The Challenges of Pastoral Leadership: Concepts and Practice

It's too easy to learn and apply business leadership models to the pastoral sector. But is it the best alternative to form Church leaders? What are we missing when we use business models in ministry? This book is about creating more sensitivity on how some of these secularly learned models can inadvertently limit pastoral effectiveness, and suggests an "hourglass approach" to leadership capable of fostering a set of principles more harmonious with ministry intent. In many ways this book is a guide for cultivating and developing a more authentic sense of leadership in ministry, one that emerges from within the scholarly sources of the leadership field but at the same time is rooted in the principle "leadership is a spiritual practice". This book is a "must have" for clergy, religious women and men, and anyone engaged with forming ministry leaders or performing leadership roles in diocesan, parish life, or Church ministry.

Ron Rojas has been a consultant for the manufacturing, educational, military, non-profit and ministry sectors for over 20 years. He has conducted over 100 workshops and retreats throughout the United States. He has a doctorate in business, 25 years as a permanent deacon, and a retired colonel from the USAF. John Alvarez is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida. He is a parish administrator, director of formation in the diaconate program, and he is on the faculty of the diocesan Lay Pastoral Ministry Institute. He earned the BA and MA degrees from Columbia University, New York.