The Impact of Mission Formation Programs on Senior Administrators at Lasallian Catholic Institutions in the Midwest District
[Thesis]
Quinn, Marisa J.
Pittman, Jeffrey
Regent University
2020
97
Ed.D.
Regent University
2020
The landscape of Catholic higher education leadership is America has shifted from being predominately priests and religious to lay leaders. Catholic colleges and universities were established by sponsoring congregations as a manifestation of their mission and charism. With faith-based institutions, the mission is central to the institution's identity and requires senior administrators to understand and perpetuate the mission forward. The research literature provides the historical and philosophical foundation for the current state of Catholic higher education. It discusses the shift in leadership from sponsoring congregations to the laity; the importance of Vatican II, the Land O'Lakes Statement, and Ex Corde Ecclesiae; and the emergence of mission officers and mission formation programs in addition to the unique facets of Lasallian education. This phenomenological study explored the impact mission formation programs have on senior administrators at institutions sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers located in the Midwest District of the United States. The findings from this study reinforce the literature indicating the laity must be educated and formed in the mission and charism of the sponsoring congregation. It affirms the Lasallian concept of together and by association, which is the partnership between the laity and the Christian Brothers in the shared mission. The study illustrates that when lay senior administrators are adequately formed through mission formation programs, the mission is understood and transmitted into their leadership, vision, and daily operations of the institution. Furthermore, senior administrators are transformed by the Lasallian Catholic mission finding their vocation and deeper meaning for life within it.