Church Usher Job Description & Guidelines

The Church Usher job description and guidelines (Usher book and Usher general guidelines) along with the Captain Usher and Usher Ministry Leader job descriptions are available free to download, customize and print for your church administrative office, Human Resources Department, etc. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at your convenience.

Church Usher Forms

The ministry of ushering is a crucial part of worship because it is one of the most visible ministries in the church. In Christ, you have received God’s unconditional love, and, in Christ, you are called to extend that same unconditional love to others. Although an usher’s love is no stronger than the love found in the whole congregation of the body of Christ, nevertheless the usher performs a major role in ensuring that people see and experience that love when they enter your church.

Usher Job Description: The church usher duties can be summed up in a few words – making people feel welcome at church, assisting Pastors and teachers with people management, assisting with seating, collecting offering, and maintaining a safe environment. The outline below shows how to perform those duties. Please review this material carefully and feel free to ask any questions and bring up issues that you feel need to be addressed.

Captain Usher Job Description: The Captain Usher supervises the demeanor and function of the Ushers for their particular church service. They help recruit and train new Ushers, etc. (For other job responsibilities see the form below.)

Usher Ministry Leader Job Description: The Usher Ministry Leader appoints Captains for each church service and supports all Captains. They also help recruit and train Ushers by personally asking suitable candidates and training them in person prior to the church service. They thoroughly go over the policy and procedures document with them, and they help Captains make sure all Ushers know their job description and follow through on it.  (For other job responsibilities see the form below.)

Ushering Best Practices

Concentrate on the people. Seat the people as near the front pews as it seem appropriate. The back seats can then be filled with latecomers. If people insist on seating in certain places let them be.

Be alert to available seats and be ready to lead worshippers to the vacant seats. Approach with the phrase “May I show you to a seat?” with a smile. Never usher worshippers to their seats by waving your hands.

Do not allow worshippers to enter the church sanctuary when prayers are being said from the pulpit. Politely tell them to wait at the entrance until after the prayers are over.

Humility is key in an usher. Ushers are required to be punctual and time conscious as they are required to be at church far earlier than the rest of the congregation.

We should always offer to seat people, and while you are doing this, introduce new guests to someone and hopefully thy will offer to come and sit with them. Don’t just offer them a seat, but finds someone that can sit with.

Once service begins, especially when Pastor is teaching, it does not matter who it is, ushers need to seat everyone. People come in and look for their friends and wander around and it is horribly distracting. Seat them. Tell them that in order to help cut down on distractions, you want to help them be seated.

Please ask guests that have children if they would like to see our nursery and take them and introduce them to the nursery staff. Let the decision to leave their children in the nursery be theirs.

DO NOT…

·        Chew gum in church

·        Force a hug when greeting

·        Separate families when seating them

·        Point when seating guests

·        Raise your voice at anyone including children

 The Usher Ministry Guidelines Book below includes "Creating an Extraordinary Welcome".

Also, the Church Usher General Guidelines below are very helpful to have to quickly look over the one page document as a refresher before the church service.

Captain Usher Job Description (Sample)

Usher Job Sample Description

Usher Ministry Leader Job Description (Sample)

Usher Ministry Guidelines Book

Church Usher General Guidelines (One Page)

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