Accountable Leadership: A Resource Guide for Sustaining Legal, Financial, and Ethical Integrity in Today's Congregations

by Paul Chaffee

Overview

With reports of financial impropriety and clergy misconduct makingheadlines, accountable leadership and sound management practiceshave become priority concerns in congregations of every faith.Accountable Leadership speaks to congregation leaders, both clergyand laity, and to individuals who love the worshiping community andseek the tools that can enable everyone in it to better care forone another.

This is a practical compendium of resources for creating andmanaging a sound, effective, and fair congregation. This newedition has been extensively revised and updated to includecontemporary topics such as disturbing trends in reduced giving,new church-state issues, clergy misconduct and troublesome members,and legal issues associated with the congregation's role asemployer and provider of pastoral counseling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780787903640
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/11/1997
Series:	Religion in Practice Series
Edition description:	Revised and Updated
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.34(w) x 9.47(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

PAUL CHAFFEE, a minister in the United Church of Christ, is executive director of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio in San Francisco, California.

Table of Contents

One: Becoming an Accountable Leader
1. Courage and the Responsibilities of Leadership
2. What the Law Requires
3. The Role of the Governing Board
Two: Accountability, Administration, and the Shared Life of theCongregation
4. Developing Life-Support Systems for the Corporate Body
5. Responsible Financial Management
6. Employment Practices That Safeguard Communal Values
7. Contracting with Service Providers from Inside and Outside theCongregation
Three: TAnding to Invisible Wounds Within the Congregation
8. Zero Tolerance for Abusive Behavior
9. Preventing Clergy Misconduct
10. Healing the Wounded Congregation

Editorial Reviews

"This book filled an important gap in congregational studies whenit was first published, and four years later this much enlargededition is even better. In a world where church finances, law, andethics are so much more complicated than ever, leaders can't affordto be without it." —Loren Meade, founder, The AlbanInstitute

"This book is a plea for congregational leaders to be competent,informed, accountable, and in touch with contemporary reality.Reading it will enrich both the life and the ministry of everyleader who accepts the need to be accountable. It is an ideal studybook to be read by every member of the governing board." —Lyle E.Schaller, Church Consultant

"Chaffee is thorough, reasonable, and pastoral in his approach toan important subject rarely covered adequately in a seminary."—Your Church

From the Publisher