How many parishes do you know of that are truly great?

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins makes the point that good is the enemy of great. What does a great parish look like? Obviously it nurtures the spirituality of its parishioners, but it must do more than that. To be truly great, a parish must also have the temporal side in order. It must be a welcoming, community building place where people want to be. And it must be well-managed.

Let's be very clear. The Catholic Church is not a business. But it does have a stewardship responsibility to use all of its resources efficiently in pursuing God's work on earth. These include human as well as financial resources. Often this involves employing business management techniques, albeit in a faith-based context.

This new series covers the core basic management topics with which you should be familiar. The pastor need not have an extensive accounting or human resource background, but he must know enough to direct those, both paid staff and volunteers, who do have those responsibilities in the parish.

Most pastors will acknowledge the importance of the topics covered in this series, such as leadership, dealing with parish advisory groups, conflict management, planning, and stewardship. They might be less certain of the importance to the parish of activities like performance management, parish measurement systems, or internal financial controls. But all of the topics covered in this collection, when properly applied, will assist your parish in transforming itself from being merely good to becoming truly great.