Customer Reviews

Parish Social Ministry

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Last year I was tapped to be the Vice-Chair of our parish's "Social Ministries Commission." When I joined, the commission hadn't done much for about a decade and was somewhat floundering. In fact, because of the word "social", most people in our parish thought the Commission was merely responsible for planning parties.

Since then we've really tried to turn things around. To fix our image problem we renamed our team the "Justice and Service Commission" and we began to organize, unite, and market all of our community's justice-related efforts. To teach about the the imperatives of justice, we've hosted speakers, workshops, and I even gave a four-talk series on Catholic social teaching.

So why do I tell you all that? A big part of the change was the effort and imagination of our team. But a number of my own proposals and ideas came through reading this thin book by Tom Ulrich. Parish Social Ministry provides incredibly practical strategies for building a social ministry in your parish.

In the book, Ulrich offers a number of case studies, sample worksheets, examples, and discussion questions you can immediately use. Ulrich provides a framework for making a parish become outward-focused, which makes this a great book for pastors, pastoral associates, or justice and peace leaders. If you want to revive or begin a thriving social ministry in your parish, this book will get you going.