Your Pastor the MBA

For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.

Here's a new and interesting development where faith meets finances -- people are getting MBAs and other advanced degrees in how to run and manage churches. I've run into several instances of this happening and would like to share a few of them with you today. Here's the first -- it details Villanova University's new MBA program for church managers:

The reputations of many Roman Catholic parishes have been tarnished in recent years, both by the priest sex-abuse scandals and a growing number of embezzlement cases. That has prompted a burgeoning movement to improve the management and leadership skills of church officials through new programs being offered primarily at Catholic universities. Villanova University's School of Business in Villanova, Pa. [has just] launched its master's degree in church management in May [to address] the need for more sophisticated and more transparent business practices in parishes and religious organizations.

And a few more details on why Villanova started this program:

We find that business managers at both the parish and diocesan level often have social work, theology or education backgrounds and lack management skills. While pastors aren't expected to know all the nitty-gritty of running a small business, they at least need enough training in administration to supervise their business managers. Before starting the degree, we ran some seminars in 2006 and 2007 as a trial balloon to see if folks were interested enough to pay for management education. The seminars proved to be quite popular, drawing people from all over the country, including high-level officials from both Catholic dioceses and religious orders.

Next, here's a BusinessWeek report that covers the Villanova MBA plus a few others. Seems like the Catholic church is leading the way on this issue. The highlights:

A handful of colleges and universities—many with Catholic affiliations—are starting to offer master's degrees in church management or, in some instances, a dual MBA and master's in church management: Duquesne University in Pittsburgh began offering a master's degree in community leadership with a concentration in parish management this past fall, and St. Mary's University in Minnesota offers a similar program, with a two-week residency and mostly online classes. The University of Notre Dame offers a master's degree in nonprofit administration for church workers and employees of other faith-based organizations. A Boston College program offers a choice between an MBA in conjunction with a master's in pastoral ministry or a pastoral ministry degree with a concentration in church management.

But the Catholics are not alone. The Baptists have joined in. Here's an example from Dallas Baptist University:

The role of the church leader continues to grow in complexity as the concept of the global community expands.  The pressure to operate as a business with scarce resources is a reality that cannot be ignored. 

Prospective ministry students will pursue this dual degree to obtain and strengthen the skills and competencies needed to be effective in church leadership roles such as executive pastor, division leaders, church planter, and/or global ministry.  In addition, while the vast majority of students applying for admission to this unique, dual degree program may already be serving in a ministry or believe they are called to serve, there will also be students who have started a business career and subsequently sense a call to the ministry.

And to add further perspective, ReligionWriter wonders if pastors really need MBAs.

I've seen the inside workings of several large churches (2,000 members or more) and think that this size of church certainly needs an "Executive Pastor" or some similarly-titled person who manages the day-to-day affairs of the church. After all, these churches have large staffs that must be managed and developed, they have financial responsibility for great sums of money, they have issues related to cost-management, marketing, communication, vision and leadership, and so on -- all of which can benefit by someone with the skills of a business person. Believe me, I've seen churches with great executive pastors and churches without any executive pastor at all -- and there's a HUGE difference in how they run/perform.

By the way, I am NOT talking about bringing people in who know how to "monetize" the church. I'm not saying someone should sell advertising in the lobby, charge for premium parking, put inserts for local businesses into bulletins and the like. I'm saying that most churches, and especially large ones, can benefit from having someone who's trained in business on staff.

What's your take on the issue?

Comments

[Sick of Debt]

My take is that this is needed by someone in leadership, though the way our church has done it is through having an elder with the MBA. That way the pastor can focus on his gifts and the elders can take care of the rest for him.

We are to be good stewards of the money that God has entrusted in our care to be used for the greatest good, so it makes sense to have someone trained in the handling of money. One wouldn't have a pastor that wasn't trained in the Word of God (hopefully), which is another part of the church.

I'll leave with a verse: "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching." 1 Tim 5:17

[bill]

Running a church isn't something they teach you in seminary. I know, I been and got the t-shirt. Seminary training is valuable but it isn't comprehensive. And as we are seeing here at our church, the more it grows, the more complexity grows. Some of the best help we get has been leveraging leaders in our church who are in the marketplace to help us with developing best practices. We have a human resources director, who has been helping us with how to hire, policies and compensation. We have CPA and CFO who are helping us with our finances and all the complexity of church finances, budget and accounting.

We have an Office Manager, (more than just a church secretary) who is helping us with Communication, facilities management, and procedures/policies.

I am so glad, as a pastor, that there are skilled individuals who lend their expertise, time and talents to the work of the church. Without them we would be up the creek without a paddle.

[AmandaD]

Our pastor just received his MBA from DBU and I think it's great. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know anything about the program, but I like that he has the opportunity to keep learning and is bringing more knowledge into our church. I'm glad that it is from a church standpoint and not just and MBA from a secular university. I agree with the PP- there are MANY skill sets necessary to run a church. Our main pastor can't be everything, and there are many other people in charge of other aspects of church life. Our pastor's main focus to teach/preach & be a leader to guide the rest of our church.

[Miracle]

I think it is an excellent idea for pastors of modern large churches to continue their education and get MBA's. Most of these large churches find their inspiration from business in handling the daily matters. The senior or executive pastor is designated to handle these daily matters, and so they should know how the best businesses are running today.
Maybe it isn't necessary to get the MBA, but it should be encouraged for these pastors to continue their learning in these matters.

[Amanda]

I think it's a great idea. If not an MBA, then at least some kind of business training / ongoing learning program. With our church, I've noticed countless examples over the years of poor "management". The problem is that our clergy tends to rely on the Vestry to do all the "business-y" things, but day-to-day management falls by the wayside.