I have asked my personal assistant, Erin Brown, to share with you for the next 2 or 3 days some of her insights on serving in this role at People’s Church.
There are a few things that I would like to share with you over the next couple of days. I invite all of the pastors reading this to have your assistants read it as well. You never know where you will get something that might be helpful.
One of the most important roles I play as Herbert’s assistant is to be his “filter.” I get many, many calls every week almost all of which want to talk to Herbert. There is no possible way in a church our size that he can take all of the calls and meet all of the needs and still be able to effectively study, pray and deliver the messages that we enjoy every Sunday. Something would suffer. Herbert has built a great team that assists him in carrying this load. I would say that less than 5% of the calls actually get through to Herbert. I have found, that if I stop and ask a few questions to gather some details, most of the time either I can help them or another pastor would be more effective in taking care of their need.
Confidentiality and trust are vital in my role as an assistant. There has to be a level of trust where it is understood that I can be given information and it goes no further. It is extremely important to know that you have people around you that you can trust.
