Overview

These essays explore team-based parish leadership theologically, sociologically, and pastorally in a variety of cultures and circumstances. The result is an extended conversation, both practical and deeply reflective, emerging from the collaboration of theologians, social researchers, organizational development specialists, and pastoral ministers. Collaborative Parish Leadership draws on the experience, strengths, challenges, and insights of the long-term pastoral-academic partnerships out of which it has grown. These include “Project INSPIRE,” a pastoral team-formation project sponsored by Loyola University and the Archdiocese of Chicago and funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., as part of its Sustaining Pastoral Excellence initiative. Another partner initiative is the international pastoral minister exchange “Crossing Over,” involving several Catholic dioceses in northwest Germany and based at Ruhr Universität, Bochum. Authors of these essays have also been involved in Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership, the Congregational Studies Team’s Engaged Scholars fellowship (both also Lilly Endowment funded projects), and other projects. Collaborative Parish Leadership employs practical-theological methods, rooted in pastoral experience and integrated with scholarly reflection. Opening essays deal with the current situation of U.S. parishes, the parish consultancy model of Project INSPIRE, and a case study of several parishes that benefited from the project. The following chapters present comparative case studies of collaborative leadership in various settings: multicultural parishes in different parts of the U.S., parish clusters consolidating into single parishes using very different processes, and parishes in Chicago and Mexico City meeting similar urban challenges. Three authors associated with CrossingOver and its participating dioceses assess the general state of parish reorganization in Germany, and the potential of the unique approach to team leadership taken in the French archdiocese of Poitiers. The final chapters reflect on the theology of parish leadership from pastoral and systematic perspectives, and on the future needs and possibilities of collaborative approaches. Overall, Collaborative Parish Leadership engages and challenges academic and pastoral leaders in diverse social and ecclesial situations, suggests multiple models for cultivating collaboration, builds connections between collaborative action and theological development.

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9781498533706

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How can a Catholic parish flourish? How can parishes withstand the prevailing forces of secularization and apathy? How can Catholics best respond to parish closings, clusterings and reconfigurations? What parish model works best to build real community among its members? How can a multicultural parish effectively incorporate all its members? How can pastors and pastoral associates successfully lead the contemporary parish? All of these critical questions are thoughtfully considered and carefully answered in this deeply researched book based on grassroots experience and the most up-to-date scholarship. Collaborative Parish Leadership is an invaluable tool for understanding, supporting, and leading the place that most Catholics think about when they think about church.--James Martin S.J., author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage and My Life with the Saints In the spirit of practical theology, this collection of essays blends excellent social research on parish life with theological reflections that include the perspectives of parishioners themselves. Based on explorations of parish life from the INSPIRE project in Chicago and CrossingOver in Germany, this work exemplifies true collaboration and yields rich harvests of insights that emerge from dialogue that moves across national, diocesan, and university boundaries.--Barbara Fleischer, Loyola University New Orleans This collection of essays demonstrates the fruitful conversation at the intersection of organizational development and Church ministry. Bishops, diocesan and parish pastoral ministers, and Catholics who care about parish vitality should read this book.--Mary L. Gautier, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate

In Collaborative Parish Leadership: Contexts, Models, Theology editors William A. Clark and Daniel Gast provide a thoroughly engaging account of INSPIRE-the collaborative leadership project funded by both the Lilly Endowment Inc.'s Sustaining Pastoral Excellence program and a partnership between Loyola University Chicago and the Archdiocese of Chicago.... The book's aims as well as those of each chapter are unpacked in a thorough and engaging way, inviting the reader along the ten-year INSPIRE journey of collaborative parish leadership practices within a Roman Catholic Church context.... The various authors succeed in drawing this Protestant, neo-Pentecostal scholar into their experiences and reflections, which inspired him to consider these within his own context - the very reason why this book comes highly recommended for all who find themselves in pastoral leadership of any kind. * Reading Religion * How can a Catholic parish flourish? How can parishes withstand the prevailing forces of secularization and apathy? How can Catholics best respond to parish closings, clusterings and reconfigurations? What parish model works best to build real community among its members? How can a multicultural parish effectively incorporate all its members? How can pastors and pastoral associates successfully lead the contemporary parish? All of these critical questions are thoughtfully considered and carefully answered in this deeply researched book based on grassroots experience and the most up-to-date scholarship. Collaborative Parish Leadership is an invaluable tool for understanding, supporting, and leading the place that most Catholics think about when they think about church. -- James Martin S.J., author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage and My Life with the Saints In the spirit of practical theology, this collection of essays blends excellent social research on parish life with theological reflections that include the perspectives of parishioners themselves. Based on explorations of parish life from the INSPIRE project in Chicago and CrossingOver in Germany, this work exemplifies true collaboration and yields rich harvests of insights that emerge from dialogue that moves across national, diocesan, and university boundaries. -- Barbara Fleischer, Loyola University New Orleans This collection of essays demonstrates the fruitful conversation at the intersection of organizational development and Church ministry. Bishops, diocesan and parish pastoral ministers, and Catholics who care about parish vitality should read this book. -- Mary L. Gautier, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate

Author Information

Rev. William A. Clark, SJ, is associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross. Daniel Gast retired from Loyola University Chicago after serving for nine years as Director of Project INSPIRE.

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