Peace Through Order.
Ending the everyday chaos in Catholic schools, parishes, and ministries. The story of one central office learning that order is not the enemy of mission. It's what makes mission sustainable.
In final production
"I didn't get into this work to spend my weekends fighting the building."
That's the sentence that opens this book. It came from a ten-year veteran of a Catholic school front office, on a Saturday night, after a day spent untangling problems that clear roles and clear ownership would have prevented. Her Saturday is not the exception. It's the normal weekend of thousands of gifted, faithful, mission-driven people working inside Catholic institutions.
This book makes the case, in Augustine's words, that peace is not the absence of work. Peace is the presence of order. Tranquillitas ordinis, the tranquility of order: everyone knows the mission, knows their part in it, knows who decides what, can find what they need, and gathers with a purpose.
Told through the fictional Maple Ford Catholic Cluster, five parishes and two schools under one very busy pastor, alongside the real method behind the Peace Through Order Challenge.
Four moves, learned in order, because each one makes the next possible.
See the current state honestly, out loud, without flinching or blaming.
Get ruthlessly clear about who decides what, at what level, with what guardrails.
Get the knowledge out of people's heads and into a home the whole organization owns.
Build a rhythm of meetings worth attending and communication that reaches people.
Jillian Wollmer
Jillian is the HR Director for a Catholic school system and the founder of Pax Ordo Advisors, an organizational effectiveness firm serving Catholic schools, parishes, dioceses, and ministries. She has spent her career inside Catholic institutions, in HR and operations and leadership, and built the Peace Through Order method from that work. This book is her first, written for every parish secretary, finance lead, office manager, ministry coordinator, principal, and pastor who has ever locked the door at 6:40 p.m. wondering if it has to be this hard.
The book is in final production: copyedit, beta readers, and print proofing.
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The book is the front door. The work continues from here.
If the book names something you're living right now, the next step is seeing exactly where your institution stands and what to do about it.
Peace through order.
Order in service of mission.
Name it, decide it, keep it, gather it. That's the book. Everything else is stories, tools, and the occasional joke about laminators.
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