Program Aims to Bring Transparency to Church Business Practices
By Ron Alsop
The Wall Street Journal
January 8, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119974268053072925.html?mod=pj_main_hs_coll
The reputations of many Roman Catholic parishes have been tarnished in recent years, both by the priest sex-abuse scandals and a growing number of embezzlement cases. That has prompted a burgeoning movement to improve the management and leadership skills of church officials through new programs being offered primarily at Catholic universities. M.B.A. Track columnist Ron Alsop talked recently with Charles Zech, director of the Center for the Study of Church Management and a professor of economics at Villanova University's School of Business in Villanova, Pa., about the launch of its master's degree in church management in May and the need for more sophisticated and more transparent business practices in parishes and religious organizations.
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WSJ: Why did Villanova decide to create a master's degree in church management?
Dr. Zech: We find that business managers at both the parish and diocesan level often have social work, theology or education backgrounds and lack management skills. While pastors aren't expected to know all the nitty-gritty of running a small business, they at least need enough training in administration to supervise their business managers. Before starting the degree, we ran some seminars in 2006 and 2007 as a trial balloon to see if folks were interested enough to pay for management education. The seminars proved to be quite popular, drawing people from all over the country, including high-level officials from both Catholic dioceses and religious orders.
How have the sexual-abuse scandals and embezzlement cases put a spotlight on poor management and governance practices?
The Catholic Church has some real managerial problems that were brought to light by the clergy abuse scandals. It became quite obvious that the church isn't very transparent and accountable in its finances. Settlements had been made off the books with abuse victims and priests had been sent off quietly for counseling, to the surprise of many parishioners. Then came a string of embezzlement cases. Our center on church management surveyed chief financial officers of U.S. Catholic dioceses in 2005 and found that 85% had experienced embezzlements in the previous five years. One of our recommendations was that parishes be audited once a year by an independent auditor. There clearly are serious questions about internal financial controls at the parish level, and we are now doing research on parish advisory councils and asking questions about such things as who handles the Sunday collection and who has check-writing authority. Does the same person count the collection, deposit the money and then reconcile the checkbook? Obviously, you're just asking for problems if it's the same person; you can imagine the temptations.
Beyond the need for better financial controls, what other management issues should get more attention from church leaders?
Performance management is definitely an important but neglected area. That's partly because it's a very touchy issue. Who is going to appraise the performance of a priest or a church worker who is also a member of the parish? There's great reluctance on the part of the clergy to be appraiser or appraisee. You have to view the parish as a family business and understand that it's like evaluating members of your family.
How will Villanova's church management degree be different from what other universities have started offering?
Some schools combine standard business classes with courses from theology and other departments. But if you're taking a regular M.B.A. finance class, you're learning about Wall Street and other things that aren't really relevant. What we're doing is creating courses specifically for this degree program, so there are both business and faith-based elements in every class. For example, the law course will deal with civil law relative to church law so students understand the possible conflicts. The accounting course will cover internal financial-control issues for churches. And the human-resource management class will include discussion of volunteers, a big part of the labor force for parishes.
Have you encountered any resistance from church officials?
Yes, some people say a church is not a business. But I point out that we still have to be good stewards of our resources -- our financial and human capital -- to carry out God's work on Earth. When you use management terms with bishops, they often get turned off. But when you use the word stewardship, it has more impact because it's in the Bible. Jesus talked about the importance of our being good stewards who take care of our talents and other gifts.
Is the degree restricted to Catholic clergy and lay managers?
The courses will have a Catholic focus because as a Catholic university, our mission is to try to meet the needs of our community. But the degree is certainly not restricted to Catholics. Every church has similar managerial problems. In fact, we're eager for other Christian denominations to become part of the program and provide some valuable contributions to class discussions. A typical course, however, would not apply to other religions because of the different way Christian churches are organized compared with synagogues and other religious institutions.
Why is the degree being offered primarily online, with only a one-week residency on campus?
Since we view the market for church-management education as national and even global, a distance-learning degree will attract clergy and church workers from any part of the world who can't take off for two years to come to Villanova. In fact, we already have heard from a priest in Ireland and a Presbyterian minister in Cameroon interested in enrolling in the program.
The church management degree costs $23,400. How can clergy and church workers afford it?
We expect the vast majority of students to be supported by a diocese or other religious or social service organizations. We will chop 25% off the price for anyone who can get their organization to pay a third of the tuition. That cuts a student's out-of-pocket costs by about half. We're trying to send the message to religious leaders that this is important and that they should invest in management training.
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