As America faces great change, we must find new ways of cooperating with one another to solve problems beyond our individual control. That’s why communities are so important. Yet communities today desperately need leaders who can find ways to create new sources of social capital in the ever-changing culture. As leaders of one of the […]
Pastor and author N. Graham Standish describes how a church that is open to God’s purpose, presence, and power can claim God’s blessing. Standish shares the story of Calvin Presbyterian Church in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, and its journey to become a spiritually deep congregation, one that is inwardly and outwardly healthy: spiritually, psychologically, physically, and relationally. […]
“I believe that God is calling all of us into deeper prayer and is longing for our congregations to become places of prayer,” writes Jane E. Vennard. Pastors and others who want to develop their skills as teachers of prayer and spiritual practices will find in this book not only wisdom for themselves but easily […]
Much more than a “how-to” for worship planners. Drawing on more than two decades of collaborative worship planning, as well as numerous conversations with other worship planners. Pastor Howard Vanderwell and musician Norma de Waal Malefyt lay out a thoughtful, field-tested process for planning, implementing, and evaluating life-enriching weekly worship. Well over a dozen field-tested […]
At times, a congregational transition looms so large in a sermon that it becomes the lens through which scripture is interpreted, the congregation is addressed, the preacher is heard, and God is experienced. Homiletics professor and parish pastor Craig Satterlee reflects in this accessible, provocative volume about on how to integrate such significant events in […]
“Today we are awash in computerized Bible games, pastoral care software, and church management systems with members’ personal information and giving records,” observe authors Spiegel, Armstrong, and Bill, but “too often we blindly accept and use technology without asking the big questions. Questions like, is it appropriate to our mission and ministry?” 40 Days and […]
The conventional wisdom about mainline Protestantism maintains that it is a dying tradition, irrelevant to a postmodern society, unresponsive to change, and increasingly disconnected from its core faith tenets. In her provocative new book, historian and researcher Diana Butler Bass argues that there are signs that mainline Protestant churches are indeed changing, finding a new […]
Faced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain “stuckness,” many congregations and their leaders are content to deal only with surface issues and symptoms – only to discover that the same problems keep recurring, often in different, and more serious, ways. In The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Christian educator and consultant Israel Galindo takes leaders […]
Planning can be challenging in the contemporary congregation, where people share a common faith and values but may have very different preferences and needs. Much of the literature on congregational planning presents it as a technical process: the leader serves as the chief problem solver, and the goal is finding “the solution to the problem.” […]
This book recounts the experience of a church that used appreciative inquiry to harness their energies, shift their congregational conversations, and renew their sense of hope. Branson first leads readers through the foundations of appreciative inquiry and bracingly explores biblical texts for understanding the practice in a faith context. He then outlines and illustrates a […]