The Executive Assistant supports the pastoral staff and daily operations of Church of the Advent Hope by executing defined recurring tasks and completing ad-hoc assignments delegated by the Lead Pastor and the Pastor for Community Life. This role is an executor — not a strategist, operations director, or department head. The person in this role keeps the engine of the church running by handling inbound communications, coordinating the calendar with the Communications & Marketing Director, and providing reliable, detail-oriented support to the staff team.
Core Responsibility Areas
The Executive Assistant has three core responsibility areas. Everything this role does should be traceable back to one of these three buckets.
1. Communications Triage (inbound)
- Monitor the general church inbox ([email protected] and equivalent aliases) during scheduled work hours. Respond to routine inquiries using approved templates; route pastoral, financial, or sensitive inquiries to the appropriate pastor or staff member within one business day.
- Monitor the church voicemail line daily during scheduled work hours. Return routine calls within one business day; forward pastoral-care calls to the appropriate pastor by end of day.
- Monitor Intercom (website chat) during scheduled work hours. Respond to routine questions; route complex questions to the right staff member.
- Receive and sort physical mail. Log checks and deposit-ready items for the Bookkeeper; scan and forward time-sensitive mail to the appropriate staff member.
- Maintain a running log of communications volume (counts by channel, types of inquiries) and report monthly to the Lead Pastor.
2. Calendar and Schedule Coordination (with Communications & Marketing Director)
- Maintain the master church calendar (Google Workspace) as the single source of truth for services, events, staff meetings, rentals, and pastoral availability.
- Work weekly with the Communications & Marketing Director to confirm which events are being marketed, on what schedule, and through which channels (website, email, social). The Executive Assistant owns accuracy of the calendar; the Communications & Marketing Director owns promotion of it.
- Open and confirm rental bookings on the calendar; coordinate with the Property Manager on room setup needs.
- Schedule and send calendar invites for pastoral staff meetings, board meetings, elders' meetings, and other recurring gatherings.
- Compile information packets for quarterly board meetings — agenda materials, prior minutes, supporting documents — and circulate in advance of the meeting.
- Handle RSVPs, sign-ups, and registrations for events not handled by Eventbrite self-service — e.g., baptism and baby dedication preparation, pastoral appointments, Conversations & Cuisine seating.
3. Staff Support and Task Execution
- Execute specific tasks assigned by the Lead Pastor or Pastor for Community Life through the shared task system (Todoist). Acknowledge receipt within 1 business day; confirm completion with a brief status update.
- Prepare Sabbath morning support materials: update the lobby announcement board, ensure interest cards and tithe cards are stocked, and stage any printed handouts provided by the Communications & Marketing Director.
- Attend the weekly staff meeting and the weekly admin meeting (currently Tuesdays and Wednesdays via Zoom). Take notes and circulate action items within 1 business day.
- Compile materials for quarterly board meetings (does not attend the meeting itself); circulate minutes drafted by the Clerk.
- Maintain a simple, well-organized filing system (Google Drive) for staff documents, vendor records, and church records.
- Order office supplies and Sabbath-morning consumables (printer supplies, kitchen paper goods) against a pre-approved budget set by the Lead Pastor.
- Maintain routine vendor relationships for administrative, office-supply, and software-subscription vendors — confirm invoices, process renewals, escalate issues. Building vendors, contractors, insurance, and renter relationships remain with the Property Manager.
- Provide administrative support for baptism, baby dedication, wedding, and funeral logistics as directed by a pastor.
Weekly Schedule
The Executive Assistant works a set weekly schedule, Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM (20 hours per week):
- Tuesday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Staff meeting attendance; triage weekend email/voicemail backlog; circulate staff meeting action items.
- Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Admin meeting attendance; calendar review with the Communications & Marketing Director; weekly task triage.
- Thursday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Process mail; review routine vendor invoices and renewals; respond to ad-hoc task list; weekly staff coordination.
- Friday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Sabbath preparation handoff to the Sabbath Coordinator and Support Team Lead; confirm next-week calendar.
Schedule flexes during Advent, Holy Week, and the start of the church year. Additional hours during these peaks may be approved in advance by the Lead Pastor.
Skills and Qualifications
Required
- High school diploma or equivalent.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, particularly in email and phone contexts.
- Demonstrated proficiency with Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets).
- Comfort learning and using digital tools (current stack includes Salesforce, Zoom, Squarespace, Todoist, Constant Contact, Mowgli, Intercom, Ramp, Proclaim; the Executive Assistant is not expected to administer all of these but will interact with several).
- Ability to use Anthropic Claude as a working tool — Claude will be part of the daily rhythm of this job for drafting, summarizing, triaging, and task execution. Willingness to learn responsible AI use within the church's guidelines is essential.
- Proficient at problem-solving and getting things done — bias toward action, ability to close out tasks without repeated handholding, and judgment about when to escalate.
- Strong organizational skills; ability to follow through on recurring tasks without reminders.
- Discretion with confidential pastoral, personnel, and financial information.
Preferred
- Prior administrative, office, or executive-assistant experience.
- Associate's or bachelor's degree.
- Prior experience working in a church, nonprofit, or mission-driven organization.
- Familiarity with Salesforce, Todoist, or similar CRM/project management tools.
- Basic design or layout familiarity (Canva) to support events and Sabbath morning materials.
Pay: $30.00 - $35.00 per hour
Work Location: In person
