Diocesan and Religious Priests and seminarians from across the United States gathered on the CUA campus to learn best practice management skills in the first ever Management as Ministry seminar this past week-end. The three-day seminar was co-sponsored by the School of Business and Economics and the School of Theology and Religious Studies, and was developed over the past semester through the assistance of a five-member MSBA field study team.
The seminar featured sessions designed to help make pastors more effective managers and thus, more effective in their primary role as ministers. For instance, by applying best practices in delegating assignments to staff personnel, pastors can spend less time putting out fires and more time administering the sacraments. Session topics were developed as a result of input from pastors and a project steering committee comprised of Seminary Rectors.
The seminar included sessions on motivating employees, canon law, pastoral management, hiring and firing employees, parish fundraising, accounting, budgeting, financial controls, saving for retirement, digital marketing, on-line marketing tools and managing church facilities. Session participants were each given a workbook containing detailed information.
