The agenda guides the meeting. It begins with a review of the minutes of the previous meeting and concludes with a brief evaluation. If the pastor is dissatisfied with the consultation, he expresses his reservations and asks the council to clarify whatever remains obscure. When he is satisfied with the consultation, he formally accepts the council's recommendations. He may then ask the parish staff or other parishioners to implement them.
Nothing is more important to the council than a well-prepared agenda.
Whatever we call the group, the members must develop the agenda in concert with the pastor. After all, he is doing the consulting. The agenda should say what the council hopes to do during its meaning, and describe how it hopes to do it. If the council was not able to do what the agenda said it would do, the agenda was probably too ambitious. The council may have been trying to do what rightly belongs to the staff or the finance council.