The USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement’s Faith Leaders Mentoring Program is an intensive training program designed for Murray Center alumni, including pastors and lay leaders of churches and faith-based organizations.

The Murray Center has found that many faith leaders need greater help with running their church or organization. Faith communities’ lack of infrastructure can hamper the effectiveness of its civic engagement initiatives. The Mentoring Program, therefore, dives deep into essential issues for faith leaders, focusing each two-hour seminar on one issue.

The seminars cover:

• Leadership Development: Insight and tools for forming partnerships with civic and business leaders; a focus on personal and professional growth in participants’ ministries.
• Church Management: How to develop systems to manage church staff, programs, finances, a board of directors and various departments within the church (music, youth, etc.).
• Accounting: Budgeting, financial statements, cash flow analysis, tax preparation, church revenue projections and developing an atmosphere of fiscal accountability.
• Communications Technology: How to use technology to communicate to staff, members, recruit new members and the larger community.
• Fundraising: How to identify congregational needs, research funding sources, write and submit proposals, manage funded programs and write required reports.
• Human Resources: How to define job descriptions, set salaries, negotiate with independent contractors and manage volunteers.
• Legal Issues: How to avoid as well as mitigate lawsuits.
• Financial Literacy: Tools and resources for money management, both for the pastoral team as well as individual members and families.
• Community Development: How to start a CDC that is focused on job creation, housing, commercial real estate development, etc. and how to relate to and manage relationships with banks.
• Relationships: How to establish mentoring relationships with mega-church pastors, elected officials, corporate leaders, etc.

In addition to Monday class sessions, each participant will have one-on-one time with Rev. Cecil Murray and Rev. Mark Whitlock, who have extensive professional experience in all of these areas.

Participants are recruited for the Mentoring Program. To find out how to apply to other opportunities for training, please sign up for the CRCC newsletter and indicate your interest in the Murray Center:

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