Executive Assistant to Senior Pastor/Head of Staff

Executive Assistant to the Senior Pastor/Head of Staff

Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, Illinois

September 2026

Classification: Exempt

Status: Regular, Full-time

Reports To: Senior Pastor and Head of Staff

Location: Downtown Chicago, IL

About Fourth Presbyterian Church

Fourth Presbyterian Church is a vibrant, inclusive, and service-oriented community in the heart of downtown Chicago. Guided by our Long-Range Plan, we are committed to deepening faith, building connections, fostering community partnerships, and ensuring long-term sustainability through thoughtful leadership and innovation. Through its nonprofit partner Chicago Lights, Fourth Church also provides life-changing community programs including tutoring, social services, and the Chicago Lights Urban Farm.

Position Overview

The Executive Assistant provides high-level, confidential, and proactive executive support to the Senior Pastor/Head of Staff of Fourth Presbyterian Church.  The Executive Assistant also supports the Senior Associate Pastor and the Executive Director of Operational Ministries. 

This is a highly trusted position that serves as an essential partner to the Senior Pastor in managing the complexity, pace, relationships, and priorities associated with leading a large, historic, urban congregation. The Executive Assistant ensures that the Senior Pastor is prepared to lead effectively across the many dimensions of her ministry—including worship and preaching, pastoral care, staff leadership, congregational life, Session leadership, stewardship and resource development, denominational relationships, community engagement, and the broader life of the city.

The Executive Assistant serves as a key point of connection between the Senior Pastor and members, officers, staff, denominational leaders, community partners, clergy colleagues, donors, visitors, and other internal and external constituencies. The position requires exceptional judgment, discretion, emotional intelligence, hospitality, organizational ability, and the capacity to anticipate needs before they become urgent.

The successful candidate will bring both executive-level administrative excellence and a deep respect for the pastoral nature of the Senior Pastor’s work. The person will understand that many of the matters coming through the Senior Pastor’s office involve people’s lives, faith, grief, celebrations, relationships, and deeply personal circumstances and therefore require warmth, tact, confidentiality, and care. The Executive Assistant will help create the conditions in which the Senior Pastor can focus on the highest priorities of her ministry and leadership while ensuring that commitments, communications, meetings, and follow-through are handled with precision and grace.

Essential Responsibilities:

Executive Support and Partnership

· Serve as the primary administrative partner to the Senior Pastor, developing a highly effective working relationship built on trust, communication, discretion, and mutual respect.  Manage the Senior Pastor’s complex and dynamic calendar, maintaining a forward-looking calendar that allows the Senior Pastor to prepare appropriately for significant meetings, worship services, presentations, sermons, public engagements, and pastoral responsibilities.

· Coordinate meetings for the Senior Associate Pastor and Executive Director of Operational Ministries and maintain their calendars.

· Proactively anticipate scheduling conflicts, competing priorities, preparation requirements, travel considerations, and other logistical needs.

· Prepare the Senior Pastor for meetings by gathering agendas, briefing materials, background information, participant information, previous correspondence, and other relevant materials. Monitor commitments and follow-up items arising from meetings and engagements and help ensure timely completion or delegation.

· Triage requests for the Senior Pastor’s time and attention, exercising sound judgment about urgency, importance, confidentiality, and appropriate routing.

· Serve as an effective gatekeeper while maintaining a welcoming and hospitable presence.

· Coordinate domestic and international travel arrangements, itineraries, accommodations, transportation, meeting schedules, and related logistics as needed.

· Maintain an organized system for tracking invitations, speaking engagements, appointments, deadlines, correspondence, and follow-up.

· Provide administrative support for special projects and emerging priorities identified by the Senior Pastor.

Staff Support to the Joint Finance Council, the Board of Trustees, and the Session.

· Coordinate the Senior Pastor’s responsibilities related to Session meetings and activities. Support the Senior Pastor in her role as Moderator of Session.

· Schedule, coordinate logistics and meals, and serve as hospitality for all meetings. Take and prepare minutes at all meetings. Maintain all Presbyterian Church USA requirements for the maintenance and archiving of Session and Board of Trustees minutes.

· Work closely with the Senior Pastor, other clergy, and congregational leadership to coordinate calendars, agendas, meeting materials, logistics, communications, and follow-up.

· Prepare and organize materials needed for meetings and communications. Proofread and review materials and assist with preparation of scripts, announcements, presentations, and other materials.

· Research past Board and Session decisions discussions and recorded as needed.

· Provide staff support for committees, task forces, councils, or special groups assigned.

· Support the transition and orientation of newly elected officers in partnership with appropriate pastoral and administrative staff.

· Coordinate officer committee assignments in partnership with the Senior Pastor, Senior Associate Pastor and appropriate staff.

· Assist with ordination, installation, commissioning, recognition, and other officer-related events in association with the Senior Associate Pastor.

· Maintain accurate and appropriately organized records and historical documentation in accordance with Fourth Church and Presbyterian Church (USA) practices.

