Courses » Ministry Management

Ministry Management Course

Entrepreneurship is more than just a means to gain wealth and live a good life. What if your business is also your ministry? During the 12-month Ministry Management course various teachers—with years of experience in business evangelism—take you on a journey that will entirely change the way you look at entrepreneurship. You will learn everything you need to know to start your own business, and use it to win souls for Jesus.

Please be aware that this is an advanced course. Completion of the six-month Health Evangelism course, it’s equivalent from an affiliated institution or the Essentials of Health Evangelism course by LIGHT is required.

The Ministry Management course is the best hands-on experience I’ve ever had. It taught me how to run a sustainable business/ministry by bridging the gap between entrepreneurship and the gospel.

Alex Deis, Ministry Management graduate

Upcoming Sessions

On-campus spring session:
Starts January 2025

The Application Deadline is September  18, 2024

For International Students: Check with your local US consulate to check appointment availability before proceeding with the application.

One month mission trip (optional) after each course, anywhere in the world (depending on the needs).

Apply Now

What Will You Learn

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Entrepreneurship

  • Kick-start your own business, from writing a business plan to hiring your first employee.
  • Basic accounting and Christian finance
  • Project management, including project life cycles, and work breakdown structures. Also learn planning, organizing, directing, and controlling projects.
  • Manage specific ministry projects, such as in the food service industry, retail and merchandise industry, lifestyle centers, and educational development.
  • Human resource management
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Marketing & Media

  • The role of marketing in self-supporting work and Christian ethics
  • Create a pathway for your target audience to walk, to lead them to buy your product or use your service.
  • Research consumer behavior and define your target audience.
  • Basic graphic design
  • Social media marketing
  • Launch your own landing page.
  • Shoot your own promo video.
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Christian Leadership

  • Take a look at the mistakes Bible characters have made, and what we can learn from them.
  • Trace God’s leading in history as to understand His revealed ideal for His remnant people in mission work.
  • How to turn a business into a ministry
  • How to lead as a servant

Ministry Management Prepares You To

Take a managerial position in an existing ministry.

Develop and manage a self-supporting ministry (such as a lifestyle center, herb shop, health food store, restaurant, or treatment center).

Develop and manage a missionary training school.

Start your own city mission.

Course Curriculum

General Management

Case Studies and Analysis
Examine different self-supporting ministries that are both successful and unsuccessful at various levels (financially, spiritually, managerially). Develop a proposal to implement feasible changes.
Accounting
This course covers the fundamental accounting principles and theory for sole proprietorships and corporations. The recording of business transactions through the accounting cycle will be covered, from journaling, posting, adjusting, and closing entries through working papers and preparation of financial statements. Related topics will include internal control, ethical accounting practices, cost accounting, and budgeting.
Financial Management
Students learn how to integrate the Biblical relationship between faith and finance with all aspects of financial management. Topics covered will include value methodology, cash flows, evaluating and managing a portfolio’s risk and return relationship, capital budgeting and investments, and determining optimal capital structure.
Human Resource Management
Students will learn human resource management as a source of sustainable advantage. They will study job analysis and planning, employee recruitment, measurement and evaluation, compensation, team building, talent management, and staff training and professional development.
Marketing
This course explores the role of marketing in self-supporting work and the effective use of marketing in business. Students will learn to conduct market research, examine internet marketing, identify target markets and segments, analyze consumer behavior, asses promotional techniques, construct effective pricing strategies, understand ethical and legal considerations, and develop a comprehensive marketing plan.

Spiritual Foundation and Leadership

Christian Leadership I
This course introduces principles of Christian leadership and how they can be applied to life and ministry. Topics include servant leadership, time management, board management, decision-making, leadership across cultures, mentoring, and team building.
Christian Leadership II
This class is a continuation of the Christian Leadership class. We’ll dive deeper into the seven habits of an effective leader by looking at both the Bible and the world of entrepreneurship. Learn from the mistakes others have made. Know how to make decisions as a successful leader.
Apologetics
  • We will look at the question of objective, absolute truth, and its importance in the context of a pluralistic worldview.
  • Understand the different dynamics that are part of interacting with non-Adventists and atheists.
  • Learn to defend by reason and in a way that benefits the Biblical Adventist faith.
Hermeneutics
  • Understand the history and importance of how Adventists interpret the Bible.
  • Understand sound Biblical methods to interpret inspired writings.
  • Understand the nature of the historical-critical method.
  • Learn how to study the Bible, letting Scripture explain itself.
  • Learn how to deal with difficult texts in Scripture.
Church History
This course offers a survey of the entire history of the church in its many branches from the apostolic church to the Reformation.
Seventh-Day Adventist History
This course provides the practical, rational and objective knowledge of the history of the Adventist movement in order to empower the students to understand the present and trust God’s will for the future of this movement. The course includes four main areas: Principles on how to approach the history, the beginnings of the movement, the organizational development, and after the prophet.

