On the flip side, I think we tread on very dangerous ground. We do not want the church to be a business. That is understood by all those looking to make a change in the way that church is done today.

However, we need to find a balance of not making the church into a business, yet educating our pastors and leaders in the dealings of the business world. Maybe it should be taught in seminary. I know the church I used to attend (2500 members)had a full time business manager on staff. Maybe same of the church employed business leaders from bigger churches could look at providing free instruction, guidance, and mentorship to new pastors and smaller churches? Maybe that could be their ministry?

I know of one church where the church looks at student loan debt when looking at compensation in addition to some final planning help. I know the senior pastor who has no debt, no mortgage, and lives a pretty simple life. He gets a lower salary because he simply does not need more money. He is compensated well but as he said, “Why pay me to pay off a mortgage when I don’t have one?”

Tell me about it!

Many of these skills can’t be learned before they’re required. That’s why people need a support network and/or to try as hard as they can to read blogs like this and others to at least get a background of understanding.

I can imagine AKMA disagreeing that this should be a part of any seminary’s curriculum

Let’s agree on this: people preparing to be pastors ought to have the opportunity to learn about these aspects of running a small not-for-profit.
 
Both of us agree that the premises of education for and in the church need a whole lot of change. I’m greatly concerned about church leaders knowing what they’re talking about — knowing about the Bible, about God, about the church. If congregations and pastors put more gumption into catechesis and adult education (in the real “education” sense of that word, not solely “slide shows of our mission trip” or “one quickie session on what the pastor remembers from his or her seminary introductory class about something in the Bible”), seminaries or their substitute would be in a stronger position to expand their offerings. But a btter answer, I suspect, would involve Big Central Church Institutions devoting serious resources to online not-for-credit open education. When they start that up, I’ll be ready.

One way would be to team up with a business person and have them do the nuts and bolts of organizing your operation. Should seminary teach this? Maybe? Should seminary teach you to find people who can do this? Absolutely. There’s a whole bunch of boomers who are “semi-retiring” and would love to get involved.

> Ethics:

I’m an old radio fan; I worked as a broadcast engineer to pay for college, and would broadcast the tapes and records on Sunday night, as required by the FCC. I bought my first walkman before it was made by Sony (a NordMende) and I would listen to local church services on Sunday mornings. Once, I picked up an excellent broadcast from a small church in east Texas. Back in those days, a station got one of the national tapes by mail, and mailed it to the next station on Monday morning. And, in 1979, today’s shows were just starting, Swindoll and Dobson were some of the few shows available.

Well, lo and behold, Swindoll preached the exact sermon I heard a few weeks earlier. The preacher had copied it verbatim. A guy I worked with was bivocational, and told me his sermon. It was lifted from Dobson’s original Focus on the Family videotapes, which I saw a few months later.

> Cost: At what point do we have to find a new way of training clergy

I get a lot of questions about colleges. I have a basic (probably oversimplified) starting point. I say, if you are going into a field that makes money – engineering, accounting, nursing, etc., get into the best college you can, borrow the money and get out as quick as you can. But, if you major in the humanities, look for a cheaper, less selective school that will give you a lot of scholarships because they want bright kids with your SAT’s. You will be the “star” in your classes and the teachers will gladly work with a brighter student.

I don’t know how this “shakes and bakes” for seminary, since I don’t know how much seminaries “fight” for top students with scholarship money.

At the church level, sometimes it is possible to get the church to pay off your debt, in addition to your salary.

Common Sense: