you can spread the gospel in this position?
This question will not only gauge their fire for the Lord but also their creativity. Being an administrative assistant, they wouldn’t be meeting people like the pastors of the church that would meet for specific spiritual needs however, the administrative assistant would be interacting with a lot of people on any given day and would have many gospel opportunities. People that come into the church are not always Christ followers like postage workers who come to drop off packages and homeless people who may be looking to rest for a while. The candidate should have a desire to share the gospel however they can.
How would you handle an angry member of the congregation over the phone?
As the primary worker who runs the phone for the church, the candidate in this role would more than likely must deal with angry congregation members at some point. Whether it be a discrepancy about what was said during a sermon on a Sunday or an issue with a decision the church made, the candidate should be prepared to resolve conflict in the most peaceful way possible.
What strategies do you have to stay organized?
Organization is essential part of this role as the administrative assistant will deal heavily with creating appointments for people to meet with pastors, taking phone calls from people of the church congregation making information inquiries, and keeping track of packages and mail coming in and out of the church.
We hope that this short guide has been beneficial to you in some way whether you end up using some of these questions in your interviews or if these questions have given you an idea of some questions that you want to ask! We at JustChurchJobs are here to help however we can and if you are struggling to find high-quality candidates to fill your administrative assistant position, we can even help with that too!
