26 Feb A Concise Guide to Pastoral Planning – Book Review
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A Concise Guide to Pastoral Planning
William L. Pickett,
Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria, 2007, 254, $16.95; paper
Reviewed by Kenneth H. Mayton, Ed.D.
Assistant Dean Doctoral Studies,
School of Theology and Missions, Tulsa, Oklahoma
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[vc_separator type=”transparent” position=”center” up=”3″ down=”0″]A Concise Guide to Pastoral Planning is from the Concise Guide Series produced by Ave Maria Press and authored by Dr. William Pickett. Other books in this series by the well known Roman Catholic publisher include: A Concise Guide to Your Rights in the Catholic Church...to Canon Law and...Catholic Social Teaching...to Supervising a Ministry Student.
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The purpose of the book is found in the Preface as the author points out that planning takes place at different levels in the Catholic Church in the United States–parish, diocesan and regional, Pickett states, “My first issue was to determine a basic approach that would include all three levels” (12). He owns that there is some overlapping, but provides the most comprehensive view of the subject and does it in a way that makes clear that the same basic process is used in all three.
The book has eight chapters, Chapter 1-4: (1) Introduction in Pastoral Planning, (2) Pastoral Planning Basics, (3) Basic Elements of a Pastoral Plan and (4) The Pastoral Planning Cycle, develop a generic approach. Chapters 5-7: (5) Implementation at the Parish Level, (6) Implementation at the Diocesan Level, (7) Implementation at the Regional Level, apply the same model for each of three levels. Chapter 8, Communication, is treated as a separate topic. Each chapter begins with a purpose and ends with a brief conclusion and several study questions which help the reader to focus on a personal response.
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