· Support the Senior Pastor and church leadership with denominational reporting, surveys, and other required documentation, including completion of the PCUSA Annual Report.

Support for Senior Pastor as Head of Staff

· Coordinate meetings of the Senior Pastor with senior leaders, ministry leaders, department leaders, and staff.

· Assist with scheduling staff leadership meetings, retreats, planning sessions, and other gatherings. Assist with logistics for staff retreats, leadership gatherings, celebrations, and other staff events.

· Prepare agendas, meeting materials, schedules, and follow-up documentation as requested.

· Track decisions, commitments, and follow-up actions resulting from meetings.

· Coordinate communications between the Senior Pastor and staff when appropriate.

· Schedule, coordinate logistics, and serve as hospitality for all Program Staff meetings and retreats. Prepare meeting/retreat materials.

· Handle sensitive staff-related information with exceptional discretion and professionalism.

Administrative and Financial Responsibilities

· Process credit-card reconciliations and invoices and assist with accounts payable and accounts receivable activities as assigned. Assist with expense reports, reimbursements, purchasing, and travel documentation.

· Maintain organized electronic and physical files for the Senior Pastor’s office. Maintain confidential records and ensure appropriate document retention.

· Provide administrative support to members of the Senior Leadership Team when appropriate and requested.

• Undertake special projects and other duties consistent with the position as assigned.

Qualifications Required

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• At least 5–7 years of progressively responsible executive assistant, senior administrative, or executive support experience, preferably supporting a senior executive, CEO, senior pastor, president, executive director, or other high-level leader.
• Demonstrated experience managing a highly complex calendar and multiple competing priorities.
• Exceptional organizational skills and meticulous attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to draft polished, professional correspondence.
• Strong interpersonal skills and exceptional emotional intelligence.
• Proven ability to handle confidential and sensitive information with discretion.
• Strong judgment and the ability to distinguish between urgent, important, routine, and confidential matters.
• Ability to anticipate needs, identify potential problems, and take initiative without waiting for direction.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds, roles, perspectives, and levels of organizational authority.
• Strong technology skills, including Microsoft 365, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Teams, Zoom, and related digital tools.
• Ability to learn and effectively use church databases, scheduling systems, document-management systems, and other organizational technologies.
• Commitment to equity, social justice, hospitality, and inclusion.
• Ability to thrive in a complex, collaborative, mission-driven nonprofit and faith-based environment.

Preferred

• Experience working in a large church, nonprofit, educational institution, theological institution, foundation, or similarly complex organization.
• Experience supporting a senior pastor, clergy leader, nonprofit executive, or other highly visible public-facing leader.
• Familiarity with Presbyterian Church (USA) structure, governance, terminology, and practices.
• Experience supporting boards, governing bodies, committees, or executive leadership teams.
• Experience coordinating complex travel and external speaking engagements.
• Experience working with donors, community leaders, denominational leaders, or other high-level external stakeholders.

Schedule:

This is a full-time position based on a 40-hour work week, Monday-Friday, with some early morning, evening and weekend hours required for board meetings, congregational meetings, and special events.  This position requires four days per week in the office, with the option to designate either Monday or Friday as the regular remote-work day.

Compensation & Benefits

This is a full-time salaried position with an annual salary range of $70,000 - $85,000 commensurate with experience and qualifications. Fourth Church and Chicago Lights offer a robust benefits package including:

• Medical insurance (church pays 85% of employee monthly premium and 75% for eligible dependents).
• Optional dental and vision plans.
• Generous PTO: 17 days plus 11 paid holidays.
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer contributions after one year of service.
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for medical and dependent care.
• Transit and commuter parking benefits.
• Life and short-term disability insurance; optional long-term disability and life insurance.

Physical Requirements & Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with different abilities to perform essential functions.

• Must be able to participate in online virtual communications including email, video conferencing, and other online tools used to facilitate virtual office culture and work sharing.
• Smoke and drug (illegal or recreational) free environment.
• Fourth Church/Chicago Lights aims for accessibility in any off-site location in its control, but some of them may not be fully accessible.
• This role requires prolonged periods of sitting and computer work.
• Lifting requirements of 20 pounds.

EEO Statement

Fourth Presbyterian Church and Chicago Lights are committed to equal employment opportunity for all qualified persons, without regard to race, color, citizenship status, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, age, creed, physical or mental disability, marital status or familial status, veteran status, military status, source of income, political affiliation, or any other factor protected by law.  Fourth Church and Chicago Lights seek to build and retain a diverse staff and are committed to fostering an equitable and inclusive workplace where everyone is treated as a respected and valued member of the team. 

Fourth Church and Chicago Lights are committed to elevating the voices of individuals of all backgrounds, including but not limited to women and people of color, Native people, immigrants and refugees, low-income people, LGBTQ+, and transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people, people with disabilities, and accordingly encourage qualified individuals from all communities to apply.