New Master Integrates Business Principles with Church Management

Meryl Cerana is a lifelong Catholic. Although she has a background in both business and teaching, she has worked in ministry for the past 14 years. Where did the pastoral associate turn when she was looking for skills to better manage Mary Mother of Mercy Parish in Glassboro, New Jersey?

The Villanova School of Business.

“My business experience helped, but church management is different from secular business, so I needed specialized training,” says Cerana. Poets&Quants. She enrolled in VSB Master of Science in Church Management, the only degree program offered by a business school. Its goal is to help church organizations manage resources in a way that best supports their missions.

“I learned something in each class that I could use the next day in my work at the parish,” says Cerana. “However, I think what the show did best was educate us on what questions to ask in many situations and how to ask new questions in new situations. Once you have the question, you can focus a search for the answer.”

TEACHING BUSINESS PRINCIPLES WITH A MISSION

VSB’s Master of Science in Church Administration is the school’s main academic program. Church Management Center, believed to be the only center of its kind within a business school, says Matthew Manion, the center’s faculty director and VSB professor of management and operations. He also graduated from the course in 2011.

Inspired by the business school MBA program, the online master’s program focuses the fundamental elements of a business curriculum within the context of church leadership in the Christian tradition. Other schools may offer church administration as an add-on to an MBA, but Villanova’s version is fully integrated, says Manion. For example, the opening course is Catholic Social Thought and Leadership Ethics, a class that teaches business leadership skills through a faith-based lens.

“I think what’s unique is that it helps people become bilingual when talking about church and talking about business,” says Manion. Questions and answers.

The 30-credit online degree is delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction. Students come from everywhere. In a recent virtual session, Manion had a priest in Rwanda log in along with a parish business manager from North Pole, Alaska. Because Villanova is a university with an Augustinian Catholic tradition, 75 to 80% of the students in the program are Catholic, says Manion, but it accepts students from any tradition.

‘A RECOGNITION THAT WE HAD TO DO BETTER’

The Center for Church Administration was established in 2004 under the direction of Professor Chuck Zech. The idea had been floated on a couple of different occasions, but after the Boston sexual abuse scandal, “there was a recognition that we had to do better and as an institution of higher education, and particularly as a business school, to contribute not only to the Catholic Church, but what churches in general need,” says Manion.

“Many church leaders are trained for the ministerial aspects of their roles, but like doctors, lawyers, and other specialists, they are not trained in how to run a business.”

How could a business school help the Catholic Church respond to the growing global crisis? How could sound business principles prevent a culture that seeks to cover up wrongdoing rather than confront it?

“I think an increase in transparency and accountability in general. Sunlight heals a lot of things, and I don’t think there was much sunlight. He created a culture of secrecy that allowed bad things to continue,” says Manion.

Churches that do not manage their organizational resources and confront their failures turn people away from their message. Instead, those who do it well amplify it in the world. For example, the VSB center encourages churches and leaders to undergo financial audits. Not to catch anything under the hood, necessarily, but to safeguard the mission. A solid budget can show how the church is using resources to, for example, feed the poor, provide education, and serve the community.

“I think by equipping lay leaders and ordained leaders with this how-to language, the fear of accountability and transparency is lessened,” Manion says. “St. Augustine said, ‘Safeguard order and order will protect you.’ I can continue.”

CHURCHES AS ORGANIZATIONS

Broadly speaking, there are two types of students who enroll in the master’s program: One, professionals who have come from successful business careers who are now looking for ways to give back and engage more with their faith or church community. And, two, church leaders and administrators seeking skills to better manage church resources.

The instructors emphasize that the church is not a business. It’s a mission. You can’t walk in and tell a pastor that he needs to think of his parishioners as customers. However, a church is an organization. You have human resources, finances, strategy, and communications that need to be managed to carry out that mission.

“We have a responsibility to manage the resources of that organization well,” says Manion. “When those things are done wrong, they can block or inhibit the transmission of the gospel.”

Father Augustine Deji Dada, associate pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Elmsford, NY, graduated from the program in 2020. With seven years of church administration experience, he had an idea of ​​what a church could achieve through through strategic planning and relationship building. but he was frankly surprised by the rigor of the program.

“I must confess that I was surprised by the thoroughness of the program at first. I entered thinking it would be a piece of cake because I am a priest, I have administrative experience and a degree in theology”, says Dada. Questions and answers. “I appreciate that within the course of the program there was an enrichment of various backgrounds and experiences as well as case studies to impress management lessons and theological values.”

Dada recommends the course to anyone committed to seeing “a competent and revitalized Church.”

“In the wake of various moral and financial challenges, it is important, in a spirit of faith and loyalty to truth, to maintain the identity of the Church in our administration as we move from mission to performance,” he says.

“MSCM helps generate these gifts, talents and resources. We are now at a point where the stakes are high with respect to our identity, in a world that has become very culturally volatile and is driven by data and technology. Moving forward will require management competency that is holistic and strategic.”

DON’T MISS: IU KELLEY DEAN DESTINATION AND Q&A WITH SCOTT GALLOWAY