Do you know what a church employee does?

When in Youth Ministry, I had youth ask me what I did all day long.  To them, I was there for 2 hours on a Tuesday or Wednesday night and that was the extent of my working.  They didn't see the hours that went into planning the calendar, to keeping the website updated, the meeting upon meeting upon meeting that I was privileged to attend.  They didn't know that sometimes people would just randomly come in, sit down and talk for an hour or so.  They didn't know that I spent hours figuring out how the youth group meeting would go or studying for the talk I would give that night.  They had no idea about such things.  To them all I did was show up on Tuesday or Wednesday, hang out with them and then go home.  Easy job.

HA! Is what I say.  A couple of years ago, I was asked by the Personnel Ministry Team to list everything that I did.  It took up a full 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper and that was probably not comprehensive.  It was enlightening, for me at least.  I know it took a couple of people by surprise.  Which leads me to my question.  Do you know what a church employee does?

The average church-goer, never really gets to see what happens in the church building Monday through Saturday.  The typical church-goer just comes on Sunday morning, spends an hour or so in worship and 20 minutes chatting, maybe 45 minutes in Sunday School and then goes home.  There are the occasional church luncheons or meetings or potluck dinners but rarely do they pop into the church during the week and spend any large amount of time.

If they did come in and sit, maybe in the Administrative Assistants office, they would find that that person doesn't just put the bulletin together for Sunday morning and answer the occasional phone call.  They would find that the Administrative Assistant is responsible for keeping the copy machine, fax machine, postage machine and any other machine in the office operative.  They would find that the Admin schedules everything that happens in the church, hands out keys and instructions on using the facility.  They would follow the Admin around as they put out little fires all day long, IE "Help, there is no microphone set up!  Where is the video projector?  Where is the coffee pot?".  They would see that multiple people come to the door every day, some church folks looking for a little help, some people from the community inquiring about using the facility, some people from the community looking for a little help, some people just trying to sell the church something.  I'm wearing myself out...

They would hear the phone ring again and again and again.  They would listen to conversations about who was using the social hall last and why things weren't put away.  They would listen to complaints about mistakes in the bulletin or newsletter or complaints about the job the janitor is or isn't doing.  They would see the Administrative Assistant wade through email after email, answer questions about events in the church, building usage or things such as "what was the scripture reading from last Sunday's service?"  They would also see the people who stop by for a little bit of counseling...not from the Pastor but from the Admin!  Just stopping by to talk is common in a church office.  And really, what does that person have to do anyway?  They just generate the bulletin for Sunday mornings. 

Do you know what a church employee does?