Making Parish Councils Pastoral traces the historical development of the ôpastoralö style of council and shows how councils can more effectively embrace the church's vision of studying and reflecting on parish matters and recommending their conclusions to the pastor.

A reference and resource that will assist parishes in the task of establishing pastoral councils

Outlines for the renewal of parish structures in a more dynamic and missionary direction.

A practical guidebook for all persons involved in developing pastoral councils on a parish level.

Today’s parish leaders are expected to be holy and prayerful spiritual guides, great preachers and compassionate confessors, but also to make important decisions in key areas like finance, budgeting, hiring and firing, fundraising, risk management, relationship-building, and more—often with virtually no transition or training. And with all the requisite education in philosophy and theology they must provide future pastors, in addition to formation in priestly spirituality and pastoral care, seminaries can do little to prepare priests to deal with the difficult temporal issues pastors face. A Pastor’s Toolbox is designed to help fill that void. It is loaded with valuable information, insights, and practical tools that pastors need in order to begin handling the complexities of parish management in the twenty-first century.The book is an outgrowth of The Toolbox for Pastoral Management, a nationally recognized joint project of The National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management and Seton Hall University. The Leadership Roundtable is a nonprofit organization of Catholic lay leaders, religious, and clergy working together to promote excellence and best practices in the management, finances, communications, and human resources development of the Catholic Church in the U.S. through the greater incorporation of the expertise of the laity. Learn more at www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org.

Argues that contemporary parishes are "caught in a Church system that is not working. Proposes a dual-focus system of parish leadership which creates a healthier, more collaborative environment for leaders, assistants and parishioners, and helps ensure a successful transition when pastors or administrators are replaced.

A seminal moment in the study of U.S. Catholic parish life came in the 1980s with the publication of a series of reports from the ground-breaking Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life. These reports are now badly outdated, as Catholic dioceses grapple with new challenges that didn't exist in the 80s. Topics that were not considered then, like greater Catholic mobility, increased cultural diversity, and structural re-organization as well as the rise of lay leadership, have attained new significance. This timely book, based on more than a decade of research, provides an in-depth portrait and analysis of the current state of parish life and leadership. Unique in the scope of the research and the timeliness of its findings, the book critically examines the current state of parish life. The authors draw on data from national polls of Catholics, national surveys of parishes, and thousands of in-pew surveys which explore parishioners' needs, experiences, and satisfaction with parish life in the twenty-first century. The book provides a unique 360-degree view of parish life from the perspective of pastors, parish staff, parishioners, as well as the larger Catholic population.

This is a how-to-do-it' workbook that lays out the necessary steps for forming, enabling and sustaining a parish pastoral council. It moves from introducing the concept of a parish pastoral council to its formation and planning, and on to its first few years of activity. The book provides detailed step-by-step procedures, which can be easily adapted to any parish situation. These procedures are further detailed on an accompanying CD, which provides visual aids and kick-off points for discussion. While other books on parish pastoral councils focus on the theory, this book is simply about getting it done. The focus is practicable and singular: to form a parish pastoral council with sufficient knowledge and training to get some real' work done for the good of all in the parish community.