Todays Parish

Developing volunteers—a four-step process

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Becoming an active parish is always a work in progress, a continuing effort to involve and commit more and more parishioners in faith initiatives. In short, we must work continually to diminish the “we versus they” div...

Success strategies for finding volunteers

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

What skills do you need to get volunteers? First, you need patience. Whatever you try will take time. It's a shame that we often expect immediate results whenever we try something. We have been conditioned to expect that our headaches will go...

The parish council and parish volunteers

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

The main job of the pastoral council is not to direct, supervise, or hold volunteer ministers accountable. That is an executive function, not a consultative one. To be sure, the council may offer to coordinate, but it does so as a consultative bod...

If the pastoral council only does planning, who does the work?

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

My belief is that the main work of the parish pastoral council is research and planning (as distinct from the coordination of committees). Whenever I propose that, however, people challenge me. Father John Iffert of Immaculate Conception ...

The “Consultative-Only” Parish Council

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Since the new Code of Canon Law appeared in 1983, most parish pastoral councils have become aware that they "possess a consultative vote only" (Can. 536). We need to understand the church’s rationale for consultation. Only then...

Three rules for increasing participation

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

No matter what kind of parish you have, you too have the imperative to widen out from the usual volunteers to an effective and numerous wider we. Whatever path you take, you will never reach 100 percent participation....

Letter of introduction to the website

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Greetings,

Welcome to the Today’s Parish website! Today’s Parish is North America’s most comprehensive ministry magazine for Catholic parishes. Pastors, pa...