Director of Operations
About Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church is a Lutheran congregation in Madison, Wisconsin, serving families through Word and Sacrament ministry, a K–8 school, and an early childhood ministry — all on a shared campus on Madison's west side. Learn more at orlmadison.org.
Our ministry is shaped by five core values: gathering around the mysteries of God in the Divine Service; passing on the faith handed down to the saints; belonging to one another as members of Christ's body; helping people see Christ in neighbor; and being a home away from home for the Lord's pilgrim people.
We are looking for a Director of Operations who understands that keeping a ministry running well is itself a form of service and who wants to do that work here.
Position Summary
The Director of Operations supports the mission of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church and School by building and maintaining the administrative infrastructure that keeps the ministry running well. This role exists to create operational resilience so that the people and systems behind the ministry are organized, equipped, and cared for. When this role is working, the ministry is free to focus on the people it serves.
The Director of Operations is the senior administrative leader of the parish, responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations across the campus, developing and maintaining the processes and records the organization depends on, and ensuring that staff, facilities, and communications are well-managed and well-supported. The Director of Operations also serves as the internal liaison to outsourced financial accounting services, providing source data, receiving reports, and keeping staff and leadership informed on the financial picture.
This is not a support role waiting to be activated. The Director of Operations is a self-directed operator who anticipates problems, plans ahead, and manages operational needs independently. The Executive Pastor leads the work of setting strategic direction; the Director executes the plan and leads operationally on their own. When this person is working well, the highs and lows of ministry life are smoothed out over time.
Ministry Structure
This position is hired by the Executive Board of Our Redeemer.
This position reports to the Executive Pastor.
This position is advisory to the Ministry Team.
This position will be supported by dedicated administrative assistance. The Director of Operations will shape and develop this support structure as part of their operational responsibilities.
Areas of Oversight
The following areas are listed in order of strategic priority, not frequency.
Process Development and Documentation — Develop, maintain, and continuously improve the operational policies, procedures, and documentation the parish depends on. Ensure that institutional knowledge is held by the organization, not by any individual.
Staff Care and Support — Oversee staff recordkeeping, onboarding and offboarding, staff handbook maintenance, and development of practices that support a healthy and mission-aligned work environment. Direct and develop compensation and benefits systems, evaluating, recommending, and maintaining the employment package so that staff are well-supported and the parish is providing the best Christian workplace it can. Develop, manage, and supervise administrative support staff.
Financial Liaison — Serve as the internal point of contact for outsourced professional financial services. Provide timely and accurate source data, receive and distribute financial reports, track budget status for ministry leaders, and ensure leadership has the financial awareness needed for informed decision-making. This role does not perform bookkeeping or financial execution; those functions belong to a licensed CPA.
Parish Communications — Oversee all print and digital communications, including newsletters, bulletins, service folders, website updates, announcements, and other materials produced for internal and external distribution.
Scheduling and Campus Coordination — Manage the parish calendar, including coordination of shared spaces across the church, school, and early childhood ministry, and ensure that organized, reliable schedules are maintained and communicated.
Facilities and Technology — Oversee campus operations, access control, maintenance coordination, and the procurement and support of technology equipment and information infrastructure. Ensure that a designated staff representative is on-site and available whenever contractors or vendors are working on campus.
Special Projects — Oversee and execute special projects assigned by the Executive Pastor, including efforts that advance the Ministry Strategic Plan.
Day-to-Day Duties
Maintain and improve operational workflows across the campus, anticipating bottlenecks and resolving coordination issues before they reach ministry leadership.
Serve as the primary operational contact for vendors, contractors, and service providers, including facilities maintenance, janitorial services, technology vendors, and insurance providers. Coordinate annual insurance renewals in partnership with the Executive Board.
Manage the parish scheduling system, coordinate room and resource reservations, and resolve scheduling conflicts across the church, school, and early childhood ministry.
Prepare and review parish-wide communications (e.g. bulletins, newsletters, website updates, signage) for accuracy, clarity, and consistency with established parish standards. Where standards do not yet exist, develop and document them.
Maintain all staff records and ensure that onboarding and offboarding processes are thorough, documented, and executed completely. Ensure that departing staff do not take access, credentials, or institutional knowledge with them.
Provide outsourced financial professionals with accurate source data on the established schedule, including but not limited to offering records, tuition and attendance data, payroll source documents, and vendor invoices. Receive and review monthly and quarterly financial reports; flag items requiring leadership attention.
Monitor departmental budget awareness and serve as a resource to ministry leaders who need to understand their current financial position. Manage purchasing coordination across departments, ensuring that expenditures align with approved budgets and available funds. Establish and maintain purchasing procedures.
Maintain the parish record-keeping system, including membership, administrative, operational, and staff records. Ensure that records are organized, accessible to authorized personnel, and not dependent on any single individual to locate or retrieve.
Keep an active inventory of all system credentials, vendor contacts, access codes, and operational reference materials documented and stored where leadership can access them independently.
Prepare operational reports and updates for the Ministry Team and Executive Board as needed.
Complete special projects as assigned by the Executive Pastor, keeping leadership informed of progress and documentation throughout.
Qualifications
Education and Experience
A bachelor's degree in business administration, nonprofit management, operations, or a related field is preferred. Demonstrated professional experience in operations, office management, or organizational administration may be considered in combination with a degree.
Minimum of three to five years of experience in an operations or administrative management role, with demonstrated responsibility for systems, staff, and organizational coordination.
Experience working in a nonprofit, church, or school environment is preferred but not required. What matters most is demonstrated operational competence and the ability to adapt professional skills to Our Redeemer's ministry setting.
