Recognizing that management challenges face the church and church-run charities, the Roman Catholic Church sponsors a program on management at Boston College. The New York Times had an interesting profile of this program yesterday:
For the last four years, Wendy Samuels has worked in a remote village in Jamaica for Mustard Seed Communities, a Roman Catholic nonprofit group that helps disabled children.
The work is both rewarding and heartbreaking. But some of the most difficult moments came as she managed well-meaning staff members who did not always do their jobs properly.
“If someone is not performing their job, how do you deal with it when there is still so much to be done?” Ms. Samuels said. “I kept wondering, How do you manage persons in a third-world country who work for a charitable organization?”
The quest for an answer led Ms. Samuels to Boston College, a Jesuit institution here, where she is one of seven students in a new graduate program intended to teach management principles to leaders of churches and religious nonprofit agencies.
The program was born out of the idea that the Roman Catholic Church needs employees who can both minister to the faithful and ensure that organizations and churches are managed well.
“This is not about turning the church into a business, or making sure it’s managed like any other institution in corporate America,” said Thomas H. Groome, a theology professor at Boston College who founded the program. “It’s about employing good business practices that enhance the mission of the church.”
Professor Groome, who is also director of the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at the college, added, “We want to train people to manage with sensitivity and a commitment to the values of our faith community.”
The program offers a master’s degree in business administration combined with a master’s in pastoral ministry. Students can also obtain the pastoral ministry degree with a concentration in church management.
Jeffrey L. Ringuest, associate dean of graduate management programs at the college, said, “If you think of the size of some religious organizations and their total value, they cry out, I think, for professional management skills.” Professor Ringuest said the program would “help charities and churches advance their mission without having them be worried about their finances and ensure the organization is running smoothly.”
Read it all here.