Program builds shared ministry in parishes - Parish Volunteer Ministry Program - includes related article on consultant Jean Morris Trumbauer

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 17, 1997 by Kris Berggren

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Maybe the average parish never was the quiet place suggested by Catholic nostalgia, but it's clearly not so today. At most places, demands for ministry outstrip existing resources. From running soup kitchens to providing day care, so many burdens befall today's parish that quite a few seem on the verge of being tapped out.

Where will the energy come from to meet all the new needs?

According to Minneapolis-based consultant Jean Morris Trumbauer, if the answer were any closer, it would stand up and say hello. The solution to a parish's struggles with ministry, she believes, is right there in the parish.

Most Catholics, already part of a parish community, are willing to take on greater levels of involvement and responsibility, Trumbauer contends. Parish leadership just needs to understand how to elicit and nurture this participation through shared ministry.

"Few parishes understand the `how-tos' of developing effective shared ministry programs," Trumbauer said. "Systems that can make it easier for volunteers to step forward and stay committed and energized in their ministry" are possible, she said, but most parishes need help getting them up and running.

Providing that help is the goal of Trumbauer's Parish Volunteer Ministry Program. Developed under the aegis of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese, where Trumbauer lives and works, the program has enabled nearly 40 local parishes to contract with a consultant to analyze, develop and implement individual plans for restructuring their volunteer practices. Trumbauer has developed a comprehensive set of shared ministry materials, and the program customizes and adapts them to local circumstances.

Many experts believe that Trumbauer's efforts in the Twin Cities offer a model for other dioceses around the country, as the effort to tap the human resources of parishes grows more pressing.

One who has seen the fruits of Trumbauer's program is Holy Names Sr. Louise Bond, executive director of the Chicago-based National Association for Lay Ministry. Bond said, "Once people are in touch with their gifts, they need ongoing support and training, they need evaluation and recognition. Jean touches on these so well in her materials. It's the most unique program of its kind I've seen. Parishes attuned to these goals and working on them are so alive. There's no stopping the energy of the Spirit."

Volunteer management

The nearly universal need for shared ministry in parishes is driven by a host of factors. These include the decreasing numbers of ordained leaders, the increase in types of ministries offered to people within and outside the parish, the busyness of parishioners' lives, the lack of parish resources to train and support volunteer ministers and, in some cases, the parishioners' lack of understanding that they are even called to or capable of ministry.

The Parish Volunteer Ministry Program is a collaborative effort of three archdiocesan entities: the Center for Ministry, the Office on Pastoral Planning and Catholic Charities. The Twin Cities program is unique in its integration of the theological basis for ministry -- based on gift discernment and the baptismal call -- with practical, hands-on tools of volunteer management.

These tools include the use of ministry position descriptions, techniques for discovering gifts and for doing parish-wide and one-to-one recruitment, record-keeping methods, ideas for giving recognition, for evaluating effectiveness and job satisfaction, and risk management.

Trumbauer's program covers these materials, but the trick is how to apply them, in what combination and to what end, in an individual parish. Thus, custom consultation forms the heart of the Parish Volunteer Ministry Program.

Parishes contract for 60 hours of a consultant's time over a two-year period. There are four phases: assessment of current parish volunteer ministry practices; training for leaders; development of a two- to three-year plan for shared ministry; and implementation.

Leo Heimerl, parish administrator at St. Peter's in Mendota Heights, Minn., had a chance to test-drive the model. Upon attending a National Association of Church Business Administrators conference on shared ministry led by Trumbauer, he was convinced that what he had learned could work at St. Peter's. With the pastor's support, he seized the chance to apply shared ministry techniques to what he described as a "high-profile building project" -- the replacement of the lighting in the main worship space.

The project involved recruiting volunteers to work with a hired architect to build and test prototypes of the new lighting system and the wooden beams designed to hide the electrical conduit.

"I used Jean's book and system to the letter," Heimerl said. "We laid out everything in detail. We wrote job descriptions and designed it so volunteers couldn't do it wrong."

One Sunday he presented the project and its anticipated benefits to the parish had a sign-up sheet and got 25, volunteers -- more than needed.