Free Christian Enterprise Courses

Christian Leaders Institute sees the importance of enterprise. Often Christians are called into ministry and they must support themselves. Many times, young Christian leaders are looking for a college program to help them exit poverty. Maybe you are interested because you are called to be a Christian minister in the market place.

These free Christian Enterprise courses will give you a great grounding in Enterprise. You are able to enroll in these free courses by setting up an account at the Christian Leaders Learning site which is made possible by Christian Leaders Ministries.

These free Christian Enterprise courses deal with the topics you might find at a Business program. The worldview of these courses reflects a Biblical mindset and a belief that all of life is ministry.

One exciting opportunity at Christian Leaders Learning is the Christian Leaders Alliance. If you are called to bi-vocational licensed or ordained ministry, the Christian Leaders Alliance has study based clergy options available for you.

Free Christian Enterprise Courses

Financial Liberty – BUS 151 (3 credits)

This course presents basic principles for achieving financial freedom. Emphases include confident expectancy, setting goals, preparing personal financial spreadsheets, escaping debt, managing cash flow, investing, and generous giving.

The vision is to create an army of people who are debt free, prosperous and successful who will be willing to serve others with no limits or boundaries.  We believe a free and prosperous society can be generous and can achieve many more things than a society that is in bondage by debt, poverty, consumption, and selfish desires.

The purpose is to transform the mindset of society so that each individual recognizes the great wealth that God endowed each of us with at birth.  We are all equal before God. We were all given the same gifts – a mind, a will, a heart, a conscience, and a body and 24 hours every day – and thus each of us has the same opportunity to generate wealth during our lifetimes and live the life of our dreams. What we choose to do with each of these gifts is up to us.

Outcomes:

1.      Understand basic principles to help achieve financial freedom.

2.      Understand the importance of dreaming in regard to financial goals

3.      Learn how to prepare personal financial spreadsheets

4.      Learn principles for getting out of debt.

5.      Understand concepts of managing cash flow and investments

6.      Discover why giving is an important part of financial freedom.

Introduction to Information Systems – BUS 210 (3 credits)

Management Information Systems are formed when people team up with technology. These systems can inform better decision-making in the workplace and in one’s personal life and can elevate the church, your community, and your family. Join Professor Emily Baskins in exploring how harnessing technology will make us more effective difference-makers and leaders for Christ!

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the history, role, importance, application, and future of Management Information Systems.
• Explain the hardware, software, data, people, and processes involved in MIS.
• Understand cybersecurity best practices and apply these practices to PC and mobile computing environments.
• Recognize the implications for MIS to impact an organization’s competitive advantage.

Enterprise Marketing – BUS 330 (4 credits)

People often confuse marketing with advertising and sales. In this course you will learn about the “real” nature and scope of marketing management of which advertising and sales are simply two facets.

You will be introduced to other aspects of marketing, such as:1) Marketing Strategy, 2) Promotion, 3) Market Planning, 4) Segmentation, 5) Social Media, 6) Demographics and other specific topics that are just as relevant to any non-profit ministry as they would be in a corporate environment.

Perhaps most important, you will learn that the fundamental asset of any organization are its customers (or the people it’s serving). Hence, the supreme importance of the “marketing concept” is an attempt to identify and satisfy its customers’ needs and wants. In other words, the marketing concept is an orientation to business that starts with consumers and integrates marketing into every other organizational function. From this point of view, a primary task of marketing is to develop and maintain a business’ customer base.

Outcomes:

1.      Learn marketing fundamentals and how to engage those fundamentals to successfully understand how to sell and market a business or a ministry to the public.

2.      Learn how to create perceived and tangible customer value.

3.      Be exposed to real world applications of marketing techniques, and how to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

4.      Understand how to comprehend marketing metrics as well as how to conduct marketing research

5.      Understand how to develop a target market and how to segment markets, while positioning to market effectively

6.      Learn how the marketing mix influences price, products, and services

7.      Understand the impact of email marketing and social media marketing on the potential growth of an organization

8.      Gain understanding on how to use search engine marketing and how to market that content effectively

International Business – BUS 360 (3 credits)

This course explores important aspects of international business: the relationship between business and the global economy, analysis techniques and theories to understand the global environment, and analysis of different global companies.

