Led by the Spirit
Entrusted with leading the congregation, Precious Blood leaders respond to God’s call
From the vision of Saint Gaspar del Bufalo to the ministries and communities that continue his work today, leaders of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood have helped guide the congregation through times of challenge, growth, and renewal. There is a formal process for electing leadership, but what informs that process is prayerful discernment by the membership and the core value that “our Precious Blood spirituality, community life, and apostolic mission are animated by Spirit-led leaders.”
When leaders listen for the voice of the Spirit and invite others into discernment, they help foster communities where the charism can flourish and the reconciling love of Christ can reach a world in need. In the following reflections, current and former leaders of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood share how humility, love, and faith help them to be the spirit-led leaders the congregation needs.
Fr. Bill Nordenbrock, C.PP.S.
Fr. Bill Nordenbrock’s elected leadership roles include general councilor, vice moderator general, and moderator general of the General Curia of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. The wisest thing that I have ever read about leadership was written by two professors of the Harvard School of Business. In their teaching, they articulated the difference between management and leadership. They wrote that anyone can learn to be a good boss and they can manage their personnel through good personnel policies and practices, but to be a leader they must love the persons that they are trying to lead. You can only expect to lead those whom you love. You may make commands and the employee will do what you want them to do, but you will not animate them for the good of the organization unless they believe that they can trust your love for them and will do right by them.
An analogy comes to mind — a shepherd can use his staff and herd his flock in the direction he wants them to move. Or the flock will respond to the known voice of the shepherd that they trust and will follow him.
The recent General Assemblies have articulated the importance of spirit-filled leadership for our congregation. We need leaders, elected and unelected, who are filled with God’s Spirit, which is a spirit of love. Leadership is a relationship of love. As a community, we value and need leaders who have a personal experience of the love of God. They know the transforming love of a God that calls them to be their best selves. We need leaders who allow that love, that spirit of God that they have received, to form their hearts and to fill them with a love for all of us. We need them to love us individually, with all our giftedness and woundedness. We need leaders who will love us communally and call us forward to being our best selves as a community.
A primary responsibility and skill of a spirit-filled leader is to communicate that love through words and actions that communicate that love for us and that we are invited to follow. We share that spirit of love with him and with one another. Leadership is more than something that the leader says or does, it is our relationship expressed through the bond of charity and our obedience to God’s command that we love one another. A true and faithful leader uses a spirit-filled voice when they speak to us, and that spirit-filled voice animates us to follow — maybe even to places that we hesitate to go.
Fr. Greg Evers, C.PP.S.
In June 2026, Fr. Greg Evers was elected by the membership to serve his first term on the provincial council of the U.S. Province.
During the XXII General Assembly of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, we had the opportunity to spend some time reflecting on the core values that were developed from the previous General Assembly from 2019. As we were discerning potential candidates for leadership on the general council, one of the words that kept coming up was “openness.” Openness can touch on a variety of different areas. Openness can mean being receptive of various perspectives, it could mean being available to others or even openness to change, change of mind, change of assignment, change of location, etc.
As Catholics, we speak of openness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Core Value 6 from the General Assembly speaks of Precious Blood spirituality, community life, and apostolic mission being animated by Spirit-led leaders. If I’m honest, I don’t know if I would necessarily describe myself as being a “Spirit-led leader.” I have no experience with leadership at this level and I’m still very early on in growing in my identity as a priest and Missionary of the Precious Blood. I am trying to trust that my brothers in community see something in me that I don’t necessarily see in myself. At the same time, I don’t think experience is the end-all be-all of what leadership should be.
One of the stories we prayed with during the XXII General Assembly was the story of the Exodus. God calls Moses, who openly admits that he doesn’t see himself as a worthy leader. He struggles with words and questions whether he has the courage to confront Pharaoh. But God promises Moses, “I will be with you…” (Exodus 3:12). This is the part of Moses’ story that resonates with me the most right now. Not knowing exactly how things would go or develop, or whether he would be received by his own people, Moses went forward trusting that the Lord would be faithful and would indeed be with him.
As someone just getting started in leadership, I want to imitate the same trust that Moses had. I don’t know what the road ahead looks like for us as a province, but I believe that if we are open to the Holy Spirit and strive to be faithful to the gospel and to the charism that St. Gaspar left us, God will be with us.
Fr. Joe Nassal, C.PP.S.
Fr. Joe Nassal has served numerous terms in leadership, including two terms as provincial of the Kansas City Province (2011-2019), provincial councilor, and most recently as
vice provincial of the United States Province.
One of the keys to leadership is the ability to listen. In 1987 when I was first elected to the provincial council in the former Kansas City Province, the provincial, Fr. Tom Albers, asked me to leave a parish that I loved and to spend a year at St. Louis University to train to be director of formation. I was reluctant at first, but Tom listened to my concerns and my dreams for our future as a community. Though we did not always agree, he encouraged me to be bold and, like Core Value 6 states, to see myself as a leader and give me a role that prepared me for leadership.
Tom was also receptive to an idea many of us had been discussing in the community for a long time: to start a lay associate movement that would name the relationship with men and women in our parishes and ministries who share our spirituality and our charism. Members in the former Cincinnati and Pacific Provinces were also discussing such a movement at the time. We now know them as Companions.
All the provincials and councilors I have been privileged to serve with in leadership over the years have been men who “read and respond to the ‘signs of the times,’ proclaiming the Blood of Christ as life and hope for our world (Core Value #6).” They did this by being “conscious that they have been called by the Spirit to serve rather than be served,” as our Constitutions (C-48) state.
In Matthew’s gospel, after James and John asked Jesus for a favor and he asked them if they could drink the cup he would drink, Jesus outlines the call to servant leadership: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt, but it shall not be so among you (Matthew 20, 25-26).” The men with whom I worked led others by serving them without demanding the spotlight or by pulling strings or pulling rank.
Over the 28 years I was in leadership, there were many challenges and serious issues we had to address and decide. There was not always unanimity but there was an openness to listen to one another with humility, hope, and even a sense of humor. Even in the most difficult moments, the Bond of Charity held us together.
I have been blessed to serve with men and women on leadership teams and province staffs who challenged and inspired me by their collaborative and missionary spirit, their friendship and fidelity, and by their commitment to the future of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.