Human Resource Stewardship for Churches

Online For Alumni For Church Staff For Clergy Credit Offered

Clergy and 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 connects human resource management to theological principles, and provides 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.

Estimated time commitment: 5 hours | CEUs awarded: 0.5

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. However, many church leaders are often surprised to find out how much of their time is spent managing staff and volunteers and handling personnel issues.

This course 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.

This is the third course in the Church Administration Course Series. When taken together, the four courses in the series equip church leaders with a holistic set of practical skills informed by a theological focus that situates these practices within the church’s mission of discipleship, worship, and witness.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Frame the stewardship and management of staff and volunteers in a theological perspective.
Describe the key components of a job description and use those components to write a job description for a current or existing position (staff or volunteer).
Develop performance goals and objectives for staff that can be used to write and conduct employee performance reviews and address professional development opportunities.
Plan how to best address poor performance and how to coach employees to improve performance.

Instructor

Russell Elmayan

Russell Elmayan earned his M.B.A. from Duke University, his D.Min. from Duke Divinity School, and a Master of Pastoral Studies from Loyola University. In addition to serving as a course instructor for Duke Divinity School, he serves as the chief financial officer/chief operating officer at The Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, N.C.

Elmayan has for-profit and not-for-profit executive-level experience. He has extensive experience presenting to senior management and boards, banking relationships, pension and retirement funds, employee benefits and health insurance, financial planning and analysis, corporate real estate, property and casualty insurance, and coordination of legal counsel. In addition, he has provided oversight for finance, human resources, institutional advancement, property and construction, legal counsel, and charitable outreach.

You may register for any number of individual courses in the course series for $59 per course, or you may register for all four courses for a discounted price of $189. In order to get the discounted price, you must register for all four courses in the same transaction.

The registration deadline is 11:59 pm ET on April 17, 2026. Registered learners will gain access to their courses hosted in Duke University’s Canvas system on April 22, 2026. You will have until October 20, 2026 to complete any and all courses you have registered for.

What to expect during registration:

Register online for the course(s) or full series, as desired, using a debit or credit card with our secure, real-time registration system. Add the course(s) to your shopping cart and follow the instructions for checking out.
You will receive an email with next steps almost immediately upon registration. Check your spam or junk folder if you don’t see this.
At the end of the registration window, your course access account will be created. At this time, you will receive an email to activate your account from Duke OIT, and you must complete that process within 72 hours of receipt.
On your course access date, you will receive an email letting you know when you can log in and begin coursework in Canvas.

Email learnmore@duke.edu if you have technical difficulties with registering or paying for your course(s).

If you have questions about the content of any particular course or about the course series as a whole, contact us at divinityonline@duke.edu.

Additional Information

All registrants must meet the following requirements:

Be at least 18 years of age
Possess word processing and internet browser skills
Be fluent in the English language (including reading and writing)
Have reliable internet access and a valid email account (Please note that personal email accounts are preferred to business emails, as they are less likely to be blocked by firewalls and spam filters)
Meet the minimum technical specifications below

In order to earn a non-credit Certificate of Completion from Duke Divinity School for this program, learners must successfully:

Pay fees in full upon registration for all four courses in the program,
Complete the four courses in the program within the six-month access period (beginning on the course access date for a given registration window), or re-register/pay and complete in a later registration window,
Complete all assignments in each course with a minimum score of 80% (learners have unlimited attempts at all graded assignments and tests).

Learners must submit the information about their digital badges (for courses) or Certificate of Completion (for the series) to their denomination to obtain CEUs, awarded as follows, up to a total of 4 CEUs for the entire series:

Church Administration Theology and Time Management - 1.5 CEUs
Strategic Management for Churches - 1.5 CEUs
Human Resource Stewardship for Churches - 0.5 CEUs
Financial Management for Churches - 0.5 CEUs

In order to successfully participate in this course series, participants’ technologies must meet the following minimum requirements:

Operating System:
- Windows XP SP2 or newer
- Mac OS 10.4.11 or higher
- Linux/Unix (any recent version)
Hardware
- 1 Ghz or faster CPU
- 512 MB RAM
- Video card
- Sound card and headphones or speakers
Software
- Any modern Office suite: Microsoft Office, Apple iWork, OpenOffice (free download available at openoffice.org), or LibreOffice.
- Latest version of Adobe Reader/Acrobat Reader (free download available at adobe.com)
Web Browser
- The latest version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari. (Other web browsers may work, but may not render all features of the course).
- Cookies and JavaScript must be enabled.
Internet
- Reliable internet connection.
- E-mail account, preferably a personal rather than business email account (to be able to register and to receive e-mail from the system regarding registration, course status, etc.)

Refunds (minus administrative fees) will be provided only if a course or bundle cancellation request is submitted in writing to learnmore@duke.edu at least five business days prior to the course access date (by 11:59 pm ET on April 15, 2026).

Administrative fees:

$10 per course for individual courses,
$30 for the course bundle.

No refunds will be issued for cancellation requests received later than five business days before the course access date.

No extensions will be granted. Students who require additional time to complete the course(s) they registered for will be responsible for re-registering and paying for the course(s) a second time.

Course fees and expenses are sometimes tax deductible. Please consult an accountant concerning this matter. Non-credit programs from the Duke Center for Teaching and Learning do not generate 1098-T forms, in accordance with the following IRS guideline:

Instructions for Forms 1098-E and 1098-T published by the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, states “You do not have to file Form 1098-T or furnish a statement for: Courses for which no academic credit is offered, even if the student is otherwise enrolled in a degree program…”

Registrants are not matriculated Duke University students, and university student privileges do not apply to registrants in this program. All programs are offered on a non-credit basis and are not transferable to a degree.

This program is offered exclusively by the Duke Divinity School in coordination with the Duke Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). The CTL or Duke Divinity School reserve the right to withhold registration or require withdrawal from the program of any learner or registrant.

The materials used in this course are copyrighted and are intended for individual use by registered learners. Unauthorized or illegal use, or attempted use, of these materials will result in a suspension and/or cancellation of the user’s account.

While these courses were designed by and the video content is presented by Duke faculty, the courses do not include any live interactions with these faculty.

Interest List

If you are interested in the Church Administration course series but are unable to register for the Spring 2026 session at this time, join our interest list to be notified when registration opens for the next session.

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