Build A Life-Giving Parish:
The Gift of Counsel in the Modern World

by Sr. Brenda Hermann
and Rev. James T. Gaston

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From The Publisher:

Sister Brenda Hermann and Monsignor James Gaston draw on their rich pastoral experiences to offer the reader exciting insights into the challenges facing pastoral councils.

By drawing a line between the work of the very first church council in the Christian Scriptures to present pastoral councils, the authors raise up the value of local councils in a bold and refreshing way. Their perspective in Build a Life-Giving Parish: The Gift of Counsel in the Modern World is that the very mission of the pastoral council is often without consensus.

Their solution is that the primary focus of a pastoral council ought to be the daily life concerns of the laity.

Build a Life-Giving Parish is full of creative guidelines that can prove beneficial to those who, while taking the work of the pastoral council to be a serious enterprise, also find it at times to be tedious, boring, and even unproductive.

A careful analysis of the mission field of the laity, as different from that of the ordained, offers an avenue for stimulating conversation and thoughtful consideration.

A vital parish reaches beyond itself to make a difference in the world.

This groundbreaking book offers innovative insights into the shared work of laity and the ordained in the "mission field" today. The authors draw from their extensive experience with pastoral councils to present a new understanding of "counsel in council" for the modern world.

They explore the obstacles to effective pastoral leadership and offer guidelines and exercises for overcoming them. In addition, they examine prudence, wisdom, counsel, and fortitude as essential virtues for an effective pastoral council.