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

A practical compAndium of resources for creating and managing a sound, effective, and fair congregation.Now more than ever, accountable leadership and sound management practices have become priority concerns in congregations of every faith. In this comprehensive resource, minister and manager Paul Chaffee offers congregation leaders, both clergy and laity, expert counsel on the most critical ethical, legal, and financial issues they are likely to face. He synthesizes in one volume the collected wisdom of hundreds of experts, identifies the central elements that add up to accountable leadership, and backs that up with hundreds of valuable resource listings –– books, periodicals, training programs, and agencies –– where leaders can find additional guidance on specific questions and concerns.

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 the Congregation 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 the Congregation Three: TAnding to Invisible Wounds Within the Congregation 8. Zero Tolerance for Abusive Behavior 9. Preventing Clergy Misconduct 10. Healing the Wounded Congregation

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

"This book filled an important gap in congregational studies when it was first published, and four years later this much enlarged edition is even better. In a world where church finances, law, and ethics are so much more complicated than ever, leaders can′t afford to be without it." ––Loren Meade, founder, The Alban Institute "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 every leader who accepts the need to be accountable. It is an ideal study book to be read by every member of the governing board." ––Lyle E. Schaller, Church Consultant "Chaffee is thorough, reasonable, and pastoral in his approach to an important subject rarely covered adequately in a seminary." ––Your Church