Church Administration 2

In this second course in the Duke Divinity+ Church Administration Specialization series for church pastors and lay leaders, you will learn how to approach strategic management theologically as strategic stewardship for your church. Organizations widely use strategic management (or strategic planning) to define their future strategic direction and how to achieve it. In contrast, 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, 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.