ERIC ED482368: Learners and Leaders: A Spirituality for Board Members.

55 Pages·2002·0.55 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 482 368
SO 034 982
AUTHOR
McKinney, Mary Benet
TITLE
Learners and Leaders:
A Spirituality for
Board Members.
INSTITUTION
National Catholic
Educational Association,
Washington, DC.
ISBN
ISBN-1-55833-292-8
PUB DATE
2002-00-00
NOTE
54p.
AVAILABLE FROM
National Catholic
Educational Association,
1077 30th Street,
NW, Suite 100,
Washington, DC 20007-3852.
Tel: [phone];
Fax: [phone];
e-mail: [email protected];
Web site:
http://www.ncea.org/.
PUB TYPE
Reports
Descriptive (141)
EDRS PRICE
EDRS Price MF01/PC03
Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Catholic Educators;
*Catholic Schools;
*Governing Boards;
Group Behavior; Models;
*Religious Education;
*Spirituality
IDENTIFIERS
*Catholic Church;
Organizational Supervision;
Prayer
ABSTRACT
The church board
movement began to take
shape in the U.S.
Roman Catholic Church
in the early 1970s.
This booklet offers
board members
many suggestions for continual
spiritual growth
or formation within the
context of their
governance role, ensuring
that the institution
is living out
its mission, and
that their decisions
reflect specifically
that mission and
the Gospel. The
booklet states that
an organization's
greatest source of
strength is personal
strength: the character,
courage, determination,
knowledge, and the skills
of the individual
members of the
organization. It
states that this theory
applies to boards,
commissions, and councils
of
Catholic education.
Following the "Foreword"
and "Introduction,"
the booklet
is divided into
eight chapters:
"The Call to Minister";
(1)
(2) "Defining
Spirituality";
(3)
"A Church Model of
Decision Making";
(4) "A Spirituality
that Supports the
Model";
(5) "Discerning
Membership";
(6)
"Group Behavior";
(7) "Prayer as
an Integral Part of
Meetings";
(8) "Nurturing the
Spirit"; and
"Some Final Thoughts."
(BT)
Reproductions supplied by
EDRS are the best that
can be made
from the original
document.
Learners and Leaders: A Spirituality for
Board Members.
Mary Benet McKinney
National Catholic Educational
Association, Washington, DC.
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND
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a This document has been reproduced as
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received from the person or organization
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Points of view or opinions stated in this
CA
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official DER! position or poticy.
Learners
and Leaders:
A Spirituality
for Board
Members
Mary Benet McKinney,
OSB, D.Min.
r
IjF, ST COPY AVAILABLE
Learners and
Leaders:
A Spirituality for
Board Members
Mary Benet McKinney,
OSB, D.Min.
National Association of
Boards, Commissions,
and Councils of
Catholic Education
f-re
0-
National Catholic
Educational
Association
Copyright 2002
National Catholic Educational Association
1077 30th Street, NW, Suite 100
Washington, DC 20007-3852
www.ncea.org
ISBN 1-55833-292-8
Cover photo by D. Michael Coombe
Design by Mary -1Willman
O,
gTable of Contents
v
Fo rewo rd
Introduction
1
Chapter 1: The Call to Minister
3
Chapter 2: Defining Spirituality
8
Chapter 3: A Church Model of Decision Making
11
Chapter 4: A Spirituality That Supports the Model
16
Chapter 5: Discerning Membership
27
Chapter 6: Group Behaviors
32
Chapter 7: Prayer as an Integral Part of Meetings
34
Chapter 8: Nurturing the Spirit
41
Some Final Thoughts
43
About the Author
44
#
Foreword
Following the opening prayer, boards, commissions, and coun-
cils usually dive into a full agenda and begin business as usual.
The assumption is that the divine assistance invoked in the
opening prayer will somehow be evident in the meeting's final out-
comes and decisions.
Mary Benet McKinney's book,
Learners and Leader: A Spirituality
offers members many suggestions for continual
for Board Members,
spiritual growth or formation within the context of their governance
role, especially in seeing that the institution is living out its mission,
and that their decisions reflect specifically that mission and gener-
ally the Gospel. McKinney's book has the potential to assist mem-
bers to develop a stronger relationship with God. With God integral
in their lives, members' personal ability will be enhanced, as will be
their quality of leadership and service.
An organization's greatest source of strength is personal strength
"the character, courage, determination, knowledge,
(Nair, 1994)
and the skills of the individual members of the organization" (p. 90).
This theory applies to boards, commissions, and councils of Catho-
lic education. Each member contributes individual strength to the
board's proposals, decisions, policies, and the direction for the en-
terprise. If the board is to benefit from its collective peak perfor-
mance or strength, individual members must be provided opportu-
nities to enhance their personal strength including their spirituality.
Sister Mary Benet offers many practical suggestions for governing
groups to adopt or adapt such opportunities.
Regina Marie Haney
Dr. Art DeCabooter
Executive Director
Chairperson
National Association of Boards,
Commissions, and Councils of Catholic Education
Note
K. Nair, A Higher Standard of Leadership (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
Publishers), 1994.
s
vi
Learners and
Leaders:
A Spirituality for
Board Members
Mary Benet McKinney,
OSB, D.Min.
P,
#Introduction:
Why This Book?
The board movement was beginning to take shape in the
American Roman Catholic Church in the early 1970s. Those
of us responsible for its development recognized it as a way
to involve the people of God in the ministry of church, thus respond-
ing to what we perceived to be the challenge of Vatican II. The theol-
ogy to support this participation of all the baptized in the universal
call to holiness, mission, and ministry was not yet developed in ways
that could be internalized and translated into practice. We had some
notion that this broader concept of ministry would enable the church
to be more effective in her mission. In those early days of the move-
ment, we lacked the wisdom of the very best teacher: experience!
That was more than 30 years ago. We now have the advantage of
scholarly studies of the Vatican II documents, theological reflection
on the meaning of baptism and church, and the lived experience of
hundreds of parishes and thousands of board members to guide us
as we seek to carve out the role of all the baptized in the church's
mission and ministry. We have come to internalize, in this process,
the understanding that all the people of God have a ministry that
flows from baptism and that those participating in boards and coun-
cils are, in fact, responding to that call to ministry.
10
I