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Belmont Collaborates with General Council on Finance and Administration on International Business Studies

Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey College of Business will collaborate with the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) for a project in the spring of 2017. 12 MBA candidates, who have designated international business as their track of study, will define issues, conduct research and analysis and offer recommendations on the expansion of Shared Services throughout the global United Methodist denomination. The students will do research originally in the Philippines Central Conference.

GCFA is focusing attention on ways the denomination can reduce administrative costs through offerings of Shared Service. The objective of all Shared Services is to make available funds for local church ministries that will have an impact on connectional giving as well. While many of the current projects are available to U.S. churches, this project will focus exclusively on the feasibility of expanding services globally.

Jeff Overby, Director of the Center for International Business at the Jack C. Massey College of Business said, “We are honored that GCFA leadership has offered to partner with Belmont University for this year’s practicum project. This unique experiential learning opportunity enables our MBA students to strengthen their consulting and project management skills while also learning to navigate within an international and cross-cultural context. Students will be working on a project that will not only benefit a respected global organization such as GCFA, but has the potential to positively transform individual lives in the Philippines.”

For the Belmont MBA students, the for-credit course provides an opportunity to offer professional quality consulting services to an international entity like The United Methodist Church. For GCFA, it is an opportunity to research the viability of expanding existing and developing new shared services to the denomination.

Moses Kumar, GCFA general secretary and treasurer said, “We look on this opportunity as another way to join communities of faith in finding new and innovative ways to expand ministry globally. We are blessed in Nashville to have many great United Methodist churches and general agencies. We are also blessed to have other faith communities that share our belief that the world is our parish. We look forward to the results and examining how we can share administrative services throughout the denomination.”

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