Foundational
Waiting on Tables
Introducing the parachurch as the church in dispersion, her work as deacon ministry at industrial scale, and the orphaning that has to end.
ReadRecovering administration as ministry
The parachurch is the church. Her work is the church's deacon ministry — at scale. The orphaning has to end.
Mission Administration is a body of writing, conversation, and convening for the people doing the operational and administrative work of the global ministry sector — and for the local churches who have not yet recognized them as their own.
This is what we mean.
Most of what the parachurch sector actually does for a living is, in biblical terms, the church's deacon ministry, recovered for the operating conditions of the 21st century and scaled into a global institutional complex. The widow who balances the books for a Bible translation agency is doing the work the apostles entrusted to Spirit-filled men in Acts 6. She has just stopped being recognized for it.
Mission Administration exists to recognize her. To write the framework that names what she is doing. To convene the administrators, finance leaders, technology leaders, HR leaders, and operators across the ministry sector around a shared vocation. And to call the local church to receive her work as her own.
Where to start
Three foundational pieces.
Parachurch as church
The Hands and Feet
The parachurch is not adjacent to the church. She is the church in another shape, in another place, doing the same Lord's work. What that means, and what it asks of both sides.
ReadDeacon ministry at scale
The Recovery of the Diaconal Office
Acts 6, Calvin's Geneva, and the case for recovering the diaconal vocation for the people doing the operational work of global ministry today.
ReadA related body of work
The Flourishing Series.
A four-part series on what happens when the language and metrics of the marketplace quietly become the goal of the ministry. Originally published at Shadebreaker.
About
Brandon Harvath.
Brandon serves as the Chief Administrative Officer of one of the world's largest mission organizations. He has spent thirty years running and advising large, complex enterprises — Fortune 500 operating divisions, healthcare systems, ministries, churches, and nonprofit boards.
He writes from inside the work, not above it. Mission Administration is the body of writing, conversation, and convening that has come out of three decades of doing administration as ministry, and watching it be undervalued by the church and misunderstood by the sector.