Church Administration and Leadership

Church administration and leadership covers the broad range of management, administration, and leadership skills and tasks that are involved in running a church or faith community. Pastors, church administrators, lay leaders, committee chairs, and other ministerial leaders will find the resources here helpful. 

When initiating searches in the library's online catalog or databases, the following search terms may be helpful:

•   Church work 
•   Church management 
•   Church finance 
•   Christian giving 
•   Christian leadership 
•   Church renewal 
•   Lay ministry 
•   Leadership--Religious aspects--Christianity 
•   Management--Religious aspects--Christianity 
•   Change--Religious aspects--Christianity 

Many of the books on church administration and leadership may be found by browsing the following call numbers:

• BV652 - Church management
• BV652.1 - Church leadership
• BV770 - Church finance
• BV4400 - Lay ministry
• HD57.7 - Leadership

General resources in our collection include:

• Administration in the Small Membership Church by John H. Tyson, BV 652 .T97 2007
• Leadership Handbook of Management and Administration edited by James D. Berkley, BV 4011 .L42 1994
• Church Administration Handbook by Bruce P. Powers, BV 652 .C49 2008

There are a few periodicals that publish regularly about church administration and leadership:

•  Journal of Religious Leadership, by the Academy of Religious Leadership. Print issues 2002-2013 are available at the library; full text through the current issue is available to LTS users from the Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials PLUS .

A few website resources on this topic are:

• Alban at Duke Divinity School, formerly the Alban Institute
• Congregational Resource Guide
• The Church Network Resource Center, by the National Association of Church Business Administration
• Leadership Journal, by Christianity Today