Recently, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosted their annual awards ceremony and presented Oscars to various individuals recognizing their particular work as the best for the previous year. Almost everyone remembers the winners in Best Picture: The Hurt Locker; Best Actor: Jeff Bridges; and Best Actress: Sandra Bullock. But I wonder how many of us could name the Best Supporting Actor and Actress without some help from Google.

Just as a supporting actor may be overlooked or forgotten, the same is true in a church staff. Ministers are highly visible to a congregation because of the various responsibilities that are theirs, particularly on Sunday mornings. While many positions on a church staff might be classified as supporting positions - hostess, child care, custodial, maintenance, technical - I want to single out the support position that has various titles depending on the church. The position is that of Ministry Assistant or Administrative Assistant, or Secretary.

When I began as a pastor over forty years ago, there were certain basics that were true of most church secretaries. First, they were all women. Their basic skill set included telephone etiquette, shorthand and

dictation, typing (manual or electric), and occasional bookkeeping. She would type letters to be placed in snail mail (although it was just mail then); she cut stencils to use on a mimeograph machine to print the bulletin and newsletter; she used carbon paper when multiple copies were needed of a letter or document; and she received recognition only upon her retirement (supplied only by Social Security).

Today's Professional Administrative Assistant (as Hallmark has designated) is indeed a professional. Not all ministry or administrative assistants are women; several men have entered the profession in recent years. Gone are steno pads for dictation and manual typewriters with stencils and carbon paper. Today's ministry or administrative assistant is computer literate with competencies in multiple software programs. While they still answer the telephone with proper etiquette, they are the first impression for most guests to the church office and some the best public relations that a church has. They still prepare worship bulletins and newsletters, but they also publish these on the website that they maintain, send out mass emails and texts to the congregation, and make sure that the church's Facebook page is up to date. Counseling, conflict resolution and mediation, financial accounting, event planning,

scheduling, office management, and benevolence assistance are just a few of the expanded duties that have been assigned to and performed well by these supporting staff members.

I know personally that in twenty-four years of being a pastor and sixteen years here at DBA, the church secretaries and ministry assistants that I have been privileged to serve with and do serve with now have made a remarkable, positive difference in each church and the association. I have learned far more from them than they have from me. I am blessed to serve with and to have served with the best.

April is a great month to spend some time and creative energy (and money doesn't hurt) in getting to know and recognize the wonderful ministry and administrative assistants who help make your church and the rest of the staff better. “And the winners for Best Supporting Assistants are . . .”