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 Universitat, 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.
Show moreThese 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 Universitat, 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.
Show moreForeword by Dr. Brian Schmisek, Director of the Institute of
Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago
Foreword by Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Damberg, Professor of Medieval and
Modern Church History, Faculty of Catholic Theology, Ruhr
University Bochum
Introduction—Collaborative Leadership for Local Church
Communities
Chapter 1—Talk about Parish: Toward Conversations of
Consequence
Chapter 2—INSPIRE Learning about Parish Consulting
Chapter 3—Build Collaboration, Build Church?
Chapter 4—Toward a Culture of Dynamic Community: Parish
Consolidation and Collaborative Leadership
Chapter 5—No Favoritism: Effective Collaborative Leadership
Practices in Multicultural Parishes
Chapter 6—Reimagining the Urban Parish: Leadership Strategies in
Mexico City and Chicago
Chapter 7—A Crisis of Trust, a Crisis of Credibility, a Crisis of
Leadership: The Catholic Church in Germany in Quest of New
Models
Chapter 8—The Local Communities of Poitiers: Reflections on Their
Reflection
Chapter 9—From Practice to Tradition and Back Again
Chapter 10—Collaboration in a Pastoral Key
Afterword—Further Notes on a Theology of “Collaborative Leadership”
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.
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*
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