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Emerging Models: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going

A Brief Summary of Phase I and Phase II: A PowerPoint Presentation

by Marti Jewell, D.Min.
April 30, 2009

As the research and conversations of the first phase of the Emerging Models Project are being analyzed, the face of the future is coming into focus. A PowerPoint presentation.

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In Phase I, the Emerging Models Project conducted eight regional leadership symposiums designed to bring together pastoral leaders who are immersed in the changing lives of their parish communities and understand how they are developing their parish and leadership practices.  What was expected was the discovery of a number of organizational models that would be worth emulating.  What we found far exceeded our expectations.  Rather the emerging models of pastoral leadership are found in the practices of the leaders, themselves, who are adapting to changing circumstances. 

 In order to understand the world in which they find themselves and to see the way to establishing vibrant parish life, pastoral leaders are redefining themselves. 

  • Beginning with the mission of Jesus, they are living out an operative theology  of parish rooted in the Vatican II understanding of communion and mission, the discipleship of all believers.
  • The community of disciples then is seen as a system of leadership in which the parishioners, staff, and pastor are co-responsible for the life of the parish and the furthering of the mission.
  • These communities are becoming interdependent, linking, clustering, and merging into regional communities of communities.

In Phase II, the Project identified six areas of critical research that will be developed over the next three years, combining significant formal research with the expertise of pastoral leaders in the field.  The identified research areas include:

  • Multiple parish ministry
  • Development of leadership in and for a multicultural church
  • Engagement of the next generation of pastoral leaders
  • Parish staffing and compensation models
  • The role of finance councils and business managers
  • The impact of parish life coordinators on the life of the parish