Church operations director: what they do and how much they earn
Table of Contents
- What does a church operations director do all week?
- How does church size change the job?
- How much do church operations directors earn?
- How is the job different from an executive pastor?
- What background do churches look for?
- How do you move into church operations from another career?
- Frequently asked questions
- Ask for the org chart before you talk salary
A church with even one employee has to run payroll, renew its property insurance, answer a call from the alarm company at 2 a.m., and decide who gets the fellowship hall when a wedding and a youth lock-in land on the same Saturday. Once a congregation adds paid staff or a second building, the work usually lands on one desk, and the person behind that desk is the church operations director.
A church operations director runs a church's business side, including budgets, facilities, HR and payroll, technology, and safety, so pastors can focus on ministry. Operations roles pay a median of about $63k across 1,216 listings with complete salary ranges, according to ChristianJobsList.com listing data (as of October 2026), and one large-church posting reaches $115k-$135k.
Key takeaways
| Part of the role | What we found |
|---|---|
| Core duties | Budgets and giving reports, buildings and security, HR policies and payroll, vendors, insurance, and church technology |
| Reporting line | Usually the lead or senior pastor; sometimes an executive pastor at large churches |
| Pay on our board | Operations listings: median about $63k (1,216 roles with ranges). Administration listings: median about $50k (602 roles) |
| Pay in church postings | $68k-$78k at a 1,150-member church; $100k-$135k for executive-level roles at large and multisite churches |
| Background | A bachelor's degree plus five or more years of management experience, with faith alignment and church membership |
| Church size | Small churches spread the work across a pastor, part-time staff, and volunteers; full-time directors appear as staff grows |
Last updated October 2026
What does a church operations director do all week?
The church operations director owns everything a congregation needs to function that isn't preaching or pastoral care. Job descriptions from churches of different sizes and traditions describe the same four buckets of work, weighted differently depending on the church.
Many churches trace the job back to Acts 6, where the apostles appointed seven men to oversee the daily food distribution so they could give their attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. A large Presbyterian church in South Carolina put the modern version plainly in its 2026 posting: the role exists "to remove administrative burden from pastoral staff."
Finance and giving
Finance appears in all four church postings cited here. A director builds and monitors the annual budget, sends monthly budget reports to ministry leaders so each department knows where it stands, makes sure quarterly giving statements go out, and works with a bookkeeper or an outside accounting firm. At Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, the posting has no direct accounting duties attached, yet it still expects the director to understand monthly reporting, reconciling, banking, payroll, and 403(b) transfers well enough to oversee them.
Buildings, safety, and risk
Church buildings host far more than Sunday services, from weddings and funerals to recovery groups and community meetings. Operations directors handle maintenance and custodial staff, bids and contracts for improvement projects, facility-use requests, door locks and security cameras, alarm response, and insurance for both people and property. Larger churches add campus safety plans and long-range capital projects.
HR and staff systems
Staff care and compliance take up a steady share of the week. Directors keep the employee handbook current, write job descriptions, run annual reviews, manage pay scales and benefits, and keep personnel records in order. Some mid-size churches pair the director with an outside HR firm, as Idlewild does, while large churches hire a dedicated HR manager who reports to the director.
Technology, calendars, and Sundays
The church management database, accounting software, shared calendars, and staff email accounts often fall to operations by default. In a young or portable church the job reaches into Sunday morning too. New City Church's operations director posting on the Acts 29 network includes scheduling setup and teardown teams, stocking first-time guest gifts, and maintaining the box truck that hauls the church's equipment each week.
How does church size change the job?
Church size decides whether the role exists at all, and what it looks like when it does. Half of U.S. congregations had 65 or fewer people at weekend worship in 2020, the Hartford Institute for Religion Research found in its Faith Communities Today survey. Published postings show the work changing as churches grow.
| Church setting | What the operations job looks like |
|---|---|
| Small congregation | No director. The pastor, a part-time administrator, a volunteer treasurer, and trustees split the work |
| Church plant or portable church | A hands-on director who runs Sunday logistics, volunteers, guest follow-up, and the budget with a bookkeeper (New City Church) |
| Established church of about 1,150 members | A director supervising finance, kitchen, custodial, and maintenance staff and serving as liaison to the budget, property, and technology committees (Idlewild Presbyterian) |
| Large church with a K-8 school, about 1,700 members | An executive operations director over an HR manager, accountant, facilities managers, and IT for both church and school (Mitchell Road Presbyterian) |
| Multisite church | An executive director or pastor of ministry operations over finance, HR, administration, and operations at every campus (Chapelstreet Church) |
The skill set shifts as you move down that table.
At a church plant, the director is part event planner and part volunteer coordinator. At a large church, the job looks like a nonprofit chief operating officer's, with direct reports, audits, and long-range planning.
How much do church operations directors earn?
Church operations pay ranges widely because the title covers everything from a part-time coordinator at a young church to an executive running a campus with a school. Our listings give you the broad market, and individual church postings show what the director-level job pays at specific congregations.
What our listings show
Our data pools every listing on the board in each category, so churches sit alongside Christian schools, ministries, nonprofits, and health systems. Each listing counts at the midpoint of its published range; the table shows the median and the middle half of those midpoints.
| Category on our board | Median (listings with complete ranges) | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Operations | About $63k (1,216) | $44k-$95k |
| Administration | About $50k (602) | $42k-$66k |
| Finance | About $70k (185) | $53k-$96k |
| Human resources | About $86k (85) | $60k-$121k |
| Facilities | About $42k (121) | $34k-$56k |
Read the operations row as the broad market a church operations director works in, and the administration row as the closer match for church administrator and office manager jobs. The facilities row shows roughly what the custodial and maintenance staff a director supervises are paid. Our listings include part-time jobs, and we convert their hourly pay into a full-year figure, so a part-time office role is counted at its full-time pay, which is more than the person in it earns. You can compare more categories on the ChristianJobsList salary data page.
