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.
Product Preview
| Format: | Paperback book |
|---|---|
| Product code: | LP3808 |
| Dimensions: | 6" x 9" |
| Length: | 190 pages |
| Publisher: |
Liturgical Press
|
| ISBN: | 9780814638088 |
| 1-2 copies | $21.95 each |
|---|---|
| 3-9 copies | $20.95 each |
| 10-49 copies | $19.96 each |
| 50-99 copies | $19.46 each |
| 100+ copies | $18.71 each |
Praise
This splendid work-edited by a savvy priest known for his sensitive work with brother priests-is as timely and as helpful as can be.
A Pastor's Toolbox helps pastors-both veteran and neophyte-make good use of the technology and administrative resources that are available while helping them maintain their primary focus on the spiritual care of the people entrusted to them. It is an invaluable resource for priests everywhere.
As most Catholics know, our new pastors are getting younger and younger. Solid preparation for pastoring is getting more critical every day. One of the most pressing needs is the need for good material on the art and skill of pastoring. For too long we have survived by adapting Protestant material. I welcome this excellent resource, A Pastor's Toolbox: Management Skills for Parish Leadership. I will recommend it to our program participants and we hope to use it in our new pastor programs.
While developed for and primarily addressed to Catholic priests who are preparing to be first-time pastors, the authors' approaches and insights are mostly applicable to pastors of other denominations as well.
Author
Reverend Paul A. Holmes, STD, is distinguished university professor of Servant Leadership at Seton Hall University where he has taught moral and sacramental theology since 1988 and served as vice president for nine years. He also serves as spiritual director for the Clergy Consultation and Treatment Service at St. Vincent's Hospital in Harrison, New York.