Entrepreneurship

Business Evangelism
By studying the scriptures, we will identify how the gospel was never meant to be separate from business life and management. Resulting out of this fact, we will realize that all of God’s people were meant to work full time in ministry through their daily work, both personally and corporately. We will investigate in detail how spirituality and evangelism were designed to be the main focus of every area of management (planning, organizing, directing, and evaluating).
Business and Strategic Planning
This course is designed to give the student experience in strategic analysis, decision-making, and planning. Students learn to plan, identify, analyze, propose alternative solutions, and make decisions about business strategy.
City Missions
Students will look at various kinds of existing ministries and explore how they are reaching those around them. This class is intended to give the students practical examples of ministries that are successfully reaching those around them in a financially sustainable way.
Entrepreneurship
This course covers the theory and practice of starting a business and organizing the necessary resources. Topics include start-up financing, marketing, risk management, opportunity identification, feasibility analysis, innovation, and development and implementation of a business plan.
Ministry Development
The objective of this course is that every student develops a definite plan and a ministry by the time they graduate. Topics covered will include defining your mission/vision, strategic thinking, quantifying success, team development, legalities, fundraising, and how to start various types of ministries (lifestyle centers, training schools, clinics, etc.).
Technology for Entrepreneurs
This course introduces students to essential technological tools needed to grow a business. Areas covered will include website creation, basic graphic design (using Photoshop and InDesign), storytelling in media to reach the target audience, copywriting, and the utilization of social media for business.

Specialty Management

Food Service Management
This course explores various functions of management in the food service industry, and encourages a systems approach to food production by integrating menu planning, purchasing, receiving, storage, production, and delivery in the business model. You’ll also learn to take an exacting, time-tested approach to positive revenue management by leveraging client flow, dining time, table mix, meal duration, and variable pricing.
Principle of Lifestyle Center Management
This class will study the example of Jesus’ method of ministry (first helping people physically, and having won their confidence, sharing with them spiritual matters) as the model of true evangelism. This will include learning how to use Jesus’ method in sanitarium work (today known as lifestyle centers).
Retail Management and Merchandising
Students will learn operating procedures for a retail environment, inventory management, merchandising, in-store marketing, and retail management.
Business Communication
This course is a study and application of appropriate practices in oral and written business communication. It provides a theoretical and practical framework for understanding and conducting efficient and effective business communication. Business letters, reports, presentations, and employment skills are emphasized.

Prerequisites

In order to start the Ministry Management course, you will need to have finished one of the following courses and be able to provide evidence in the form of a certificate of completion: the six-month Health Evangelism course at Wildwood Center for Health Evangelism, the Essentials of Health Evangelism course at LIGHT, or any LIGHT affiliated one-month or six-month course.

If you are in your teenage years, you need to have completed your secondary education before coming to study at Wildwood. The minimum age is 18 years old. Any exception needs to be approved by the Education Committee. The applicant must also be well familiarized with the English language.

Certificate of Completion

Upon satisfactory completion of the Ministry Management course, and having fully met the financial obligations, the student is awarded with the following certificates of completion:

  • Ministry Management
  • Christian Leadership

Apprenticeship

During the second semester of the Ministry Management course, every student is required to do an apprenticeship in an assistant-leadership position at one of Wildwood Health Institute’s on-campus departments. This depends on the student’s capabilities.

  • President’s office
  • LIGHT (not affiliated with Wildwood but on Wildwood’s campus)
  • Education
  • Lifestyle center
  • Clinic
  • Farm
  • Auto shop
  • Media
  • Wildwood Natural Food Market (including herb shop)
  • IT

Ministry Management Course

Ready to start a ministry? Apply for the Ministry Management course today.

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