Strategic Management for Churches

Duke University via Coursera

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/strategy-management-church-theology

Syllabus

Strategic Stewardship of Church Vision

Is there a vision or mission statement that directs your church, including its church admin? What work should it do and what kinds of pastoral leadership does it call for? This week, we will begin by addressing the theological importance of the church vision—your church’s go-to statement—as the foundational component of strategic stewardship for churches. Drawing on our church admin series’ overall approach of deploying management means for theological ends, we will first examine how vision functions as an effective strategic management tool in secular organizations. We will then unpack a theology of church vision in order to illumine how vision ought to be appropriated for the theological goals of the church. Lastly, given the theological importance and goals of church vision, we will delineate how and why your pastoral leadership is crucial for your church’s stewardship of church vision.

Stewardship of Church Core Values and Culture

This week, we will look at the next two elements of strategic stewardship for churches: core values and culture. If your church vision answers why your church exists, then your church core values represent who you are as a church, and your church culture characterizes how things are done in your church. Importantly, culture is inextricably tied to core values, and hence, we are addressing them together. This week, as we did with church vision, we will examine why core values and culture are so important to organizations and then explore what their theological importance is for your church. Lastly, we will unpack what your pastoral leadership should entail for your faithful stewardship of your church core values and culture.

Stewardship of Church Goals and Objectives

Establishing a formal church vision statement is a significant step toward strategic stewardship. However, how will your church specifically achieve this vision? Church goals and objectives, the next two elements of strategic stewardship, are the means we will explore this week for realizing the church vision. If your church vision articulates where God is calling your church to go, then church goals and objectives should constitute God’s plan for how your church is to get there, in keeping with God’s calling for your church’s core values and culture. First, we will examine why and how goals and objectives are crucial for organizational vision. Then, we will explore how goals and objectives should be reappropriated for your church’s strategic stewardship, and lastly, how you should approach your pastoral leadership.

Stewardship of Church Metrics

Church metrics is the final element of strategic stewardship that we will address in this course. Church metrics are critical for monitoring progress toward achieving the church vision and gauging church health. To use a travel metaphor with your car as your church, your church vision is your destination, your church goals and objectives are the roads to get there, and your core values and culture are the road signs and guardrails. Then, metrics represent your car’s dashboard, consisting of the navigation system and gauges to monitor your progress toward your destination and your car’s health along the way. We will first examine why and how metrics are critical for vision-based objectives and timely red flags. Then, we will explore how metrics can be redeployed for church stewardship, and what this entails for your pastoral leadership. Finally, we will conclude with course takeaways.