Not a political religion thread, but are there any Church Secretaries, Office Managers, Admins...

[Bavorskoami]

11. As the husband of a church secretary

As the husband of a church admin asst./secretary I can understand your pain, but also can say it is not always that way.

My wife had about 13 years of extremely meaningful and joyous service to our church. Her relationships with the pastors, starting with an interim pastor, then a settled pastor for 11 years, and then another interim, after the death of the settled pastor. All of those pastors were humble, displayed a true "pastor's heart" and loved being servants to the congregation and the universal church. She absolutely loved serving the church during that time. That is not say they their were not stressful moments, needy congregants, calls at night from people trying to contact the pastor because of one crisis or another - serious illness, death, wedding plans, maintaining confidentiality in many sensitive matters, etc. But she still felt called to serve.

Then came the next pastor hired to be the settled pastor. Narcissism, controlling management behavior, gaslighting, triangulation were all part of his modus operandi. The situation became untenable and she had to leave the position she had loved.

So sorry you are not having the experience my wife had for most of her career in the church office.