What Is Programming? And How To Get Started
January 28, 2025
Article
This course is part of Church Administration: Human Resources Specialization
Instructor: Rae Cho
Included with
(10 reviews)
Recommended experience
Beginner level
This course is for both professional and voluntary leaders of Christian churches.
(10 reviews)
Recommended experience
Beginner level
This course is for both professional and voluntary leaders of Christian churches.
Articulate why strategic management is important for organizations.
Explain why and how to approach strategic management for churches theologically as strategic stewardship.
Assess your strategic stewardship of church vision, core values, culture, goals, objectives, and metrics.
Develop plans for establishing or modifying strategic stewardship for your church.
Add to your LinkedIn profile
5 assignments
Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV
Share it on social media and in your performance review
Why is vision theologically important for your church, and how should it be realized? How do church goals, objectives, metrics, core values, and culture play a crucial role in this? What kind of pastoral leadership is needed to bring God’s vision for your church to fruition?
In this second course in the Duke Divinity+ Church Administration Specialization series, you will learn how to approach strategic management theologically as strategic stewardship for your church. Secular organizations widely use strategic management (including strategic planning) to define their future strategic direction and how to achieve it. In contrast, what we’re calling 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, our terminology of 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. 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.
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.
7 videos13 readings2 assignments3 discussion prompts
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.
7 videos4 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
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.
6 videos5 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
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.
6 videos8 readings1 assignment2 discussion prompts
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.
Duke University
Course
Duke University
Course
Duke University
Specialization
Duke University
Course
10 reviews
100%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Showing 3 of 10
Reviewed on Dec 9, 2023
Outstanding. I recommend it for all you brothers and sisters who are a part of the team that runs God's church in your local area.
Reviewed on Jan 15, 2024
If you want to learn how to management a church, here is a good beggining.
Unlimited access to 10,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs - all included in your subscription
Earn a degree from world-class universities - 100% online
Upskill your employees to excel in the digital economy
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.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.
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.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.