A Pastor's Toolbox: Management Skills for Parish Leadership

by Paul A. Holmes (Editor)

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 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. It candidly addresses questions like: What do you need to know about hiring, evaluating, coaching, and inspiring members of your parish team? Which budgeting and financial analysis competencies are key to running a strong fiscal house? Why is working seamlessly with laity so important to your long-term success? How do you manage the new skills essential to fundraising? What steps should your parish take to protect its assets? How do you deploy best practices to operate a parish effectively? Each chapter is written by experts, both clergy and lay, with years of experience and leadership in their respective fields.

Genres: Theology, Reference

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[John Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this wonderful book just in time to begin my administration of Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Garfield Heights. Written with much practical wisdom, this collection of essays will help any priest govern with sanctity and wholeness. Newly ordained priests ought to read this work so that they can comprehend what they will need to do and what their brother priests are already doing. A must read for priests and those involved with the governance of the Church!

[Adam Zajac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each chapter is written by a different author, addressing a different topic. Overall it was very good, although I didn't have a personal interest in the last few chapters. The focus of the book is to provide basic skills that are needed as a pastor but are not (typically) covered in seminary formation: things like HR management, business finance, developing parish vision and structure, and so on.