How Villanova’s Center for Church Management & Business Ethics is making it easy for busy pastors and church leaders to continue their education.
Continuing education might seem like an impractical proposition for many busy pastors. During a typical day, pastors are engaged in the daily lives of their congregations. They spend their time offering counseling, consoling the bereaved, visiting the sick, and reaching out to the disenfranchised of their church communities.
When they are not directly interacting with their flock, pastors spend significant time preparing for services, writing their sermons, and planning for the future of their congregations.
For more than a decade, Villanova University’s Center for Church Management & Business Ethics has offered an extensive array of online and satellite educational programs for busy pastors and church leaders. In additional to a Master of Science in Church Management (MSCM) that can be completed online, Villanova also offers online webinars that can be taken individually or together for a certificate in Church Management.
“These programs offer busy professionals the opportunity to learn church management concepts in a flexible and user-friendly environment,” says Michael Castrilli, an adjunct professor in the MSCM program, and instructor in the webinar series.
Master of Science in Church Management
The online Master of Science in Church Management is an innovative, two-year graduate business program that provides busy pastors and church leaders with a high-level skill set in church management. It is ideal for professionals who cannot take leave of their positions to relocate and pursue full-time study. With the exception of a one-week residency on the beautiful Villanova campus, the program can be completed online in only two years of part-time study. The program aims to provide the practical skills necessary for successful stewardship of a church.
“Participants are able to join a live online classroom and actively participant through polling questions and opportunities during the session to engage in Q&A with the faculty,” says Castrilli. “Flexibility is a key component of the program. For those days / times when participants can’t join due to a schedule conflict, they can go online and view the recorded session.”
Examples of courses offered:
- Civil Law and Church Law for Church Administrators
- Stewardship and Development
- Financial Reporting and Controls
- Human Resource Management in a Ministry Setting
- Information Technology for Churches
Church Management Certificate Webinar Series
The Center for Church Management & Business Ethics, in partnership with Our Sunday Visitor and AmericanChurch, Inc., also offers the Church Management Certificate Program webinar series. The series of 12 web seminars is designed to allow busy pastors, priests, business managers and other church administrators to continue their education without having to leave the privacy of their home or office.
The webinar series is designed to help church leaders of all denominations deal with common temporal problems. Webinar participants will learn how to use those resources as effectively as possible to meet their ministry goals.
This innovative series 90-minute webinars can be taken as a whole program for a Certificate in Church Management from Villanova University, or individually, depending on the interests and needs of the pastor or church administrator.
Examples of webinar topics:
- Church Security & Loss Prevention
- Leadership Development
- External Communications / Church Marketing
- Church Websites
- Social Media for Churches
- Church Budgeting
According to Castrilli: “[T]he webinars attract a wide variety of church professionals with diverse roles and responsibilities. This provides opportunities for participants to not only learn from the instructor, but also from other students in the program.”
This article is provided by the Center for Church Management & Business Ethics at the Villanova School of Business in Villanova, PA.
