1.0. Introduction
Perhaps you ask yourself why on earth the topic of project management is part of your pastoral training. Isn’t it first and foremost about people and about God and about spreading the Kingdom of God? Would you not have studied something completely different if your primary interest had been project management?
Pastoral leaders, as the name implies, are leaders per se, meaning that a significant part of your job is to lead.
Project management is an essential part of leadership in the 21st century. When it comes to leadership, we are essentially talking about two areas:
- People management
- Management of tasks and projects
Leaders can only be successful in both areas if they are able to lead themselves. In general, but especially in the area of church, there is a fourth dimension: the ability to lead oneself. The quadro I have written, ‘Leading Clearly'(1), is precisely about these four issues:
- Leading oneselfÂ
- Letting oneself be ledÂ
- Leading othersÂ
- Performing tasks
A functioning task and project management in a community brings relaxation and satisfaction for all involved. Task management is rather something personal, project management something common. Good self-leadership and well-functioning task management have a very direct impact on the success of projects. If each person involved in a project accepts their responsibilities and works on time and well, then the likelihood of the project being completed successfully and on time increases. Task management methods can be very unique to each individual. However, in project management, it is important to agree on common methods and tools as a church and/or team within the church.
1 Martin Buchwitz, Leading clearly – accompanying people effectively, ISBN 978-3-86270-093-6