Faithful discipleship requires more than a good Sunday service. In this course series designed for pastors, ministry staff, and church volunteers, you will learn how to run your church faithfully and competently with the Church Administration specialization offered by Duke Divinity+.
The specialization consists of two foundational courses. First, in Church Administration Theology and Time Management, you will learn how to approach church administration theologically and how to better steward your time. Second, in Strategic Management for Churches, you will learn how to discern and establish church vision, core values and culture, goals and objectives, and metrics.
Finally, in the third and final course, Human Resource Stewardship for Churches, you will learn how to approach human resources management within a church and with a theological focus.
Overview
Syllabus
Course 1: Church Administration Theology and Time Management
- Offered by Duke University. As church pastors and leaders, how should you manage Christian church administration? Shouldn’t Christian ... Enroll for free.
Course 2: Strategic Management for Churches
- Offered by Duke University. Why is vision theologically important for your church, and how should it be realized? How do church goals, ... Enroll for free.
Course 3: Human Resource Stewardship for Churches
- Offered by Duke University. Most clergy graduate from seminary or divinity school without coursework, training, or exposure to church ... Enroll for free.
- Offered by Duke University. As church pastors and leaders, how should you manage Christian church administration? Shouldn’t Christian ... Enroll for free.
Course 2: Strategic Management for Churches
- Offered by Duke University. Why is vision theologically important for your church, and how should it be realized? How do church goals, ... Enroll for free.
Course 3: Human Resource Stewardship for Churches
- Offered by Duke University. Most clergy graduate from seminary or divinity school without coursework, training, or exposure to church ... Enroll for free.
Courses
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As church pastors and leaders, how should you manage Christian church administration? Shouldn’t Christian theology matter in church administration? If so, how? At the same time, how should you utilize management principles and techniques to make your church a more faithful church, rather than turning it into a secular enterprise? In this Duke Divinity+ non-credit course for church pastors and leaders, you will learn the importance of approaching church administration theologically. More specifically, you will engage church admin as church practices whose theological goals are discipleship, formation, witness, and worship. As such, church administration should be a critically important component of pastoral leadership and competence. Given such a theological understanding of church administration, we will draw upon and appropriate management excellence and know-how to serve as tools for these theological goals. As the first course in the Duke Divinity+ Church Administration Specialization series, this course will focus on developing a theology of church administration and then applying it to time management—a huge, ongoing challenge for pastors and church leaders alike–in such a way as to reshape classic time management principles and practices into a robust Christian stewardship of time. If you are a pastor or ministry professional in need of Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits for your professional development, CEU credits are available for this course. Please share your Coursera course certificate and a copy of the course description with your church denomination or employer as recognition of your earned 1.5 CEUs. This course qualifies for 1.5 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits. Completion of all three courses in the "Church Administration: Human Resources" specialization qualifies for a total of 4.5 CEU credits.
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Why is vision theologically important for your church, and how should it be realized? How do church goals, objectives, metrics, core values, and culture play a crucial role in this? What kind of pastoral leadership is needed to bring God’s vision for your church to fruition? In this second course in the Duke Divinity+ Church Administration Specialization series, you will learn how to approach strategic management theologically as strategic stewardship for your church. Secular organizations widely use strategic management (including strategic planning) to define their future strategic direction and how to achieve it. In contrast, what we’re calling strategic stewardship for churches seeks to reappropriate strategic management by discerning God’s direction for the church and pursuing God-centered ways of realizing it. This course will focus on select key elements of strategic management: vision (Week 1), core values and culture (Week 2), goals and objectives (Week 3), and metrics (Week 4). We will first explore how each key element functions as a useful management tool. Then, we will reappropriate the key element for theological ends of our church stewardship to God; hence, our terminology of strategic stewardship. Moreover, we will unpack what pastoral leadership for strategic stewardship should entail. Lastly, we will provide exemplar stories from Duke Divinity School alums, who will share how they each approached and implemented a key element in their church setting. If you are a pastor or ministry professional in need of Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits for your professional development, CEU credits are available for this course. Please share your Coursera course certificate and a copy of the course description with your church denomination or employer as recognition of your earned 1.5 CEUs. This course qualifies for 1.5 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits. Completion of all three courses in the “Church Administration: Human Resources” Specialization qualifies for a total of 4.5 CEU credits.
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Most clergy graduate from seminary or divinity school without coursework, training, or exposure to church administration, church management, or human resource management. Clergy commonly presume most of their time will be spent preaching, presiding at liturgies, forming their congregation in the Christian faith, ensuring the pastoral care of their congregations, and doing good work for those in need in the community. Church leaders are often surprised to find out how much of their time is spent managing staff and volunteers and handling personnel issues. This third course in the Duke Divinity+ Church Administration series is designed to enable clergy and lay leaders serving the church in congregational settings or in other church-related venues to develop healthy frameworks and practices for human resource management. While as church leaders you rely first and foremost upon God to successfully perform your ministries, this work is accomplished through human resources—staff and volunteers. It is your responsibility, as one entrusted to minister in God’s name, to steward those human resources in the best manner possible. In this course, you will connect human resource management to theological principles, and we will provide real-life examples and case studies of what to do and not do as a manager, all while learning the basics of human resource management in a church-related setting. If you are a pastor or ministry professional in need of Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits for your professional development, CEU credits are available for this course. Please share your Coursera course certificate and a copy of the course description with your church denomination or employer as recognition of your earned 1.5 CEUs. This course qualifies for 1.5 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits. Completion of all three courses in the “Church Administration: Human Resources” Specialization qualifies for a total of 4.5 CEU credits.
Taught by
Rae Cho and Russell Elmayan
