Things They Don’t Teach In Seminary
By Ron Edmondson on Monday, March 9th, 2009 | 5 Comments
Most pastors I know have great hearts for ministry, but don’t always have the tools to move the organization of the church forward. Unfortunately, some of what we experience in the real church world is not taught extensively, if any, in most seminaries.
Things such as:
- How to handle difficult people
- Basic business practices and how to keep the church legal
- Leadership principles (especially as the church gets larger)
- How to handle conflict
- Advertising and marketing
- Event Planning
- Construction and building project management
- Human resources, to include benefits, salary management, employee training, motivation and conduct performance evaluations
- How to set goals and objectives
- How to protect your own marriage while you are trying to protect everyone else’s marriage
- How to be a great dad when your time is sometimes stretched with other people’s kids.
Pastors, what other issues you have faced have left you feeling unprepared?
The best advice I know for pastors when you feel overwhelmed in these areas is to:
- Read business and trade manuals
- Learn from and rely on the wisdom of others, including business leaders
- Attend conferences
- Network with other pastors and leaders, including social networking
- Delegate to other people you trust in the church
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help, even if you need counseling.
- And, of course, trust the Holy Spirit to guide you
Pastors, what other advice can you share here with other pastors?
One of the values in my ministry has been the twenty plus years of business experience I had prior to my seminary education and vocational ministry (and I’m still overwhelmed at times with these issues). If I can help, please let me know.
5 responses to "Things They Don’t Teach In Seminary"
I guess I should have shared that they do teach a lot in seminary. Understand church and Bible history and how to teach it is of course important for a pastor to know. There are great classes for people-helping, culture awareness and even church administration, but ultimately, as in many parts of life, some of the best training is on-the-job training.
Sorry I have to say this… but do they teach anything in Seminary?… cos that’s a reasonably extensive list and all are very important to a Leadership role.
Thanks for the advice Ron.
Why is it that this stuff isn’t taught at seminary/bible college? I get the distinct impression taht it’s not seen as “spiritual” to learn about this side of running a church…why? <>
Before starting my church plant, I worked as Church Business Administrator. I went through a major building project.
A great source of help is the “National Association of Church Business Administration” Most major cities even have local chapters that hold weekly meetings.
http://www.nacba.net/
I highly encourage that you have at least one person on staff become a member. They have lot of HR, tax, payroll help etc.
I haven’t had the chance to go to seminary, only Bible College; but I can tell you that we only just started to touch on some of this stuff in a 400 level pastoral course that was optional in my program.