Drawing from over thirty years of studying and helping to shape churches, dioceses, religious communities, and pastoral ministries nationwide, Thomas Sweetser, S.J., argues that contemporary parishes are "caught in a Church system that is not working." In The Parish as Covenant: A Call to Pastoral Partnership, he proposes a dual-focus system of parish leadership which creates a healthier, more collaborative environment for leaders, assistants, and parishioners, and helps ensure a successful transition when pastors and administrators are replaced.

The strongest parishes have pastors with a mission and goals that are supported and enhanced by their parishioners. A change in pastors threatens to upset a nicely balanced applecart. To make sure the essential mission of the parish keeps moving forward, outgoing and incoming pastors and parishioners need to manage the transition. This book offers a new method for transition that allows time for the parish and the outgoing pastor to grieve the loss, an interim period between pastors for the parishioners to reflect, and a time for the parishioners and the new pastor to discover what they can offer each other.

Churches and parishes are closing in record numbers. Those remaining are seeking new ways to invent the way their parish functions in the community. This book provides new material for parishes, based on extensive research and experience with parishes across the country. This book offers hope and promise--and practical advice--for lay leaders and clergy interested in having their parish be the Church that Jesus intended. Book includes discussion guides and hands-on suggestions.

Jesuit Thomas Sweetser has worked for more than 35 years with Catholic faith communities on evaluation and renewal. In 2011 he set out to interview a broad range of American Catholics, both practicing and non-practicing, about their relationship with the Church. A few years into the new papacy, Fr. Sweetser asked the same people again. Had anything changed with Pope Francis? The answers are enlightening for the church's future. Based on before/after interviews, this helpful resource is for everyone concerned about the Church. The value of this book lies in the direct conversations with people from very different walks of life between 20 and 80 years old. They include faithful Catholics as well as people who have left the church. They touch on hot button questions such as hierarchy, women in the church, and sexual abuse, and offer insights into the nature of a deep desire for authentic spirituality. Together these conversations offer a picture of the current state of the Catholic Church as experienced by its members.