Master of Business Administration in Pastoral Planning and Church Management (M.B.A.)

Description

The concentration in Pastoral Planning and Church Management has been designed to provide church leaders, councils and staff members with the foundational skills needed to shape and guide the institutional objectives of their religious organization to achieve its desired pastoral mission. This online learning curriculum will develop an understanding of the core components of organizational planning processes in church settings.

This degree is a 30 credit program that may be completed in no less than eighteen months and no more than three years.

24 credits (8 courses)
6 credits (Exit Project)

Admission Requirements

Baccalaureate degree or equivalent validated by a transcript.
Five years of accumulated experience in a cognate field of ministry (lay, religious, ordained).
Completion of the Application Procedure.

Program Requirements

Students are expected to thoroughly familiarize themselves with the Student Handbook of the year of their acceptance with particular focus on their specific degree program. Students are bound by the academic and financial requirements of the Handbook in use at the time of their acceptance. The current Student Handbook as well as past years’ Handbooks can be viewed here.
Completion of seven Units of Study from the Pastoral Planning and Church Management core curriculum
Completion of one elective Unit of Study, from any online course offered by the GTF
Completion of the non-credit course, Research Methodology. This course is a prerequisite to beginning the master’s project.
Completion of the M.B.A. project and submission of an electronic copy to the GTF offices.

All academic requirements must be met by March 1 of the intended year of graduation.

All financial requirements must be met by April 1 of the intended year of graduation.

Curriculum

Research Methodology

Research Methodology is a required course for all students. The Research Methodology course requirement is explained here.

Project Consultant

Rev. Dr. David Couturier serves as project consultant for all MBA in Pastoral Planning and Church Management students. This enables the student to receive helpful and pragmatic evaluative feedback from a member of the faculty in the developmental process of producing the Exit Project. The role of the faculty Project Consultant is responsive and suggestive rather than “supervisory” as is the case with academic thesis writing. The faculty person is encouraged to limit feedback to pragmatically helpful guidance and suggestions and not to attempt any censorship of the project. The exercise of discretion with respect to time demands is very important for both the student and faculty member. The faculty Project Consultant must give final approval of the student’s work by submitting the Project Consultant’s Report Form.

Master’s Project

The master’s project is a praxis-oriented work that addresses some topic, issue, or problem in the student’s field of study. Projects which address a practical problem or issue being confronted in the workplace or faith community are particularly encouraged. The master’s project can be expressed in a variety of forms, including a traditional thesis-style document, a workbook or training manual, a program curriculum, or it may include multimedia components. The master’s project in its final form must be 25,000-30,000 words in length, double-spaced, with 12-point Times New Roman (or comparable) font, and must have a table of contents as well as a bibliography of a minimum of 20 sources. It is also strongly recommended to have annotations for the 10-12 most important sources for the project.

When the final draft of the project has been reviewed and approved by the Project Consultant, it must be submitted by the student to the GTF for final review. The student must submit one copy of the master’s project electronically to the Office of the Registrar by March 1 of the intended year of graduation.