Rev. Joel Fitzgerald, Vice President
In seminary, I took many courses needed for ordination, including New Testament, Old Testament, theology, evangelism, preaching, church history, and United Methodist history, polity, and theology. These courses prepared me to preach, lead worship, teach Bible studies, and provide pastoral care.
Then I arrived at my first church and had to refinance a mortgage in the aftermath of the Great Recession, manage staffing conflicts, and learn about church insurance, local property tax laws, and accounting principles.
The gap between my seminary training and the practical skills I needed in the local church quickly became clear. Disaffiliations, financial challenges, and a pandemic have only widened that gap. Today’s church leaders need different skills than those needed a generation ago. To meet these needs, the Foundation and annual conference staff created the Ministry Mechanics series.
This series of seminars is designed to provide practical information on how the church as an organization runs. We hope it will fill the gap between what pastors and church leaders learned in seminary or in past seasons, and the needs of the current church.
Our first series focuses on human resources, with sessions already held in Escanaba and Brighton. Joel Walther, Kathy Pittinger, Brad Bartelmay, Jennie Browne, and I developed a draft personnel manual that local churches can adapt. We have covered the employee life cycle—from hiring and staff development to separation—and shared best practices for applying these principles to volunteers.
We know that there is a need for more learning on the basics of running the church. In future years we hope to cover more sessions that delve into other areas of church administration.
You can find more information here: https://michiganumc.org/ministry-mechanics/