Everything always runs like clockwork on Sunday mornings. 

The sanctuary always hums with air-conditioning. The chairs are always organised in rows and columns. The communion elements are always neatly lined up at the entrance. 

At exactly 8.30am, the lights go up and the music begins.

Service has started. 

I never gave the order in church much thought. Until COVID hit.

Suddenly, gatherings were prohibited, churches were shut and services forced to go online. The resumption of onsite services during the pandemic brought new challenges: Registration for attendance became a requirement, temperature-taking was compulsory, COVID testing was to be carried out for volunteers and all ministry staff every week.

In the sanctuary, chairs had to be arranged into groups of five, and dismissal from service became painfully slow with the congregation split into smaller groups for exit. 

The level of planning and detail needed to keep running the church became apparent, and the team that had been previously working quietly behind the scenes was thrust into the spotlight.

Many of these workers – who fall into the “administration” side of church work – had to pivot and step up to the plate with little notice, not just to keep the Church going but to keep it going well. 

The Apostle Paul calls this competence an appointment by God and the gift of administration: “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teacher, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.” 1 Corinthians 12:28 (emphasis mine).

In this verse, the Greek word for administrating is kubernésis, which is someone who steers a ship. It is the figurative term for the divine calling which empowers someone to lead in affairs relating to the Church.  

“Some think administration is just paperwork and organisation, but it is more,” said Magdalene Lee, 45, Operations Manager at Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church (BBTC). “It is the ability to steer the church in a certain direction with wisdom, knowledge and know-how.”

In the Old Testament, the work of caring for and maintaining the tabernacle, and later the temple, belonged to the tribe of Levi. The Bible called it a “sacred” duty (Numbers 3:5-9)

“It is meaningful work, because you’re able to directly impact the church without taking on a pastoral role,” said Magdalene.

But church administration has different definitions with different emphases in different churches. Some who are called into the work figure things out along the way, plugging the gaps that needed to be plugged –  from routine operations to strategic issues such as event launches and digitisation of systems.

Recognising the nebulous nature of this ministry, Lim Huey Sheng, office manager at Bethesda Katong Church (BKC), started a community of church administration staff in 2020 to learn and journey together. It has grown from four members to 25 across all denominations.

“I knew that church office management would be challenging for smaller churches, especially if they don’t have anyone to brainstorm with or consult,” Huey Sheng told Salt&Light. 

The group calls itself Bao Ka Liao (a Hokkien term meaning “do it all”), reflecting the all-encompassing role of a church administration. Taking turns to host one another, members share topics of interest, tackle challenges and fellowship over lunch. They also conduct site tours of the host churches, learning how other churches operate.

“There’s a process for every problem”

Armed with 30 years of experience in human resource (HR) with multinational corporations in the information technology (IT) industry, Huey Sheng has learnt that “there is a process for every problem.”  

After 40 years in Bethesda Katong Church (BKC),  Huey Sheng, 65 years old, was familiar with the ins and outs of the church.

When he took on the role, his goal was to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency. “Once you put processes in place and you iron out all the underlying issues, the church runs smoothly,” he explained to Salt&Light.

As Office Manager of the church of 450 members, Huey Sheng is involved in church operations on all levels – from routine operational work to major projects like digitalising church systems.

Although his career in IT prepared him for the digitalisation project, he had to learn the rest: Managing people and myriad tasks in his administration role.  

“I’m the go-to person,” he said.  “When a bird got stuck in the toilet, someone came to me for help. When the coffee machine breaks down, they come to me.”

At one point, he was wearing four to five different hats at a time, including corporate secretary, council secretary and church registrar. But thanks to his familiarity with BKC, Huey Sheng found the work manageable.

He acknowledged that the diversity of tasks can be challenging for heads of church administration when they are new.

Having founded a community of HR professionals during his corporate days, Huey Sheng leveraged that experience to set up BKL. 

“Some of the members have shared that they feel God’s blessing on this group – being able to come together, exchange ideas and encourage one another that will carry us through the days,” Huey Sheng noted.

Apart from a gathering platform for church administrative staff, Huey Sheng hopes BKL will help the Church in a wider context. One of the key projects he has undertaken is mobilising 13 churches within the group to participate in a follow-up salary survey this year by Mercer Consulting. The survey, which aims to provide a benchmark for churches, was done for the first time last September.

Steering the ship

“Many people equate administration to very wu liao (trivial and unnecessary) things,” Magdalene pointed out.

But Church is the Body of Christ, the people. Through the work of admin, Magdalene and her team connect with people and help them.

“It’s not just paperwork and processes, tasks and rules. It’s about people. We deal with members, new visitors, facilities, IT, even HR at some churches,” she said, running through the list of things an administrative team is responsible for. 

“We order breakfast, we feed people, we make sure they have seats and get comfortable when they come into church. If they lose their things, we help them locate it.”

“Church is the Body of Christ, the people,” said Magdalene Lee (right, standing). Through the work of administration, Magdalene and her team connect with people and help them. Photo from Magdalene.

