ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AS A CATALYST FOR ETHICAL GOVERNANCE IN BAPTIST CHURCH

Abstract

This article examined entrepreneurship education as a catalyst for ethical governance within the Baptist Church. In recent decades, Churches faced increasing scrutiny regarding financial accountability, leadership transparency, resource management, and moral credibility, while theological training remained central to ministerial formation with limited attention given to entrepreneurial competencies in ecclesiastical administration. The study argued that entrepreneurship education, when appropriately contextualised within Christian theological foundations, contributed significantly to ethical governance by promoting stewardship, accountability, innovation, sustainability, and responsible leadership. It adopted a qualitative and analytical methodology, drawing on recent scholarship in entrepreneurship studies, leadership ethics, and Church administration, and engaged stewardship theory and ethical leadership frameworks to demonstrate how entrepreneurial skills such as strategic planning, opportunity recognition, financial literacy, risk assessment, and performance evaluation enhanced transparency and institutional integrity within Baptist congregations. Rather than commercialising the Church, entrepreneurship education was interpreted as the cultivation of disciplined, mission-driven, and ethically grounded leadership practices. The findings indicated that entrepreneurship education strengthened governance structures by improving financial systems, clarifying accountability mechanisms, fostering participatory decision-making, and encouraging sustainable ministry initiatives, particularly within Baptist congregational polity that emphasised shared governance and autonomy. The study concluded that entrepreneurship education, when integrated with biblical ethics and pastoral theology, served as a practical instrument for fostering ethical governance and institutional sustainability in the Baptist Church.