Roy M. Oswald, How to Build a Support System for Your Ministry. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2005.
Referenced in: Ministry Support Systems
LifeandLeadership.Com Summary
Oswald is a Senior Consultant with Alban Institute. He equips ministers who want support systems but do not know where to start. He says ministers must seek this support intentionally, recruit their own leader, and then hand-pick the members (“encouragers”) of their support group. This step-by-step guide also shows how to organize and facilitate support group meetings and manage the more common difficulties encountered along the way. Oswald integrates insights from Oscillation Theory, the Grubb Institute, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
From the Publisher
There are two main premises in Roy Oswald’s book: First, be intentional – reach out to others. The myth is that support will find us, but why gamble? Roy has some good clues about how to select your support group. Second, be extradependent – name a leader. Self-selected and group guided support groups can work, but a support group with a designated leader is stronger and more satisfying. This book will help you identify and secure such a leader for your support group. The book is mandatory reading for ordained ministers and lay professionals.
About the Author
Roy M. Oswald, a senior consultant with the Alban Institute, has provided leadership for hundreds of conferences and training events in the U.S. and Canada. A variety of denominations have called on him to focus on the pastoral role and the dynamics of parish leadership. He also frequently consults with local congregations and judicatories where his planning model utilizes norms, myths and meaning statements from a church’s past. Roy Oswald is identified with research into the transitions clergy make when they enter parishes for the first time and for clergy in longer pastorates. More recently he has headed studies of the candidacy process, leadership needs of small congregations, and new methodology for assessing ministries using clergy/lay teams. He is the co-author of other Alban titles, including Beginning Ministry Together (2003), Transforming Rituals (1999), Personality Type and Religious Leadership (1998), Discerning Your Congregation’s Future (1996), New Beginnings (1989), and The Inviting Church (1987).
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