When a Pastor Doesn’t Accept Council Recommendations

Question from Frank Watson, January 12, 2012

The role of the Pastoral Council is well defined in the Vatican II Decree on Bishops (no. 27) and in more recent documents, such as the Instruction of 2002 entitled “The Priest, Pastor and Leader” and the 2004 Directory on the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops entitled “Apostolorum successores.” However, there is no mention of what course of action should be taken if the Pastor refuses to accept the pastoral council’s recommendations. Don’t those recommendations reflect what the Parishioners want?

Response from Mark F. Fischer

From Maggie Goorsky, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Santa Clarita, CA (12.14.11)

One year ago, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Santa Clarita was starting a pastoral council.  One year later we are addressing the question of who should continue to be on the council and how do we recruit new members. In the beginning, our pastor simply invited each of us to join the council.  But now we are looking towards the future.  Is there a better way to ensure that the council members are the best suited for the position?  I did call a couple of parishes in the area and they all just do their own thing which has worked for them over the years.  But I thought you might have some ideas for us as we discuss this at our next meeting.  I looked at your website and did not see information about this but I may have missed it so please direct me if the information is there.

The book reflects on the councillors' search for wisdom.

The Prayerbook for Parish Councillors, available from Amazon, expresses in prayer the ministry of pastoral councils — the ministry of serving the parish through study, reflection, and planning.  In 30 brief reflections, the book invites councillors to consider the actual challenges they face — looking to the community’s future, being realistic, and discerning how best to act.

The challenges are combined with a spirituality of thanksgiving.  Councillors are invited to get in touch with the reality of the parish, to respond to the pastor’s questions, and to to be grateful for the opportunity to serve by investigating, reflecting and recommending.

Mark F. Fischer has published many essays and books on pastoral councils, and approaches the topic of council prayer with insight and imagination.  He expresses the situation of the pastoral council member with a practical knowledge of church consultation.

Published in 2010 by Twenty-Third Publications in Connecticut, the booklet is part of the “Our Parish at Prayer” series and can be ordered in quantities at a discount.

Having served in leadership in the management of Catholic institutions (educational and health care) and in governance of many Catholic organizations over several decades, I have always spoken of (and tried to live with varying degrees of success) the servant-leadership approach as integral to our Gospel mission and Catholic identity. That type of leadership at the top seems to me to be a distinguishing characteristic of Christian faith-based organizations. Even though the goal is never fully achieved, the effort has the potential to advance organizational climate and even productivity.

On the down side, to profess a commitment to servant leadership carries a very serious challenge, but so does Gospel-living which fortunately provides for forgiveness and redemption. It also seems that in our current environment, the language of “servant” is not easy for some to internalize as a value. For some it may connote too much mildness if not weakness, and for others it may demand too much detachment and imagination. It also requires as well a generous share of prudence and patience, not the most easily acquired or practiced virtues in this fast-paced world..

But still, because of the universality of the Gospel message, I think the servant leader approach provides for adaptation to particular needs or provides the repertoire advantage you mentioned in your critique of my chapter on “Leadership” in the Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management. Indeed in our interactions, we need to individualize according to the needs of others.

Regarding the Importance of Financial Controls, James W. Thompson (St. John’s University, New York) wrote on July 28, 2011:

First, let me take a moment to thank Professor Fischer for taking the time to review our text and especially for the time he spent reviewing my chapter on stewardship in The Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management.

Financial reporting in the for-profit world has been evolving for the past one-hundred years. It had its beginnings with an emphasis on the “Balance Sheet.” It now encompasses the results of operations (hence, the business focus on “Earnings per Share”) and the sources and uses of cash from all aspects of the business, not just operations. Therefore, I felt it appropriate to apply this perspective to parish operations. I believe it would take much more time in the chapter to develop this topic, especially as to how these financial statements interact. I felt in that in writing the chapter the time would be better spent discussing parish fraud and its effects.

The review failed to mention the time devoted to the chapter presentation of the effects of fraud. The results of fraud are not only felt in an individual parish, but the bad publicity which may result can have long-lasting effects on the ability of the “Universal Church” to raise the funds necessary to finance its operations. Hence, I believe that understanding of controls over all the parish assets, including cash, buildings, purchasing and equipment are essential. For this reason I devoted a good portion of the chapter to the bad publicity that resulted from a series of actual parish frauds and how they were perpetrated. I believe an understanding of these negative effects is essential not only to the pastor, but also to the parish board. Hence, I believe that the text is essential reading not only for pastors, but parish board members also.

