Executive Pastor Leadership
The Goal
Leading the church has never been for the faint of heart! Today’s ministry is more complex than ever before and many wise senior pastors rely on executive pastors to help them stay current with complex legal, financial, and personnel issues.
This degree program is designed to equip executive pastors to handle these issues with confidence and professional leadership. Topics covered include strategic planning, conducting personnel performance reviews, leading the congregation during capital campaigns, finances, budgets, taxes, and biblical stewardship. Additional topics include legal and ethical issues, managing multiple venues, facilities planning, human resources management, and information technology.
You’ll graduate with your ministry toolbox filled to capacity wondering how you ever managed to survive so long without these courses. Led by both seminary professors and current practitioners in the field, this degree program will equip you to lead your congregation into the 21st century.
Videos
Videos go here.
The Strategy
Year One: (Anthony & Chow)
In the first week, you will learn what the Bible has to say about leading and managing the local church. You will be challenged to critically reflect on various governance models in local church ministry. You will develop a current strategic plan for your own local church ministry. The second week, taught by professional Strength-Finder coach David Chow, will explore your personal strength themes resulting in a detailed analysis of your personal strengths as applied to the context of ministry leadership.
Year Two: (Anthony, Eckhardt, Henze & Morris)
The focus of the first week will be to develop a biblical understanding of stewardship. What does God expect from the steward who has been entrusted with managing the kingdom until the Master’s return? Stewardship of the church’s resources involves proper account management, facilities planning, and ethical fundraising for operational budgets and capital campaigns. The second week will be taught by attorney, Mark Henze, who will explore with you some of the main laws affecting the development and operation of churches as well as some of the ethical dilemmas faced in complex ministries today.
Year Three: (Anthony & Anthony)
The first week will provide an extensive overview of matters pertaining to recruiting, training and developing your ministry leaders (volunteer and paid). Strategies to develop policies, procedures, in-service training seminars, and leader mentoring will be discussed. The second week will focus on a selection of important topics: PERT charting for effective project management, managing information technology, working through teams, becoming a change agent, conflict resolution, and personal career development.
The Requirements
Qualified applicants with have a Master of Divinity degree (or its academic equivalent) with a minimum G 3.0 GPA from an accredited schools as well as three years of full-time ministry experience since graduation. Give us a call if you have any questions. The cost of the program is reasonable and designed to fit into your budget.
The Faculty Mentor
Michael J. Anthony, Ph.D., Ph.D.
Michael has served on staff in five churches as well as numerous parachurch ministries. With over 30 years of applied ministry experience he has authored or edited 12 books in the field of ministry leadership including Management Essentials for Christian Ministries (Broadman & Holman), Moving On, Moving Forward (Zondervan), The Effective Church Board (Baker), and also The Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education (Baker). He has served on twelve non-profit boards and is a consultant to numerous ministries today. His expertise in executive leadership and organizational management will provide you with powerful tools for your ministry context.
Additional Faculty
Dr. Michelle Anthony
Michelle has written over a dozen resources in Children’s/Youth ministries and Christian education. With over 20 years of ministry leadership in children’s youth, and family ministry, she currently serves as the Director of Family Ministries at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa. In addition, she serves as a consultant to numerous churches and Christian publishing companies across North America.
David Chow
David is the founder of Leading Together, a ministry that provides coaching and consulting for churches and Christian leaders in areas of leadership development. He has served as a pastor at several churches including the Crystal Cathedral. He is currently the Vice President of Development for the Evangelical Christian Credit Union and a certified Gallup Strength-Finder coach and a Leadership Challenge Workshop Facilitator.
Devin Eckhardt
Devin serves as the Executive Pastor at Bayside Church near XXXXX. With over 20 years of experience in leadership, strategic planning and management, he has served in both the professional business marketplace as well as Christian ministry leadership. He was called into ministry as a part of the senior leadership within a large California mega-church and later, serving as Executive Director, led a growing internationally syndicated Christian broadcast ministry.
Dr. Adam Morris
Senior Director of Stewardship and Resource Development at Biola University, Dr. Morris spends a good deal of his time educating ministry leaders about biblical stewardship. Adam is in charge of large donor gifts at Biola University and Talbot School of Theology and is a highly successful fundraising consultant to non-profit ministries around the Southern California area.
Mark Henze
In addition to his Ph.D. in Educational Studies, Mark holds a J.D. degree from the University of Denver School of Law. He also holds graduate degrees in Philosophy and Ethics and also Christian Education. As an attorney and ministry consultant Mark dedicates his time to training and equipping ministries in how to prevent needless litigation.