How To Become A Church Secretary: What It Is and Career Path

What is a church secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average church secretary salary is $32,325. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes 1-2 years of experience to become a church secretary. Church secretaries with a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -286,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreChurch SecretaryUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $32,325

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.74%

Asian 3.93%

Black or African American 9.87%

Hispanic or Latino 14.98%

Unknown 3.89%

White 66.60%

Gender

female 92.11%

male 7.89%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.4

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a church secretary

Explore church secretary education requirements

Most common church secretary degrees

Bachelor's

39.7 %

Associate

27.0 %

High School Diploma

16.9 %

Start to develop specific church secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Payroll	16.42%
Office Equipment	9.62%
Scheduling Appointments	7.82%
PowerPoint	7.76%
Ministry	5.65%

Complete relevant church secretary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New church secretaries learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a church secretary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real church secretary resumes.

Research church secretary duties and responsibilities

Manage the church's social media: Facebook, website, and blog.
Manage and oversee all STO relate actions task to OSD impacting future and current operations in STO.
Handle confidential situations and paperwork including weddings, baptisms and funeral arrangements.
Enter collections into Diocesen PDS database.

Prepare your church secretary resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your church secretary resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a church secretary resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable church secretary resume templates

Build a professional church secretary resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your church secretary resume.

Apply for church secretary jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a church secretary job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do church secretaries rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Church secretary reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2022

Cons

Failure to comply with working hours, theft and fraud,

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019

Pros

Interaction with clients and or customers is what I mainly liked, especially when confidentiality was needed! I also liked multitasking for different. departments.