Larry C. Spears

I have just read your reviews of Dan Ebner’s Servant Leadership Models for Your Parish and of Margaret John Kelly’s chapter on “Leadership” in The Concise Guide for Catholic Church Management.

Regarding your review of Dan Ebner’s book—

• I have read his book, “Servant Leadership Models for your Parish,” and I think it is a very useful resource—not only for the Catholic Parish, but for churches in general.
• While I am a Quaker (not a Catholic), I think his book is written in such a way as to be helpful to a variety of faith institutions.
• I found myself generally nodding my head in agreement with your review of his book.
• I certainly agree that the pastor who wants to be an effective servant-leader must also be a good manager.  I don’t think that being one precludes the other.

Regarding your review of Margaret John Kelly’s chapters—

• I am sorry to say that I have not read The Concise Guide for Catholic Church Management.  There were a couple of things in your review of the chapter on “Leadership” that caught my attention, and that I may see somewhat differently.
• First-and-foremost, I do not view authentic servant-leadership as a “style” of leadership that one may use or not use based upon a given situation.  Greenleaf is clear that servant-leadership (the-servant-as-leader) is a philosophy of life that puts serving others first, then leading out of that deep desire to serve.  In that way, servant-leadership may be seen as part of one’s authentic self.  That doesn’t mean that servant-leaders are perfect.
• Regarding your comment about Kelly and Blanchard on whether a servant-leader would seldom call on another style:  Actually, I believe that Ken’s own thinking on this has evolved over the past thirty years.  See his book, “The Servant Leader.”  Also, my colleague Shann Ferch and I conducted an interview with Ken about eighteen months ago which underscores this.  I am attaching a link to one of the interview clips from that interview that may be found on YouTube.  Other segments from that interview can also be found there.
• I am not familiar with Knapp on non-verbal communication.  I do know that Greenleaf wrote clearly and eloquently on the centrality of careful, receptive listening as being key for servant-leaders.  His writings on the importance of listening and other characteristics have been part of my own work over the years.
• The reference to  “church managers” (drawing on the title of the publication on Church Management) is a reminder to me that, in my experience, there is a lack of leadership (servant-leadership) instruction and encouragement in every kind of management education (business, church, educational, healthcare, non-profit).  I believe it is useful to encourage managers to recognize that they are also leaders, and that this requires exercising a different set of muscles.  The explosion of MBA programs in recent decades has done little to raise the understanding and practice of ethics, values, and servant-leadership—and this is one reason why values-based leadership and servant-leadership are increasingly coming to the forefront.
• Greenleaf was fond of talking about operationalizing (managing) and conceptualizing (leading) within organizations.  To the degree that we can encourage the development of more effective servant-leader-managers (those who are able to both care for and inspire others (as a servant-leader), and who also recognize that people and vision are at least as important as managing the financial bottom line, the better off I think we will be as a society.  Attached here is a link to the NBC Dateline piece on servant-leadership  that I was involved in a few years back, and which has some relevance to this point.

James W. Thompson wrote the chapter entitled “Stewardship."

“Stewardship: Financial Control and Accountability,” chapter 12 in The Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2010)

Reviewed by Mark F. Fischer

The last chapter in the Concise Guide was written by James W. Thompson, Ed.D., CPA, Professor of Accounting and Taxation at St. John’s University. Entitled “Stewardship: Financial Control and Accountability,” the chapter considers the pastor as steward of the parish’s resources.

This distinguishes Thompson’s approach from that of Charles E. Zech in the chapter on stewardship in The Parish Management Handbook.  “Developing Stewards in a Parish Setting” is the title of Zech’s chapter.  It focuses on parishioners as contributors of their time, treasure, and talent.

Thompson focuses on the stewardship of the pastor.  He exercises his responsibility by using financial controls to minimize the chances of impropriety and fraud, and also by rendering a strict account of his oversight of parish finances.

Thompson begins with the concepts of financial literacy and internal financial controls. Pastors are not usually accountants, but they must understand the basic concepts of accounting in order to discharge their obligation as steward of the parish’s temporal goods. Equally important is the use of financial systems and reports to ensure that the goods of the parish are well maintained. Thompson does not advise pastors how to increase the parish’s income, but he shows them how their own good stewardship can increase parishioner confidence that the church’s temporal goods are being handled safely and securely.