Experience managing vendor relationships, facilities coordination, or technology administration is a meaningful asset.
Skills and Abilities
Strong commitment to upholding and enabling the core values of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.
Demonstrated ability to build, document, and improve operational systems; not just execute tasks, but design processes that others can follow and that outlast any single person.
Analytical capability: comfortable working with data, reviewing financial reports, identifying trends, and communicating financial information clearly to non-financial audiences.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear, professional documents for internal and external distribution.
High proficiency with productivity and collaboration software. Willing to learn and adopt new tools when they serve the organization's needs. Not resistant to technology.
Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities, track open items reliably, and follow through to completion without requiring repeated follow-up.
Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive personnel, financial, and congregational information with discretion.
Capable of working both independently and collaboratively and of knowing which a given situation calls for.
Personal Attributes
Commitment to the mission. Understands that the parish is a ministry with mission-directed priorities. Brings patience, goodwill, and genuine care to the people and communities served. Understands, accepts, supports, and pursues the core values of the parish.
Service posture. This role exists to enable others. The measure of success is not personal control or visibility — it is whether the pastor(s), the principal, the early childhood ministry director, and other called workers and ministry staff are enabled to do their best work. Candidates who are drawn to accumulating influence or managing access are not a fit.
Empathy and approachability. The Director of Operations is a visible, accessible presence in the life of the parish. Staff, families, and congregation members will bring questions, concerns, and needs to this person — and they will do so on hard days as well as easy ones. This role requires genuine patience and warmth, not just professional courtesy. The right person is someone others feel comfortable approaching, and who handles those interactions with care.
Willingness to be managed. The Director of Operations operates with significant autonomy but within a clear accountability structure. This person receives direction well, engages openly with feedback, and treats accountability systems as helpful rather than threatening.
Institutional mindset. Builds for the long term. Documents what needs to be documented. Shares information rather than hoarding it. Creates systems designed to outlast any individual, including themselves.
Proactive orientation. Does not wait to be told what needs attention. Identifies problems early, surfaces them to the right person, and moves toward solutions. Over time, operations become more anticipatory and less reactive.
Calm under pressure. Ministry environments carry seasonal intensity, unexpected crises, and competing demands. This person maintains a professional, steady presence and does not add to leadership's stress load.
Work Environment and Physical Demands
Work Setting — This is a fully on-site position. The Director of Operations will have a dedicated office and works across the campus as needed. Regular interaction with staff, families, vendors, and volunteers is an expected and essential part of the role. This position is not eligible for a primarily remote schedule.
Schedule — Full-time, salaried. Core working hours are typically 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. though the specific schedule may be adjusted in coordination with the Executive Pastor. The operational schedule will need to align with the operational rhythms of the church, school, and early childhood ministry. Some flexibility may be required for evening or weekend events. As a salaried role, additional hours may be needed during seasonal peak periods or to address urgent operational needs.
Physical Demands — Must be able to sit or stand for extended periods while performing computer and administrative tasks. Occasional standing, walking, bending, and reaching. Ability to lift and carry items up to 20 pounds. Manual dexterity for standard office equipment.
Noise Level — Generally low to moderate; may increase during busy periods, events, or school activity.
Interactions — Regular contact with church staff, school staff, early childhood ministry staff, congregation members, school and early childhood ministry families, and external vendors and contractors. A professional, collegial, and approachable demeanor is essential.
Performance Evaluation
Performance will be evaluated regularly by the Executive Pastor according to the following core values for the position.
1. Operational Resilience. The standard for this role is not personal busyness — it is organizational stability. The Director of Operations is succeeding when the parish runs predictably, information is accessible, systems work, and ministry leadership is not pulled into administrative problems. Over time, the number of surprises, dropped tasks, and last-minute scrambles should decrease.
2. Institutional Transparency. The Director of Operations builds for the organization, not for personal indispensability. Records are maintained and accessible. Credentials and institutional knowledge are documented and shared with leadership. Processes are written down. The organization should be more capable after this person has been here — and no less capable if they are ever absent or depart.
3. Service to Ministry Leadership. The pastor(s), the principal, the early childhood ministry director, and other called workers should be noticeably freer to lead because this role exists. The Director of Operations proactively removes administrative friction, anticipates needs before they become problems, and supports ministry leaders in a way that requires minimal redirection or follow-up from them.
4. Proactive Systems Development. More important than completing today's tasks is building the processes, documentation, and structure that make tomorrow's tasks easier and more reliable. The Director of Operations approaches the role as a continuous improvement effort — iterating on what exists, identifying gaps, and building institutional capacity over time.
5. Accountability and Coachability. This role operates within a clear accountability structure and is evaluated honestly and regularly. The Director of Operations engages with feedback openly, follows through on commitments, and demonstrates consistent growth over time. Resistance to direction, accountability systems, or new tools is inconsistent with what this role requires.
Compensation and Benefits
Health insurance through the Our Redeemer benefits plan — 100% of employee premium covered, 50% of dependent premiums covered
Disability insurance
Pre-tax and HSA-eligible medical spending accounts
Voluntary dental and vision coverage available
Access to the WELS Shepherd Plan 403(b) for personal retirement contributions
$78,000–$85,000 depending on experience and demonstrated capability. Compensation may include a tiered increase during the onboarding period to calibrate to duties and capabilities.
To Apply
Send a resumé and cover letter to Rev. Caleb Bassett at cbassett@orlmadison.org. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We are conducting a careful search and are committed to hiring the right person, not simply the first available one.