IN PRINT: BOOK REVIEW
Keeping the Covenant: Taking Parish to the Next Level

by Thomas P. Sweetser, S.J.
(New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2007, 288pp., paper, $19.95.)

Reviewed by Mary Bertani, a pastoral minister in the Archdiocese of Newark for the past twenty years who works in parish and diocesan leadership and collaboration.

Pastoral leaders are aware that the successful parish must be an intentional community with a dynamic mission statement that moves people to action, a clear structure linking all areas of parish life, and a collaborative leadership that engages the community on various levels. They are also aware of changing realities impacting on such success: parishes merging, clustering, partnering, sharing priests, led by parish life coordinators, ministering to multicultural communities, developing new styles of servant leadership

Thomas Sweetser provides an invaluable resource that raises the notion of parish to a new level—that of a covenant relationship between God and his people. “I will be their God and they shall be my people”—Ez 37:27 is the foundation on which he builds a view of the parish as the place where God’s personal invitation “to share a new way of living is linked to a people willing to give themselves over to this commitment of faith and loving service.” It is the place where we come together each week, pastoral leaders and community, to discover more and more about who God is in our lives.

How to make such a vision reality? Sweetser intends his to be a hands-on book that offers numerous suggestions and ideas for making the parish, whatever its pattern, a viable institution that through servant leadership enables vibrant community worship, relationship-building, growth in faith, and Christian service. In short, clear chapters, he covers every aspect of parish life and provides practical examples applicable in a variety of settings. Two questions at the end of each chapter can be used for individual reflection or group discussion. Perhaps the most practical feature for busy pastoral leaders is an extensive appendix filled with sample goals and action steps. Based on concrete experiences, the book provides a realistic view of varied patterns and dynamics of parishes, and ways of expanding leadership.

The book is divided into five sections that build upon one another: the first three provide a clear plan for developing and articulating a mission statement, developing effective organizational structures, and moving into visioning and goal setting. Section Four may be most interesting for those who have not read Sweetser’s earlier work, Parish As Covenant. It describes an alternative model for pastoral staffs that shifts the focus from their being responsible for all tasks and ministries in a parish to that of partnering, encouraging, empowering, and resourcing the people to participate in all those areas. Section Five confronts the struggles associated with change and provides numerous examples to indicate that the demands created by change are opportunities for grace and new life.

As a lay ecclesial minister in a very active parish, as well as in the movement toward change and restructuring in my own diocese, I find Sweetser’s book clear, realistic, practical, affirming, and challenging. I particularly admire the impassioned pastoral vision that does not falter in the face of fatigue, discouragement, and disappointments. It is a vision born of a deep flowing belief in the love relationship or covenant between God and God’s people as church and as parish.

Also intriguing is the covenant relationship Sweetser encourages pastors to model by entering into a partnership with one other person (two at most) so that together they give direction and leadership to the parish. Canonically the head of the parish, the pastor has the ability to share his role with another, thus entering into a mutual relationship of accountability or covenant .

Such a mutual relationship, clearly articulated to the parish, encourages staff and parishioners to work in partnership also. Such a partnership frees up the pastor’s role, provides at least one other on an equal footing with himself, gives him feedback, holds him accountable, and helps him maintain healthy boundaries between work and personal life.

Some pastors have already embraced this concept. For those others clearly overburdened by the impossible yet often self-imposed role of the one in charge of everything, Sweetser encourages them to change—to enter into a visibly shared leadership and responsibility. To do so, they and we might ponder a theology of partnership—Jesus sent his followers out two by two, and Paul tells us that we are all co-workers in the Lord.