Perhaps Thompson’s greatest contribution in this chapter is his endorsement of a three-document method for reporting on the parish’s financial well-being. Many pastors today are content to issue an annual “Balance Sheet,” showing that the parish’s yearly income corresponds to the amounts the parish actually spent. In the eyes of Thompson, however, the “balance sheet” approach is inadequate because it reveals neither all of the parish’s assets and liabilities nor the sources of parish income. So in addition to the Balance Sheet, he argues, the good pastor will also issue a “Statement of Activities” and a “Cash Flow Statement.”

A true Balance Sheet, says Thompson, differs from a statement of income and activities. It is rather a one-time snapshot of parish assets and liabilities. When the snapshot was taken, the parish’s total assets equal its liabilities plus the remaining assets. For example, the money invested by the parish in the diocesan bank or investment pool may have increased by a certain percentage, but the entire investment is an asset, and the Balance Sheet should reflect it (and not merely what it earned in twelve months). To give another example, a loan to the parish or a mortgage is paid down little by little, but the entire loan or mortgage is a liability, and this entire sum belongs on the Balance Sheet (not merely what the parish paid on it).

By contrast to the Balance Sheet, the Statement of Activities shows financial differences over a period of time. In a given year, the parish earned something from its investments, and paid a certain amount on its loan or mortgage. The certain amount – i.e., the portion that was newly earned or recently paid off – should appear on the Statement of Activities (but not on the Balance Sheet). The statement will also show all other “activities,” such as income collected and salaries paid.

The third document that pastors ought to publish is the Cash Flow Statement. Thompson defines it as “information concerning the sources of cash and uses of cash” (242). The sources and uses may come from operations, from investing, or from financing. Thompson illustrates the differences this way:

Money could be borrowed from a bank in order to construct a parish hall. The income statement [i.e., the Statement of Activities] would not grasp this transaction. However, the cash flow statement would present the money spent on the parish hall as an investing activity and the money borrowed as a financing activity. (p. 243)

In other words, the Cash Flow Statement will distinguish between income from operations (e.g., parish collections) and income from loans.

To sum up, let’s consider all three of the documents recommended by Thompson:

• The Balance Sheet will show the total amount the parish owes to its creditors and all of its material assets.
• The Statement of Activities will show how much it paid on its loans or earned from its investments.
• The Cash Flow Statement will explain how much was moved from the bank (financing) and spent on construction (investing in the parish plant).

With this three-document approach, Thompson recommends a sound accounting standard for parishes. Were his standard to be followed, parishioners would have a great deal more information about the financial health of the parish – and a lot more confidence in the pastor as chief parish steward.

It is a shortcoming of Thompson’s 29-page chapter, however, that he does not spend more time showing the consequences of the three-document approach. Instead, Thompson moves on (altogether too quickly) to further topics, such as the development of a financial team of bookkeepers, accountants, and auditors, and also to a discussion of financial controls. All of this is valuable, but not as valuable as a thorough exposition of the three-document approach, which sets a potential standard for parishes everywhere.

To return to the first page of the review of The Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management, click here.

Mary Ann Dantuono is Associate Director of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society.

Mary Ann Dantuono, J.D.

Chapters she contributed to A Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2010).

Reviewed by Mark F. Fischer

Two chapters in the Concise Guide were written by Mary Ann Dantuono, J.D., Associate Director of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society.

10. Human Resources: The Spine of an Organization

Dantuono’s chapter ten is entitled “Human Resources: The Spine of an Organization.” Just as good communication is the “oxygen” of an organization (as Sr. Margaret John Kelly affirmed in chapter four), so human resources is the organization’s “spine,” say Dantuono, the scaffolding that “supports its mission and vision.”

The author begins her introduction to human resources by outlining Catholic social thought over the last 120 years. Social thought, she suggests, provides the moral spine of the Catholic organization. Dantuono then endorses the development of a working team at the parish or diocesan level, a team that is mission-driven, competent, and representative of the community it serves.

Dantuono cites with approval the distinction made by the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA) between the expectations of employers and employees. Both have duties and responsibilities. The chapter’s treatment of the Church as an employer, and of Catholic social teaching, well represents the Church’s doctrine about employment.

Part 2 of Dantuono’s chapter identifies four basic human resources functions: hiring, orientation and training, supervision, and assessment. The hiring process begins with the develop of a job description, followed by the recruitment and interviewing of applicants. The book describes the essential features of a job description and refers readers to www.avemariapress.com for sample applications and other supplementary materials. It concludes its treatment of the four HR functions by affirming the importance of regular performance assessments, measuring what the employee does in relation to what the job description says. In all of this, Dantuono reliably introduces readers to the work of a church manager who occasionally (or even more often) hires new workers.

