The main purpose of this book is to achieve the objective of getting Seminaries to include a management course that includes: leadership, planning, organizing, staffing, motivating, and controlling in their curriculum. The lack of a management course in the Seminary curriculum is a very serious flaw. This book also includes valuable church program management information for church Pastors and Lay leaders.

The reader of this book who has theological education background most likely is both aware that ‘leadership’ is taught in seminaries, and has taken the course; however, it is apparent that ‘leadership’ education takes lower priority, as it should, to theological education. This is evidenced in worse case by making ‘leadership’ an elective. There also is an ‘internship’ course where the student works in a church for maybe a year at very little part time. This is where the student is to get exposure to the actual functioning of a church. Neither of these is sufficiently intense as one of the theological courses. Not only is there a lack of intensity, but also, the content of a ‘leadership’ course is inadequate as compared to a ‘management’ course that covers the basic functions of management, namely, leadership, planning, organizing, staffing, motivating, and controlling. As a result, the student upon ordination is not prepared to effectively contribute using the basic functions of management. This can result in poor performance as noted in the cases included in this book. It is a fact that without effective ‘management’ education, a Pastor will be significantly less effective in applying theological education. This poor performance can also result in churches not having plans to accomplish what Seminaries have included, as the intent to be accomplished, in their mission statements.

A Pastor should be both a church manager as well as a spiritual leader. Without management training, it is easy to not “rock the boat” and fall into the “business as usual” pitfall. This can result in being a case of having a ‘terminal disease’ without knowing it. In many cases, the cause of this problem is a combination of ‘business as usual’, lack of ‘know how’, and lack of in-depth knowledge of and dependence on The Holy Spirit.

The main purpose of this book is to achieve the objective of getting seminaries to include a management course that includes: leadership, planning, organizing, staffing, motivating, and controlling in their curriculum. The lack of a management course in the seminary curriculum is a very serious flaw. This book also includes valuable church program management information for church pastors and lay leaders.

The reader of this book who has theological educational background most likely is both aware that leadership is taught in seminaries and has taken the course; however, it is apparent that leadership education takes lower priority, as it should, than theological education. There also is an internship course where the student works in a church for maybe a year for a very little time. This is where the student is to get exposure to the actual functioning of a church. Neither of these is sufficiently intense as one of the theological courses. Not only is there a lack of intensity but also the content of a leadership course is inadequate as compared to a management course that covers the basic functions of managementnamely, planning, organizing, staffing, motivating, and controlling. As a result, the student, upon ordination, is not prepared to effectively contribute in using the basic functions of management. This can result in poor performance as noted in the cases included in this book. It is a fact that without effective management education, a pastor will be significantly less effective in applying theological education.

The lack of a management course in the seminary curriculum is a very serious flaw. Pastors and Lay leaders need to recognize the need for and seek management training. This is highly evident as exposed in this book where there is so much poor management. Many churches seem to be satisfied with what they are doing and continue with business as usual. The degree to which progress beyond business as usual is understood depends on the depth of understanding how to implement the basic functions of management in the church.