Most churches have never onboarded anyone. A new administrative assistant shows up, someone finds a key, the email gets created three weeks later, and Safe Gatherings comes up in month four when a volunteer asks. Larger churches have proper systems; everyone else has a shrug. This is the checklist that turns the shrug into a process — for any paid hire, and adaptable for key volunteers.
Before you start
Don’t schedule a first day until these exist:
- A written job description, developed with the pastor and approved per your staff policy (¶258.2g.12). If there isn’t one, write it first — the job-description templates exist so this takes an hour, not a month.
- A named owner for this checklist. One person — usually the office administrator or the pastor — owns getting every box checked. A checklist owned by “the church” is owned by no one.
- The employment basics arranged: pay rate and schedule confirmed with the treasurer, and the required federal/state employment paperwork identified. We deliberately don’t summarize tax or eligibility forms here — use the IRS and USCIS official pages (see Elsewhere) and your payroll provider’s checklist.
The workflow
Before day one
- Offer letter or simple employment agreement signed; start date set.
- Payroll set up with the treasurer/bookkeeper (rate, schedule, time-tracking method if non-exempt — check classification, don’t guess; see Elsewhere).
- Church email address created. Record it — and every account this person will hold — in your account registry, whatever form that takes: who owns it, who can reset it, where two-factor codes land. Recovery must never point at a personal cell alone.
- Key or door code arranged; alarm code if applicable. Write down that they hold it (never the code itself) on the key log.
- Safe Gatherings (or your conference’s equivalent certification) application started — it takes days to weeks, so it starts before day one, not after.
- Workspace ready: desk, computer login, phone extension, copier code.
- Tell the congregation. A new staff member introduced in worship and the newsletter starts known instead of mysterious.
Day one
- Welcome by the pastor — not handed off cold to whoever’s in the office.
- Building tour: exits, breakers, thermostat, supply closets, where the Christmas decorations hide, which door sticks.
- Keys/codes handed over; key log signed.
- Personnel policy and job description reviewed together; both acknowledged in writing (a dated signature on a copy is enough).
- Remaining employment paperwork completed and filed.
- The introductions map (below) — day one includes meeting or at least emailing the SPRC chair.
First week
- Walk the weekly rhythm together once: bulletin deadline, when the pastor is unreachable, how facility requests come in, what Sunday morning needs.
- All accounts live and tested — email sending, calendar access, giving or management software as the role requires; each one in the registry.
- Safe Gatherings progress checked.
- A standing check-in on the calendar with their supervisor — 15 minutes weekly beats an open door nobody walks through.
First 90 days
- 30-day conversation with supervisor: what’s unclear, what’s missing, what surprised them. Adjust the job description if reality already disagrees with it.
- Safe Gatherings certification confirmed complete; expiration date recorded wherever you track certifications.
- 90-day review with the supervisor and an SPRC representative — against the job description, in writing, no surprises. This also sets the pattern for the annual evaluation (¶258.2g.5).
- Checklist owner closes this list out and files it. That file is the start of the personnel record.
Who does what
| Role | Owns |
|---|---|
| Pastor | Welcome, expectations, weekly-rhythm walk-through |
| Checklist owner (usually office admin) | The list itself — every box, chased to done |
| SPRC chair | Job description, policy acknowledgment, 90-day review (¶258.2g) |
| Treasurer/bookkeeper | Payroll, employment paperwork filing |
One person can wear three of these hats in a small church. The hats still exist.
Variations
- Volunteers in key roles (nursery coordinator, counters, youth helpers): skip payroll; keep the job description (one page), Safe Gatherings, the key log, the registry entry, and the introductions. Certification tracking matters more for volunteers — there are more of them and nobody’s watching expiration dates.
- Part-time and shared staff: the whole list applies; the failure mode is assuming someone at 10 hours/week will “pick things up.” They have fewer hours to pick anything up — the checklist is how they survive.
- Single-board churches: replace “SPRC chair” with whoever holds the staff-relations function on your board; the closed-session and confidentiality rules still apply to those conversations (see the governance-model pages).
- A new pastor is a different, bigger workflow — appointments, parsonage, handoff of accounts and records. See the pastoral-transition checklists.
Elsewhere
- IRS — employer forms and first-hire requirements — the official source for federal employment paperwork; don’t take a summary’s word for it, including ours. (irs.gov)
- U.S. Department of Labor — FLSA topics — for the exempt/non-exempt question you should ask about any salaried role. (dol.gov)
- Safe Gatherings — the abuse-prevention certification program many UMC conferences require; application, training, and background check in one flow. (safegatherings.com)
- GCFA / UMC Support — legal and HR resources for local churches, including employment topics. (gcfa.org)
- Your payroll provider’s new-hire checklist — Gusto, QuickBooks, and the rest each publish one; it complements this list on the tax-and-forms side.