Dantuono cites with approval recent publications by NACPA that emphasize the importance to the Church of retaining good employees unless there is a good “cause” to terminate employment. Dantuono does not explain, however, why NACPA prefers “for cause” to “at will” employment, the policy that an employer can fire an employee “at will.” Indeed, she goes so far as to characterize her own state of New York as an “employment at will” state, suggesting that its preference for at-will employment should be a norm. But NACPA prefers the “for cause” employment relationship because it enhances the stability of the Church workplace.

Part 3 of the chapter is devoted “special issues,” described by Dantuono as “sources of potential litigation” (178). She highlights confidentiality and privacy, discrimination against select employees, poor treatment of those with disabilities, and harassment. One of the best features of the chapter is a collection of case studies that Dantuono first presents in an appendix as open questions and then discusses in an authoritative way.

The problem with Dantuono’s “sources of potential litigation” approach is that, by focusing on problems that may arise (rather than on the sources of positive law), it may give the reader the false impression that legal issues in the church workplace constitute a minefield from which no one can escape unharmed.

For example, in the discussion of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Dantuono notes that employers with more than 25 employees are required to provide “reasonable accommodation” and hire disabled people who are otherwise qualified. Most Catholic parishes, needless to say, have fewer than 25 employees. Despite that, Dantuono throws out the hypothetical question:

If a highly-qualified candidate has mobility impairment and uses a wheelchair, should the employer be required to install an automatic door opener as a ‘reasonable accomodation’ so the employee can access the office? (183).

With a question like this, Dantuono raises a problem that, while relevant to large Catholic high schools or hospitals, has little to do with the vast majority of parish managers.  Her focus on risk management differs considerably from the human resources chapter by Robert Miller in The Parish Management Handbook.  Miller’s chapter is entitled”Enhancing and Supporting the People Who Work in Parishes.”

In summary, the Concise Guide’s human resources chapter sets for itself an ambitious agenda. In the span of 39 pages it lays out the Church’s vision of employment, the basic functions of human resources, and the dangers of potential litigation. The presentation is reliable and detailed, and a student of management can profit from a close study of it.

But the neglect of NACPA’s teaching about the “for cause” employment relationship, and the emphasis on litigious issues (coming as it does before chapter eleven’s introduction to legal principles) can mislead readers. Avoiding litigation is not the primary purpose of human resource professionals in the Church.

11. Legal Principles and Pastoral Issues

Chapter eleven, “Legal Principles and Pastoral Issues,” is the second chapter contributed by Dantuono to the Concise Guide. In this 35-page chapter, she offers “the basic structure and principles of American jurisprudence” as “a framework for Church and organizational decision-making that will not contravene the law and will assist Church leadership to know when to consult a lawyer” (202).

Dantuono begins the chapter with a discussion of categories and types of law, quickly summarizing three First Amendment principles:

• The Establishment clause that “Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion,”
• The Free Exercise clause that guarantees churches the right to practice the tenets of faith without government interference, and
• The Conscience clauses in various laws that exempt a church-related entity “from having to comply with provisions of laws that would require the entity or individual to violate religious beliefs” (209).

The author illustrates the clauses with engaging examples and case studies.

Next, Dantuono discusses the Catholic Church as a non-profit corporation, which is the way New York State and many others regard it. She sketches the duties of care, of loyalty, and of obedience owed by the Board of Directors or Trustees of the corporation. The presentation is lucid, but Dantuono neglect to mention the other common way that the law in many states views the Catholic Church, namely, as a “corporation sole,” wholly owned by the bishop.

Dantuono then moves on to a series of brief discussions:

• whether priests and religious are exempt from jury duty,
• the principles of tort law (i.e., who is responsible in cases of injury on church property),
• the principles of contract law (which governs the relations between employers and employees),
• privileged communications and confidentiality, and
• the Church’s relation to children and families (including the role of the Church in supervising children and reporting abuse).

Readers will admire the extraordinary compression of Dantuono’s writing – she packs a lot into a few words – and may wish that this chapter on legal principles had come before the chapter on human resources. The treatment of employees depends in large part on the law of torts and contracts.

Dantuono wraps up her whirlwind survey of legal principles with a treatment of laws related to illness and dying, of fundraising issues, and of music, art and copyright concerns. At times the principles seem rather abstract, but Dantuono illustrates them with six relevant exercises or questions that call for the application of legal principles.

