What Is Programming? And How To Get Started
January 28, 2025
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This course is part of Church Administration: Human Resources Specialization
Instructor: Russell Elmayan
Included with
Framing HR management in a theological perspective
Writing job descriptions, developing goals and objectives, and addressing poor performance
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Most clergy graduate from seminary or divinity school without coursework, training, or exposure to church administration, church management, or human resource management. 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. 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 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. If you are a pastor or ministry professional in need of Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits for your professional development, CEU credits are available for this course. Please share your Coursera course certificate and a copy of the course description with your church denomination or employer as recognition of your earned 1.5 CEUs. This course qualifies for 1.5 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits. Completion of all three courses in the “Church Administration: Human Resources” Specialization qualifies for a total of 4.5 CEU credits.
This week, we will discuss how a church setting is a distinctive type of organization that requires sound human resource management. Coursera defines human resource management as “organizing, coordinating, and managing an organization’s current employees to carry out an organization’s mission, vision, and goals. This includes recruiting, hiring, training, compensating, retaining, and motivating employees.” We will explore how established secular principles of human resource management should apply to the church, and how scripture molds best practice into human resource stewardship, a distinctive theology of human resource management.
5 videos12 readings1 assignment4 discussion prompts
This week will focus on the development of job descriptions for employees and volunteers, as well as the hiring process and background checks.
7 videos4 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
This week will focus on performance evaluation, goals and objectives for employees, volunteer management, safe environment training, and misconduct and harassment prevention.
5 videos5 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
This week will focus on having difficult conversations with employees, the benefits and detriments of the use of empathy in human resource stewardship in the church, adapting supervisory approaches to employes, and salary and benefit equity and salary compression.
6 videos8 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.
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For pastors and other ministry professionals in need of Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits for their professional development, CEU credits are available for this course. Upon successful completion of this course, you will have earned 1.5 CEU credits from this course. You can provide your course certificate and the course description to your church denomination or employer as proof of your earned CEU credits.
Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option:
The course may not offer an audit option. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid.
The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
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Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.
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