A marketing professional for much of her life, Magdalene had no administration experience until COVID rolled around and the church roped her in to help manage operations. Although reluctant to step into church operations full-time, Magdalene had a change of heart when an intercessor at a prayer meeting gave her a word to “take the plunge”. At that same meeting, Magdalene saw a vision of the plumb line ­– a piece of string with a weight at the end used either to test if something is vertical or straight.

“That was when the message came to me about my assignment: To come in to help strengthen the church, support the church, and be that plumb line for the church team,” she recalled.

Within the first two weeks of her appointment, Magdalene was fielding calls and messages from different people for a host of issues, including the time the faucet in the toilet would not turn off.

“I learned to delegate. I found people who could support and help,” she said.

She likens the work of the administrative team to a river cruising through God’s garden. “We bring water to the people and places that need it. Our job is to ensure the water flows so that the Pastors can focus on doing the gardening.”

The cogwheel that makes the machines run

“I do everything and anything that the pastors don’t do, almost chapalang (a random mixture),” said Linda Sito, Executive Director at Bethesda Pasir Ris Mission Church (BPRMC) in response to people when they ask her what she does in her job in church. 

After 30 years in sales and marketing, events production and public relations, Linda, now 59, decided to take on church administration after she read Acts 6:1-4, which highlighted the challenge of the early church to distribute food for the Hellenistic Jews amidst its rapid growth.

“The early Church understood that if those who are called to pray and preach God’s word are tied up with serving tables, then the Church would be affected,” Linda noted.

As the head of church administration at BPRMC, Linda’s vision is to keep the mechanics of the church running so that the Pastors and the elders can be free to focus on what they are called to do – provide spiritual leadership.

Linda Sito (centre with yellow bag) briefing team members before a community outreach programme. Photo from Linda Sito.

An events producer and a public relations professional prior to this assignment, Linda saw clear parallels between her previous vocation and her current ministry. Both involve turning concepts to reality, require coordinating resources from different places, call for resource and project planning expertise and required meticulous attention to detail.

To Linda, church administration is an intertwined connection of tasks, a “cogwheel that makes the machines run”.

In BPRMC, the church administration also conceptualises the visions of the pastoral team. One of the initiatives was launching a community outreach programme – the team walked the grounds of the community, identified the blocks of flats to target and mobilised the congregation.

As a member of BKL, Linda shared how the community has made her feel like a part of a greater whole.

“Everybody was just very encouraging and very eager to share their own church practices,” she told Salt&Light. “Although we are wired so differently, God could still work through the different churches.”

A lever that amplifies

Justin Sng, 46, was appointed head of administration at Church of Singapore (Marine Parade) in 2023, just ahead of the church’s 60th anniversary. With six major events on their plate, Justin knew his team would be stretched. In his additional role as Chief of Staff overseeing staff development, his focus was on the potential of the administration team to be the “lever that amplifies the work of the Kingdom.” 

Justin Sng (far left) with staff and volunteers getting ready to turn the chapel into a community playground for the church’s 60th anniversary. Photo by Justin Sng.

“Some ideas amplified brings on two times the intended outcome – that’s what good admin does,” Justin said. “Good admin enables whatever your church members, your church staff or coworkers are called to do.”

“Bad admin would tell you, ‘This one cannot, and that one cannot do.’ They become a negative amplifier, halving the potential impact,” he added.

Administration also serves and supports work done externally, not just the “internal perspective” of the church.

“We often see admin as stewards of the church in terms of property or resources,” Justin explained. “If you only have a guardian mindset – making sure that everything is protected – that is a very limited perspective of stewardship.”

Being true stewards of God’s resources means enabling the maximisation of these resources for the Kingdom of God, he told Salt&Light. Examples of this include making church space available for health screenings for seniors this May and a children’s camp organised by Streams of Praise last month. 

Administration is not just about following routines, he noted. It requires active spiritual discernment.

“We can have our standard operating procedures but you can’t cover every possible situation so you actually need to have the discernment of the Holy Spirit,” Justin pointed out.

Coming from “a larger church with more resources”, he felt it was important to help other churches through BKL. As part of the group, he participated in the first salary survey for churches conducted last September by Mercer. 

“As one of the larger churches in BKL, we decided to participate in the survey and pay for the report,” Justin said. “Being an early participant will help seed the Mercer survey so that more churches can join the survey in the future.”

For Huey Sheng, church administration is about providing better service for God. BKL is a community for church administrators to support and be supported.

“Join the BKL group, so you can leverage on the network to give your best to the Lord,” urged Huey Sheng.  

The Bao Ka Liao church administration group meets quarterly. The next meeting takes place  August 14, 2025 at Church of Singapore (Marine Parade). For more information or to join the group, contact Lim Huey Sheng at 9683 1702 or email lim.huey.sheng@bethesdakatong.org

Additional reporting by Beatrice Wu.

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