Inevitably Dantuono’s chapter on legal issues will invite comparison with the chapter on the same topic by Sr. Mary Angela Shaughnessy in the Parish Management Handbook. Both offer brief treatments of the principles of law, both illuminate the principles with actual cases, and both quiz the reader on the application of legal principles.

Ultimately, it is hard to judge between Dantuono and Shaughnessy. Dantuono covers more ground, touching many more legal issues. Shaughnessy has a narrow scope but greater depth, especially regarding education law and care for minors.

Click here to return to the first page of the review of the Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management.

Brenda Massetti is Associate Professor of Management at St. John's University.

Brenda Massetti, Ph.D.

“Fundamentals of Management,” chapter 2 in A Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2010).

Reviewed by Mark F. Fischer

Chapter Two in the Concise Guide, entitled “Fundamentals of Management,” was written by Brenda Massetti, Associate Professor at the Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University. She divides the process of management into four areas – planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling – but suggests that the first is the foundation of all the others.

Planning is the process, as Massetti simply puts it, of “picking a future” (28). But everything depends on the qualities of the goals one chooses. Massetti advocates goals that are (in the acronym of Gene Donohue) “SMART”: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (27). The task of the good manager, she says, is to oversee the process by which the parish attains its goals.

Influencing others, Massetti says, is the function by which the manager is most often judged. People ask first whether the manager is “effective” (that is, whether the manager achieves the goals of the organization). Secondly, people if the manager is “efficient” (i.e., prudent in using the organization’s resources).

Massetti illustrates the difference by means of a facetious but revealing example: “If you spend hundreds of dollars sending weekly formal invitations to Mass attendance, have taxis carry otherwise healthy parishioners to and from Mass, and throw festive ‘after parties’ to get that 10 percent increase in Mass attendance, then you have been effective while being extremely inefficient” (33).

The value of Massetti’s chapter is its concreteness. The good manager, she says, not only has SMART goals, but measures whether or not the parish is achieving them. When the goals are achieved effectively and efficiently, then the parish is well managed.

To return to the first page of the review of A Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management, click here.

Larry W. Boone is Associate Professor at St. John’s University.

Larry W. Boone, Ph.D.

Chapters he contributed to A Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2010).

Reviewed by Mark F. Fischer

Five chapters out of twelve in the Concise Guide are written by Larry W. Boone, Associate Professor in the Department of Management, Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University:

• Chapter 3, “Time Management,”
• Chapter 6, “The Parish and Service Quality,”
• Chapter 7, “Knowing Whom the Parish Serves: Segmenting the Market,”
• Chapter 8, “Assessing Parishioner Satisfaction,” and
• Chapter 9, “Evaluating Parish Performance.”

In contrast to Sr. Margaret John Kelly’s chapters, which employ the traditional vocabulary of the Catholic parish, Boone’s chapters seem to reflect more the world of corporate life and business administration.  That being said, the chapters apply contemporary marketing theory to the parish in a provocative and refreshing way.

3. Time Management
Chapter Three on “Time Management” promises “some insights into the theory and practice of ‘time management’ from both the personal and organization perspectives,” says Boone, who correctly notes that “The pastor or administrator is ultimately responsible for stewardship of all assets and talents” (42) in the parish. This includes the time of staff members and volunteers.

After a brief survey of “attitudes toward time,” Boone divides the chapter into two blocks of material: (1) doing less and (2) working faster. Each of these two blocks contain sound insights from management theorists, and doubtless a pastor should “do less” by delegating more and “work faster” by more efficiently completing his tasks. But in regard to the pastor’s role, Boone seems surprisingly deaf to nuance.

Effective pastors spend time and develop relationships with parishioners. Boone’s advice may seem irrelevant to this aspect of being a good shepherd. By discussing the topic of “setting priorities” under the heading of “working faster,” Boone overlooks a fundamental aspect of pastoral care.  Good pastors do want to develop relationships with parishioners efficiently, but do we want them to hurry the process, rapidly checking off relationships like items on a “to-do” list?

6. The Parish and Service Quality
Boone’s Chapter Six on “The Parish and Service Quality” starts out with another example of deafness to nuance, as Boone repeatedly describes parishioners as “customers.” To be sure, he concedes that “Catholics do not attend Mass to buy a product or to be entertained” and that they are “not really ‘customers’” (107). But he urges pastors to put themselves into the “customer’s shoes” (107), to provide “excellent customer service” (107), and to “put the customer first” (109). The repeated reference to congregants as customers suggests a limited sensitivity on Boone’s part to the way parishioners identify themselves.

