Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of building Virtual Church Assist, a company that supports churches and Christian organisations around our country by handling the behind-the-scenes work that keeps ministries running. We provide virtual administrative assistance, communications and operational support, and a whole lot more. In other words, we do the work that often goes unnoticed… until it doesn’t get done.
Indispensable Work
As we’ve worked alongside more and more churches over the years, we’ve seen again and again how indispensable the work of ministry support is. We come in at a time when a ministry support worker has finished up and left a gaping hole in a staff team, or at a time where pastors or staff teams are feeling burdened. Without the extra hands of ministry support, important and necessary behind-the-scenes tasks easily swallow up the pressured time of those entrusted with building the church and reaching the lost. Both the ministry staff and the wider congregation feel the impact. These brothers and sisters are the hidden pillars propping up countless gospel efforts in Australia and beyond.
Not Really Ministry?
Sometimes it can feel as if ministry support staff are the only ones in the church who are not doing “real ministry”. Of course there’s the pastor, the growth group leader, the evangelist, those engaged in one-to-one discipleship: they are doing ministry. There are others we also consider to be doing ministry: the leader in charge of running games at youth group; the church band member on drums; the person who cooks for the introduction to Christianity course. But somehow, as soon as someone is paid to work in church admin, they are no longer “doing ministry”, they are “supporting ministry”. Is that right?
The Spiritual Ministry of Ministry Support
The administrative assistant preparing bulletins, replying to emails, and organising the calendar is not simply being helpful—they are supporting the shepherding of God’s people. The finance manager who ensures the bills are paid and ministry workers receive their wages is freeing others to preach and teach without distraction. The communications coordinator shaping newsletters, sermon slides, and social media is helping people engage with God’s word and their church community. Ministry support work is tightly interwoven with gospel ministry itself. Where their responsibilities involve communication, there is often at least some degree to which the ministry support worker is charged with communicating God’s word, in both spoken and written media.
As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12, every part of the body matters. We often esteem the up-front preacher and forget the significance of the person who prepared the room, created the slides, or ensured all child-safe compliance was in order so the ministry to children could go ahead. “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1 Cor 12:18) and together God will use them to build his church. The growth of the church does not happen by chance. God works, by his Spirit, through faithful everyday obedience. Ministry support workers play a vital role in nurturing healthy church ecosystems where God’s word can be faithfully preached and believers can be built up. They make gospel ministry sustainable.
More than that, those involved in ministry support often provide a quiet but powerful pastoral presence. In our work at Virtual Church Assist, we’ve seen first-hand how support workers are often the ones fielding prayer requests, noticing who hasn’t turned up to church, or calming someone who calls the office in tears. They encourage pastors, protect their time, and love the flock in a hundred unseen ways. Supporting gospel ministry can open doors for direct gospel ministry.
Important Distinctions
There are some important distinctions here. Good and useful work has value, whoever does it and wherever it is done. More, whether a Christian is doing good secular work or good church support work, if they are doing it in service to the Lord Jesus, he sees and rewards the labour of his faithful servants (Col 3:23–24).
The ministry of the word and prayer is distinct from other kinds of ministry (Acts 6:1–7). This is what Paul refers to as the “greater gifts” in 1 Corinthians 12:28–31: gifts that speak the word of God and so build the church (see 1 Cor 14:1–25). These ministries are necessary to the very essence of what it means to be a church of Christ, in a way that musical accompaniment or financial management are not. To a very significant extent other ministries serve the ministry of the word.
But when good work of administration, communications, and operational support is conducted by Christians in service of the ministry of the word and prayer, here we have a genuine expression of spiritual gifts at work. The work of ministry support is also often intertwined with word ministry, just as word ministry is often intertwined with practical and administrative work. We should not be surprised when this support work spills over into many opportunities for the support worker to speak the word of God to others.
A New Conference for Ministry Support Workers
That’s why, as we enter a new season at VCA, we’re not only continuing to offer support services—we’re also creating opportunities for these workers to be equipped and encouraged in their roles. One way we’re doing this is through a one-day conference later this year designed specifically for people in ministry support roles. It’s our small contribution to see these indispensable saints strengthened for long-term gospel service. It’s a space to encourage, equip, and honour the hands and feet of gospel ministry—the ones who rarely seek the spotlight but whose contribution is essential to the life and health of the Church. Our prayer is that through gatherings like this we might remind these faithful workers that their role is not just helpful, but holy—that insofar as they contribute to the administration of prayer and the word of God, their labour in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58).
