Parish Finance Council

Parish Leadership Team

Parishes are the most important organizations in the world.  If this is true, and we are convinced that it is, then the leadership of the pastor is critical.  He is the spiritual leader and executive authority of a parish.  But he cannot run a parish alone, or in a hub and spoke manner that forces him to be responsible for most decisions. Great pastors surround themselves with a team of leaders who share the responsibility of leading the parish, and we call that team the Parish Leadership Team.

A parish leadership team exists to assist the pastor in managing the parish.  This involves everything from strategic decisions and people management to operations and finances. It’s important to understand that the leadership team is NOT an advisory or oversight body, like the parish council or the finance council. The leadership team is an operating body, which means that each team member is actively involved in implementing the decisions of the team.  It’s crucial that the leadership team of a parish meets weekly to look at the overall health of the parish.  It’s also important for members of the leadership team to understand that being on the leadership team is NOT a reward or a privilege, but rather a serious responsibility.  The pastor chooses his team, and he is the leader of the team. 

Our Saint Mary Parish Leadership Team members are:

Tony Ferreira

Fr. Doug Halsema

Peter Rodgers

Kim Solberg

Ryan Thompson

Julie Anne Walker

The Four Qualities of a Parish Leadership Team Member

Committed and Present:

A committed parishioner (staff or volunteer) who is present at the parish during the week and available for weekly meetings.

Team Player:

A committed parishioner who is capable of being vulnerable, engaging in productive conflict, holding people accountable and being held accountable by the team. 

Whole-Parish Oriented: 

A committed parishioner who is focused on the collective results of the parish more than their individual area of concern. 

Mature:

A committed parishioner who is mature, humble, prayerful, trustworthy and able to handle sensitive and confidential information.

5 Misconceptions of a Parish Leadership Team

What is a parish playbook?

A parish playbook defines for our parish what we should be doing as a parish. This is determined by looking at what Jesus tells us all Christians should be doing, looking at what the Catholic Church teaches us about what Jesus tells us, and looking at how all of that fits into our parish in Fort Walton Beach. We also look at best practices from Catholic parishes around the country to see what might assist us​.

Why do we need a playbook? In sports, playbooks contain all the strategies, moves, diagrams, and tactics for a team. Memorizing a playbook is crucial for a team’s success. Our Playbook is a concise way for us to communicate the way we want to go about being Jesus’ followers at Saint Mary.

For a church to be healthy, everyone needs to be on the same page which doesn’t always happen in churches. In fact, it rarely happens. Most of the time, there are multiple people with their own agendas pulling in totally different directions. This leads to confusion, jealousy, turf wars, and church splits. Luckily, there’s a way you can prevent this. We just need to get everyone working from the same playbook.

Our playbook answers six questions: 1) Why do we exist? 2) How do we behave? 3) What do we do? 4) How will we succeed? 5) What is the most important, right now? 6) Who must do what?

We are sharing our playbook so that everyone can work together to accomplish our vision and mission. What does the bible have to say about this playbook idea? “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18a