Learning Objectives

At the completion of the course, students will:

• Understand the complexity of operating an international business
• Discuss how cultural and behavioral differences influence business practices
• Assess the effects of trade agreements and economic integration
• Understand and use analysis tools to assess the internal and external global environment

Strategic Management – BUS 415 (3 credits)

This course focuses on an overview of strategic management frameworks and tools that make an organization successful. Special emphasis is placed on understanding organizational analysis tools to develop a business strategy, the global context and how it impacts business strategy, the elements of the competitive environment, and organizational practices that make people successful in the organization. The course is an overview of many major strategic management principles and discusses major theories of strategic management in a practical way.

Introduction to Economics – ECN 201 (3 credits) (Also a General Education Course)

This class teaches principles of economics based on the Austrian school of economics and applies these principles to practical entrepreneurship. This gives ministry-minded leaders valuable skills for reaching more people for Christ and providing for their families.

Outcomes:

1. Apply Christian truths to economic issues and entrepreneurial calling.
2. Know basic economic concepts of supply, demand, market, profit, loss, and incentive.
3. Understand the role of freedom, personal character, and vocation in entrepreneurship.
4. Identify economic models that hamper freedom and entrepreneurship.
5. Discern and develop one’s own capacity for starting and growing a business.

Management by the Book – BUS 321 (3 credits) (Also a General Education Course)

This class integrates biblical insights on leadership with contemporary principles of management, applying best practices for ministry contexts. It includes an in-depth study of leadership insights found in the book of Philemon.

Outcomes:

• Identify major insights of contemporary leadership and management theory that apply to leadership in ministry settings.
• Know key biblical stories and principles for leadership and management.
• Apply the principles of team building, motivation, delegation, communication, and integrity.
• Discern how to be a godly change agent while being aware of existing power structures and decision-making processes.
• Understand and practice tactful leadership as displayed in the book of Philemon.

Biblical Standards for Businesses – BUS 325 (3 credits)

Marketplace Christians are called to “set the standard” in the business world, and our ultimate standard is Jesus Christ. By setting Christ-centered standards in every aspect of business, Christian business professionals can fulfill the Great Commission—that is, to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:16-20)—by making disciples of their companies, industries, and communities.

In this course, students will learn the biblical foundations and standards for each of the major disciplines of business in order to help them and their companies spread the awareness of God’s glory, Jesus Christ, in the marketplace.

Outcomes:

As a result of successfully completing this course, students should be able to…

1. Understand the primary purpose of business from a biblical perspective.
2. Articulate the biblical foundations for each of the following disciplines of business: profitability and profit management, innovation, marketing, customer care, management, human resources management, accounting and accountability, business law, and risk management.
3. Understand the role of business in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20).
4. Understand the current state of the “Marketplace Christianity Movement” and how to engage his/her local church in this movement.

Business Management for Every Enterprise – BUS 310 (4 credits)

A comprehensive survey of the principles of management as they are currently being applied in the United States and abroad. The two continuing themes throughout the course: (1) the never-ending effort by managers and organizations to meet or exceed the consumer’s needs (2) the need for effective leadership in organizations. Emphasis is placed on determining the role of a manager through the leadership process.

Outcomes:

1. Identify major insights of contemporary leadership and management theory that apply to leadership in ministry settings.
   2. Know key biblical stories and principles for leadership and management.
   3. Apply the principles of team building, motivation, delegation, communication, and integrity.
   4. Discern how to be a godly change agent while being aware of existing power structures and decision-making processes.
   5. Understand and practice tactful leadership as displayed in the book of Philemon.

Business Finance for Every Enterprise – BUS 320 (4 credits)

This course provides a brief introduction to the fundamentals of finance, emphasizing their application to a wide variety of real-world situations spanning personal finance, corporate decision-making, and financial intermediation. Key concepts and applications: time, the value of money, the risk-return tradeoff, cost of capital, interest rates, retirement savings, capital budgeting, asset valuation, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, net present value, internal rate of return, payback period, etc.

Outcomes

1. How to value any asset
2. Decide which projects to take out of the many a corporation might be considering
3. Compute the return on any project
4. Compute the value that a project adds
5. Value a Bond and compute its yield
6. Value a stock using a simple model (i.e., determine the fair price of a stock)

Christian Entrepreneurship – BUS 410 (3 credits)

Christian Entrepreneurship is foundational for bi-vocational ministers, new business leaders, church planters thinking like a business owner, business leaders, team members of a company, leaders of ministries, non-profits, or churches.

If you are effective in your thinking as an Entrepreneur, you will likely thrive in whatever you do within our community.

Outcomes:

1. Learning the basics of starting your own business.
2. Learn about business or enterprise opportunities.
3. Learn some of the critical aspects of team building.
4. Gain valuable insights into entrepreneurial leadership.
5. You will learn how to set up a simple business plant.
6. You will learn the basics of setting up a company.
7. You will engage in alternative ways to structure your venture.
8. You will be exposed to the wisdom of successful practitioners.
9. You will learn the basics of money as a resource for your new enterprise.

