For the church to carry out its mission, it needs management systems, trained personnel and the governance, oversight and accountability that people in the pews increasingly demand. That's what Mission Management is all about. Here we will explore success stories — best practices in church governance, management and leadership that can be emulated by others in similar circumstances.
Mission Management
The arrival of digital media is affecting every aspect of society from policing, to health care, to education, to news reporting and to entertainment. The greeting-card business is not immune. An estimated 300 million e-cards are sent each year. The legendary Hallmark Cards, based in Kansas City, Mo., and celebrating its 100th birthday this year, sent more than 47 million e-cards in 2008 alone.
Mission Management
Peace and violence follow us into 2010.
The lives of many are filled with the violence of unemployment, the violence of homelessness, the violence of drugs, the violence of abortion, the violence of illness, and the violence of capital punishment. Our lives are filled with the violence of wanton killings like those in Binghamton, N.Y.; New Haven, Conn.; Fort Hood, Texas; Seattle; Darfur, Iraq; and Afghanistan.
How can we integrate God’s peace into a wickedly violent world?
Mission Management
The confluence of a massive motherhouse, declining vocations and an aging population of women religious has caused many religious orders to convert their motherhouses into assisted living facilities and retirement homes.
In 1965, there were 173,865 women religious in the United States, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. In 2000, there were just under 80,000 women religious in the United States. In 1985, the average age was 63; by 1999, it was 69.
But one group of women religious, instead of going the route of providing a home for the aging, went in the opposite direction with its motherhouse.
Mission Management
Ask any doctor, lawyer or accountant how many continuing education credits they are required to take each year to maintain their license and they will quickly rattle off the number. Satisfying these rules is often time-consuming, not particularly exciting, but necessary and enriching. It’s what professionals have to do in order to properly serve their clients and to remain in good standing with regulators.
Mission Management
How does the Catholic church respond to children with an autism disorder and to their families, especially when many parents fear that their child may act out during Mass, causing the family to experience rejection by other parishioners?
Autism is a complex developmental disability linked to neurological disorders in the brain. It typically appears during the first two years of life and affects boys more than girls. Symptoms include repetitive behaviors and difficulty with communication and social interaction.
Mission Management
The financial crisis has left charities scrambling to satisfy increased demand for services and to raise the dollars needed to fund programs. This has made charitable giving an even more treacherous endeavor as donors try to figure out which charities manage their resources in the most prudent and transparent manner.
Mission Managment
Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the use of microcredit lending -- the making of very small loans with low interest rates -- to help the poor step out of poverty. With a 98 percent repayment rate, Yunus figured out that small Bangladeshi villages possess rules in which all borrowers are expected to repay their microloans for their own benefit and for the benefit of the community.
But can such organic, ground-up “banking for the poor” work in the United States? In Belleville, Ill., a Society of St. Vincent de Paul council thinks it can.
Mission Management
Parishioners love to give their opinions to their pastor -- whether he asks for them or not. Yet, how many times have we been directed at Mass to locate the stubby No. 2 pencils and scraps of paper and fill out a brief questionnaire? Too many times.
Isn’t there a better way to gather the opinions of parishioners to understand the parish community, its needs and aspirations? Yes. It’s called professional polling. And it helps when there is a first-rate polling institute a mile away.
Mission Management
The “environmental crisis,” we are reminded, is a “moral challenge” that requires us “to examine how we use and share the goods of the earth, what we pass on to future generations, and how we live in harmony with God’s creation.”
Just the latest environmental pabulum from the trendy religious left? Hardly. Those words were promulgated by the U.S. bishops in their 1991 statement “Renewing the Earth: An Invitation to Reflection and Action on Environment in Light of Catholic Social Teaching.”
Mission Management
So few priests. So many parishes. What's a bishop to do? This question may rightly belong in a Sunday New York Times' crossword puzzle, but it's real and it's at the center of long-term planning in dioceses around the country. It becomes more complicated when priests' language skills are a key factor in parish assignments. Some dioceses, for example, have parishes that are predominantly Spanish-speaking, but there are not enough Spanish-speaking priests to cover the parishes.
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