What churches publish in their own postings
Individual church postings from 2025 and 2026 give a sharper picture of the director-level job:
- Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, with about 1,150 members, two pastors, and 12 full-time and six part-time staff, offered $68,000 to $78,000 plus benefits for a 40-hour director of operations role.
- Chapelstreet Church, a multisite church, listed $100,000 to $120,000 for its executive director or pastor of ministry operations.
- Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, with about 1,700 members and a K-8 academy, listed $115,000 to $135,000 and asked for 10 or more years of operations and finance leadership.
Pay varies by region and budget, so treat these as reference points. Across these postings, each step up in pay comes with more direct reports and, often, a school or extra campuses.
How church pay compares with the wider market
Church-specific roles can sit below cross-sector medians, especially at mid-size churches. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median of $105,770 for general and operations managers across all industries as of May 2025, and administrative services managers and facilities managers earned medians of $114,130 and $106,660. Idlewild's entire published range sits below all three.
Only the largest churches in the sample, with schools or several campuses, reach that level.
If you're moving from a corporate operations job, expect a pay cut at many mid-size churches and budget for it before you apply. Widen the search to operations roles at Christian schools and faith-based nonprofits too, since the same skills transfer and the pay varies by employer.
How is the job different from an executive pastor?
An executive pastor and an operations director often share an org chart. Church leadership writer Dan Reiland separates the church business administrator from the executive pastor: the administrator covers finances, buildings and grounds, technology, office management, and some HR, while the executive pastor acts as a coach for ministry staff and leadership.
Mitchell Road's structure shows both seats filled. Its executive operations director reports to the executive pastor and oversees the business functions, while pastors lead ministry. At Chapelstreet, the title is "Executive Director/Pastor," which leaves room for either a business leader or an ordained one. When a posting blends the two titles, ask in the first interview how much of the week goes to ministry and how much to the business office.
What background do churches look for?
Church operations postings ask for a mix of management experience and spiritual fit. The skills side looks familiar to anyone from business or nonprofit administration:
- A bachelor's degree, required at Mitchell Road and Chapelstreet and preferred at Idlewild, with an MBA, CPA, or business-related graduate degree a plus at larger churches.
- Five or more years of management experience, the common floor, with Mitchell Road asking for 10 or more.
- Hands-on supervision of employees, plus enough HR knowledge to apply employment law correctly.
- Comfort reading financial statements, building a budget, and working with auditors or an outside accounting firm.
- Experience with accounting software and church databases.
The faith side is where church jobs differ from other operations work. Every posting reviewed here asks for a personal faith in Christ, and most expect you to join the church, either at hire or within a set period. New City Church asks staff to pursue membership within 90 days and to tell a supervisor if they can no longer affirm the church's beliefs.
A credential can help if you're already in church work. The Church Network's Certified Church Administrator program has candidates complete core modules with a cohort and submit a project and paper, and it expects three years of experience by the time you finish.
How do you move into church operations from another career?
Many church operations directors build their skills outside the church first, and the paths that transfer best are the ones where you already ran budgets or managed people. Strong starting points include:
- A business office or operations job at a Christian school, where you've handled tuition, facilities, and staff files.
- Nonprofit administration, especially roles with grant reporting or board committee work.
- Facilities or property management, paired with a course in nonprofit accounting.
- Bookkeeping or HR at a small business, where you've worn several hats at once.
- A church administrator or office manager role, which can lead to a director seat at the same church.
Search under several titles, because churches name this job differently: director of operations, operations director, church administrator, business administrator, and director of parish operations all describe overlapping work. The Christian operations jobs and Christian administration jobs categories on our board list these openings, and Christian facilities jobs is a practical way into a church staff if you're coming from the trades.
In the interview, show the church a system you built: a budget report a ministry leader could read, a facility-use process that ended double bookings, or an onboarding checklist that cut a new hire's first week of confusion. Pastors hiring for this seat are looking for someone who will take work off their plate, and proof of past systems tells them more than a list of skills.
Frequently asked questions
Is a church administrator the same as an operations director?
The two titles overlap, and some churches use them interchangeably. A church administrator usually manages the office, records, scheduling, and day-to-day support. An operations director typically holds a director-level seat with authority over finance, facilities, and personnel. Directors often supervise other staff and work directly with the lead pastor or church board on budgets and policy.
Do you need a degree to be a church operations director?
Three of the four church postings we reviewed require or prefer a bachelor's degree, and the largest also prefers an MBA, CPA, or business graduate degree. Experience counts heavily, with five or more years of management common for mid-size churches. Smaller churches may weigh proven church or nonprofit administration experience above a specific degree.
Can a church operations director work part time?
Yes. Smaller churches and church plants sometimes hire part-time operations staff, often under titles like operations coordinator or church administrator. Those part-time jobs tend to center on finances and scheduling. Full-time director roles usually appear once a church has several employees to supervise or a school to manage.
Does a church operations director have to be a pastor?
No. None of the four church postings cited here requires ordination. They hire for business and management skills, though each asks for personal faith and most expect church membership. Some churches title the role "executive pastor" or "director/pastor." A housing allowance generally applies only to ministerial roles, as IRS Publication 517 explains, so ask how the church classifies the job.
Ask for the org chart before you talk salary
Two churches can post the same title and offer very different jobs. One expects you to run Sunday setup and teardown out of a box truck. Another hands you an HR manager and a slate of capital projects. Before the salary conversation, ask the church for its staff chart, its annual budget, and the number of buildings you would oversee, and measure the offer against the scope of the job you would be doing.
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