Christian Leaders Enterprise – BUS 101 (3 credits)

The course is about Enterprise for Christian Leaders. This introductory class gives students a firm foundation of enterprising thinking for personal life, family, and ministry or business endeavors. This class is recommended for Christian Leaders in many situations. This class is inspired by the Apostle Paul. This Biblical person was completely fine with pastors getting paid, but he also realized the fact that bi-vocational leaders enjoy this posture as Christian leaders.

Outcomes:

1. Learn the basics of starting a business/enterprise endeavor
2. Understand concepts of finance and money management for enterprises
3. Learn the basics of managing and marketing an enterprise

Enterprise Finances – BUS 420 (4 credits)

Christian leaders are called to take responsibility for the enterprises that fit their situations. Some will receive their support from a ministry, others will need to work at or start a business. All leaders need to know finances, whether they are leading a local ministry or supplying their own needs so they can lead at a local ministry.

This two-part class covers the essentials of finance as understood in a western globalized locale with many principles transferable in our global environment.

Outcomes:

1. Understand the basic principles of enterprise finance, including interest, debt, and present value.
2. Understand basic principles regarding mortgages and property/homeownership
3. Grasp concepts of convexity and compound interest
4. Learn concepts of IRAs, Roth IRAs, and 401(k)s.
5. Discover potential financial dangers and how to avoid them.
6. Learn the principles of currency and the foreign exchange market

Financial Liberty – BUS 151 (3 credits)

The purpose of this course is to transform the mindset of society so that each individual recognizes the great wealth that God endowed each person with at birth.  We are all equal before God. We were all given the same gifts – a mind, a will, a heart, a conscience, a body and 24 hours every day – and thus each person has the same opportunity to generate wealth during his/her lifetime and live the life of his/her dreams. What we choose to do with each of these gifts is up to us.

Outcomes:

1. Understand basic principles to help achieve financial freedom.
2. Understand the importance of dreaming in regard to financial goals
3. Learn how to prepare personal financial spreadsheets
4. Learn principles for getting out of debt.
5. Understand concepts of managing cash flow and investments
6. Discover why giving is an important part of financial freedom.

Principles of Accounting – BUS 230 (3 credits)

Principles of Accounting I (3 credits) is an introduction to financial accounting concepts and financial reporting, with the focus being on how decision-makers analyze, interpret, and use accounting information. Emphasis is given to how accounting measures, records, and reports economic activities for corporations and on the relationship between accrual and cash flow measures in interpreting accounting information.

Outcomes:

Upon satisfactory completion of the course, the student will:

1. Apply the fundamental concepts and assumptions that underlie financial accounting principles
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the steps of the accounting cycle and of the basic elements of the four financial statements
3. Identify, record, and report transactions in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

Principles of Microeconomics – ECN 301 (3 credits)

Professor: Michael Greene

Overview
This course introduces economic analysis of individual, business, and industry choices in the market economy. Topics include the price mechanism, supply and demand, optimizing economic behavior, costs and revenue, market structures, factor markets, income distribution, market failure, and government intervention. Upon completion, students should be able to identify and evaluate consumer and business alternatives in order to achieve economic objectives efficiently.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: a) Understand that economics is about the allocation of scarce resources, that scarcity forces choice, trade-offs exist, and that every choice has an opportunity cost. Demonstrate these concepts using a production possibility frontier diagram. b) Understand how comparative advantage provides the basis for gains through trade. c) List the determinants of the demand and supply for a good in a competitive market and explain how that demand and supply together determine equilibrium price. d) Understand the role of prices in allocating scarce resources in market economies and explain the consequences of price controls. e) Define an externality and a public good and why explain the presence of externalities and public goods make markets inefficient. Analyze various government policies aimed at solving these inefficiencies. f) Understand the costs of production and how profit-maximizing firms determine how much to produce. Be able to distinguish between long-run decisions and short-run decisions. g) Distinguish between perfect competition and imperfect competition and be able to explain the welfare loss in non-competitive markets.

Online Enterprise Marketing – BUS 430 (3 credits)

This course teaches the basics of online enterprise marketing. You will learn the essential principles that online marketers use. These skills are important for most enterprises.

Outcomes:

1. Understand the basic principles of marketing online and SEO.
2. Learn concepts of email and social site marketing
3. Learn the principles of well-designed websites