Parish Management 101

Parish Management 101

For Priests and Deacons

Priests and deacons have barely enough time for their ministry, never mind the administrative and operational tasks. PM 101 accelerates your performance in operations with powerful tools so you can concentrate on your vocation.

5.0
Beginner
10 Sessions

Course Benefits

  • Run effective meetings on time, with action plans, and great communications
  • Interact with difficult parishioners in highly effective ways by recognizing when to intervene
  • Learn the basics of financial reports to effectively supervise business managers and accountants
  • Develop skills to lead a parish through hiring, firing, and management aptitude
  • Understand typical frauds that rob parishes of precious funds
  • Learn powerful ways to manage time using new tools to cut stress and spend minimal time on administration while remaining effective
  • Avoid typical attacks on your physical, emotional and mental health by an horarium of daily habits

Course Description

Today younger priests are being asked to lead parishes or apostolates without:

  • the prior influence of experienced priest mentors
  • the benefit of a series of progressively higher level assignments from junior/assistant roles all the way to in-charge status
  • the benefit of specific parish management training, past business leadership or entrepreneurial experience

These are not faults. Rather, they are factors that lead to a potential need for training.

Inexperience and lack of knowledge may lead to hesitancy in leadership, at least, or at most, high-risk errors or disasters.

PARISH MANAGEMENT 101 assists priests to de-risk their placements, whether it's a newly ordained priest, a priest in his first pastorate, or an experienced priest.

Your instructor is Henry Kutarna, CEO and mentor to CEOs for 30+ years. He has been the parish council chair at a large Cathedral parish for 5 years. Henry was chief MC and headed fundraising at a smaller parish for 20+ years. He is also an advisor and confidant to several priests, bishops, abbots, and prioresses. He has taught this course in live sessions to priests in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand and continues to teach live sessions to groups of priests. Henry charges $2,000/per student for live, group sessions.

Henry's business, government, and board experience aided the resolution of unique complexities faced by a series of assigned priests who led an apostolate. He is a board member of the charitable holdings corporation for the same Catholic apostolate. and led 22 sub-committees/task groups within the smaller parish to assist priests to focus on their priestly role. He is a CEO mentor and operates The Catholic CEO, a consultancy that prepares business leaders to be successful and fully Catholic.

Henry is available for private one on one discussions for any student of this course if desired.

Skills You'll Gain

  • Financial management
  • Parish administration
  • Meeting leadership
  • Project management
  • Leadership and communication
  • Health and wellness
  • Conflict resolution
  • Time Management
  • Delegation techniques
  • Stress Management

Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth!

Stop letting administrative chaos steal time from your true calling. Transform your parish operations so you can focus on what matters most—ministry.

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION

Course Outline

Parish Operations and Administration

All aspects of how the priest carries out the daily business and interactions necessary for the smooth running and operation of the parish administration.

Parish Finances

All aspects of the financial management of the parish/apostolate. It considers key topics for which a priest could be reasonably expected to have a working level of competence. 

Project Planning

All aspects of anticipation, reflection about, and reasonably foreseeing various events and circumstances that will, in turn, require forward planning, advance thinking, and a series of deliberations and action steps to deliver. This type of planning also requires group facilitation skills because rarely is this conducted solo. 

Death By Meeting

Effective leadership of meetings is a significant factor in life balance, stress reduction, time management, and superior project management. This segment will outline the three types of meetings, excellent start and stop techniques, handling the outspoken time waster, bringing out the reticent, excellent ways to follow-up, the “meeting hook”, reducing the time taken in meetings, the “consent” agenda, and smart meeting prep techniques.

Leadership of Staff and Volunteers

The newly ordained priest may be thrust into leadership of staff, volunteers, and parishioners immediately upon the first assignment. This segment will cover proven leadership techniques used by the great leaders, such as the fireside chat, the Abilene Paradox, amazing delegation techniques  and other effective tools to lead people.  

Time Management

To minimize time wasting and allow greater focus on the priestly function, the newly ordained priest will learn about little known calendar techniques, color coding, grouping of “like” activities, slop time, ABC priority method, working backwards to move forward, sitting on a rock by the river, and other smart ways to control time wasting and remove bad habits. Special focus is placed on procrastination.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict arises in interactions with superiors, peers, staff, volunteers, and parishioners. This topic covers the typical cases and effective solutions.

Health and Wellness

A great danger to the newly ordained is in habits that creep in regarding physical fitness, health, and work-life balance.

Leadership and Communication

All aspects of leadership, communications within and outside of the parish/apostolate, including the use of various media and social media platforms. It also considers timing, frequency, content, and balancing the content and flow of information (too much v. too little).