Financial Management for Churches

Course Overview

Most clergy graduate from seminary or divinity school with little or no training in financial management or administration to assist them in leading a church congregation. Given these circumstances, it is not shocking when things go awry, and church congregations and pastors face financial challenges. This course is not designed to teach the “nuts and bolts” of accounting, financial reporting, or financial management. Rather, this course provides an overview of church financial administration and management for professional ministry staff. It is also designed to provide pastors with enough knowledge to ask the right questions of their staff and advisory committees, and to build an intuition of common pitfalls of church financial management, to help guard against imprudent financial practices. This knowledge and intuition can help pastors and ministry staff to be faithful stewards of the resources entrusted to them by their congregants, so that they can be prudently used to help build and advance the Reign of God in the congregation and in the community, e.g. This is primarily aimed at first- and second-year undergraduates interested in engineering or science, along with high school students and professionals with an interest in programming. If you are a pastor or ministry professional in need of Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits for your professional development, CEU credits are available for this course. Please share your Coursera course certificate and a copy of the course description with your church denomination or employer as recognition of your earned 1.5 CEUs. This course qualifies for 1.5 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits. Completion of all three courses in the “Church Administration: Finance” Specialization qualifies for a total of 4.5 CEU credits.