That being said, Boone is undoubtedly right that insisting upon the church precept about weekly Mass attendance may well signal a “non-service attitude.” Calling people to worship by insisting on their obligation differs tremendously from the invitation that a beautiful and hospitable liturgy offers.

Boone’s chapter has an excellent premise: “Since so many for-profits and nonprofits have improved their levels of service,” he writes, “organizations that have not worked hard to improve their customer service have fallen behind” (106). It is very likely that part of the drop-off in Mass attendance in US churches, especially among young people, is due to their perception that the church is not serving their needs. When was the last time that a pastor surveyed, as Boone recommends, how his people view the quality of pastoral service that they receive?

7. Knowing Whom the Parish Serves: Segmenting the Market
Boone’s chapter on “segmenting” the parish “market” applies to the parish the concept of consumer analysis. “Segmenting a market,” writes Boone, “involves dividing a large population” of parishioners “into subsets according to their common needs, desires and habits” (129). Once managers have segmented the parish, “the tasks of communicating, planning, budgeting, etc. become more focused and manageable” (129).

Although it may irritate parish leaders to read about their congregation as a set of “markets” to which a “product” is directed, the application of market analysis to the parish is provocative. To think of the parish as a single homogeneous group is unrealistic, and Boone provokes the reader to explicitly consider what every parish practitioner already intuits, namely, that one style of liturgy or pastoral care does not meet everyone’s needs.

8. Assessing Parishioner Satisfaction
Boone’s essay on “Assessing Parishioner Satisfaction,” chapter eight in the Concise Guide, invites readers to consider whether the parish satisfies parishioners. Satisfaction is defined as “a psychological concept representing the fulfillment or gratification of a need, desire, or appetite” (135).

Most Catholics do not usually speak in terms of the parish satisfying the needs of member, and this fact has not escaped Boone. “There is still a degree of discomfort with some who view this practice,” he writes, “as a move from a mission-centered approval to a need-centered approval” (135). Christ told his followers to go forth and baptize, not to remain contentedly sedentary.

At the same time, however, Boone is using frank language to make a point. Alluding to parish leaders, he says, “Perhaps they don’t realize that their ‘good old’ service/product no longer satisfies the changing needs of those they seek to serve” (138).

Boone is not a theologian, and so does not draw out an important corollary. He does not say (but should have said) that the gospel must be proclaimed so as to be truly “good news” to those who hear it. If the Catholic parish treats its proclamation of the Word in such a way that it appears to be merely a “good old” product, then it ceases to be news at all, good or otherwise.

For many Catholics, Boone suggests, the “price to be paid” for regular Sunday Mass attendance has become too expensive when measured against service quality. The assessment of parishioner satisfaction that he recommends is sure to make some readers squirm, but serves a therapeutic purpose.

9. Evaluating Parish Performance
Chapter nine, “Evaluating Parish Performance,” is the last of Boone’s five chapters in the Concise Guide. The chapter is dominated by a super bowl analogy. A good football manager knows, says Boone, that a team must change its strategy if its score greatly lags behind the score of its competition at half-time. The same is true for the pastor, says Boone. The pastor must ask himself, “Is your parish team winning”? (146).

In order to answer the question, the parish has to discover ways to evaluate its performance. Boone helps the parish by adapting and applying concepts taken from George L. Morrissey’s book, A Guide to Tactical Planning: Producing Your Short-Term Results (1996).

In particular, Morrissey’s concepts of “key result areas” and “Key performance areas” prove useful. The key result areas (KRAs) are the aspects of parish in which the parish must be “winning.” For example, revenue and parishioner involvement must be growing.

The key performance indicators (KPIs) are the “winning scores,” says Boone. The pastoral team can score the parish by counting the Sunday collections and Mass attendance. If the KPIs fall, the KRAs will soon indicate failure.

Boone’s point is that the pastor, like a super bowl coach, cannot change the parish’s strategy effectively unless he has a measure of success or failure. By tracking the parish’s performance, the pastor can identify problems while they still can be solved.

Catholic leaders may dislike Boone’s superbowl image as much as they dislike his dictum that pastors should do less by delegating and should work faster and more efficiently. They may find his references to parishioners as customers irritating, and resent his advice about segmenting the parish market. But Boone’s chapters are refreshingly provocative. They remind leaders that, if it weren’t for the influx of immigrant Catholics, their congregations would be dwindling.

To return to the first page of the review of A Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management, click here.