Leading and Managing Your
Ministry
(3 units)
Leadership is made of a thousand good decisions. Leadership is what the leader does. Living in an era of high expectations the leader must understand the context of leadership, the approaches to church leadership and how to turn leadership goals into everyday practice. Special focus will be on the leader in context—how to lead in a specific church at a specific time. Anticipated outcomes include an understanding of the leadership role in local churches, an ability to build leadership strategies, a competence to interpret context, and skills to manage volunteer and paid ministers.
Class meets from
Course Assignments
1. Ten-page
paper describing your church
Give an overview of the church
where you lead and manage. Think through
how to describe the church and its context so that an outsider consultant will
get a 360-degree view. Examples of what
to include: history and demographics of
the church and community; values; governance structure; finances; doctrine;
denomination; leadership opportunities and challenges; etc. If not currently in local church leadership
select a congregation with which you are familiar and where you have an
interest and commitment to the success of the church.
Be prepared to give a 10-15 minute
overview of the content of your paper to other class members.
2. Formal
and informal organization
Submit two drawings: 1.) The formal organization of your church; 2.)
The informal organization of your church.
Accompany each drawing with 1-2 page
narrative describing the formal organization and the informal organization.
See Dying For Change by Leith
Anderson for presentation of church formal and informal organization.
3. 2000
pages of reading
Credit students are to read 2000 of the required reading and select additional
books from the recommended and extended reading list to equal a total of 2000
pages. All reading should be new to
student and not from other courses.
4. Reading
Log
A log listing books with number of pages read must be turned in with the
written assignments to receive credit for fulfilling the reading assignment.
Select from one of the following options:
1. Outsider’s
view
Recruit 6-10 unchurched people from your community for a focus group. Prepare a list of insightful questions to
help you understand an outsider’s perception of the community and of churches
in the community. Recruit at least 3-5
of the larger group to attend a weekend service of their choice over a
four-week period and report their experience and impressions. Write a 25-30 page paper reporting the
results of your research, your analysis of the information and an action plan
for the church from the insights gained.
2. Leadership
Field Trip
4Identify
5-10 key informal leaders of your church.
4Identify
another church that five years ago was similar to your church today but has
made significant progress in the direction you would like your church to
go. Arrange a visit of at least 24
hours, taking your key informal leaders to visit the other church.
4Before
the visit, prepare questions, training and plan to learn from the other
congregation and positively impact your congregation.
4After
the visit, debrief according to a plan prepared by you in advance.
4Write
a 25-30-page paper describing the experience and developing a plan for future
benefit to your congregation.
3. Futures
Task Force
With the advice and consent of your church board, recruit a futures task force
to analyze the present state of your church, assess current needs and propose
appropriate plans for change over the coming five years.
4. Values
On the basis of church analysis write the key values of your church. Seek comment and suggestions on the values
from a broad variety of church leaders.
Preach a 4-6 week sermon series on the values or teach a 4-6 week class
on the values to key leaders of the church.
Write a 25-30 page paper including the process for values development,
the results of leadership engagement, the text of the sermons or content of the
class, and an insightful analysis of the immediate and long range benefits of
the values program you have developed.
5. Opportunity
assessment and plan
In cooperation with church leadership identify the major opportunities before
your church in the next five years.
Develop a management plan for defining, popularizing, recruiting,
resourcing and realizing the opportunities.
Include a one-page analysis of the plan by at least five key church
leaders. Implement at least one
significant step toward the fulfillment of the plan and include this in your
paper. Total pages (without the appended
one-page analyses) should be 25-30.
Bibliography
Students are required to read 2000 pages from the books below. When 2000 pages have been read no others from this list are required. However, if more reading is needed to reach 2000, then select additional books from the recommended book list to equal 2000 pages. Selections should be made from material not previously read.
1.
One issue for the Harvard Business Review from
the years 1997-2002. Students may
select any issue or may read from various issues to total the number of pages
in one issue.
2. Book
on the history of your community or area.
Students may select any book that significantly informs about the
historical context of the area where ministry is taking place. The book must be non-fiction.
3. Leith
Anderson, Dying for Change, Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1990,
208 pages.
4. Leith
Anderson, Leadership That Works, Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers,
1999, 224 pages.
5. Charles
Arn, How to start a new service, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1997,
269 pages.
6. Jim
Collins, Good to Great, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001, 300
pages.
7. Max
DePree, Leadership Is An Art, New York: Dell Publishing, 1989, 148 pages.
8. Peter
F. Drucker, Managing the non-profit organization, New York: Harper
Collins Publishers, 1989, 235 pages.
9. Steven
Macchia, Becoming A Healthy Church, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1999, 239 pages.
10. Lyle
Schaller, Discontinuity and Hope, Nashville: Abingdon, 1999, 231 pages.
11. Lyle
Schaller, The Interventionist, Nashville: Abingdon, 1996, 205 pages.
12. Lyle
Schaller, The New Context for Ministry, Nashville: Abingdon, 2002,
340 pages.
13. Lyle
Schaller, The Very Large Church, Nashville: Abingdon, 2000, 247 pages.
14. Rodney
Stark, The Rise of Christianity, Princeton University Press.
15. Richard
A. Swenson, Margin, The Overload Syndrome, Colorado Springs: Navpress,
2002, 274+214= 488 pages. (Note: Margin and The Overland Syndrome
were originally published as separate books but have now been combined with
both books in the same paperback volume.
If total pages will go over 3000 assigned, select one of the titles or
the appropriate number of pages to read).