The General Assembly Council is the ministry and mission agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This overview shares stories of the ministries in which we are engaged around the world. This program also demonstrates how the General Assembly Council focuses its work around its mission statement and goals and shares how the GAC staff works […]
Building communicate. Stained glass windows, high altars, multi-purpose worship/gymnasium spaces, Plexiglas pulpits, padded pews–these and all other architectural elements say something about a congregation’s theology and mission. They point to a faith community’s beliefs about worship, identity, purpose, and more. From the stark simplicity of a Quaker meetinghouse to the splendor of a Romanesque Revival […]
In Holy Play popular author and teacher Kirk Byron Jones shows how to move forward together with God to imagine and live your true life purpose with creativity and joy. This extraordinary book gives you permission to stop waiting for God to tell you what to do and start doing what God has been inspiring […]
This helpful guide shows pastors how to look beyond the superficial or most obvious reasons for a particular conflict within their own church, find what is hopeful in the conflict, and reframe the situation, giving the congregation the strength to change it as well.
In this essay Paul Hooker Hooker calls us to hear and respond to the questions we face in this time of intense transition — starting with one of the most basic questions: “who are we called to be?” Hooker points to resources we have at hand to help us formulate strong answers to that question.
In If This Is the Way the World Works William O. Avery and Beth Ann Gaede ask two primary questions: First, what principles from science are so broadly accepted that scientists themselves are willing to say, ‘This is the way the world works’? Second, how do congregations and their leaders behave when they operate in […]
People yearn for a sense of belonging. Congregations become places of belonging when people find ways to make connections, form relationships, and share their personal stories. That’s hard to do in the hasty comings and goings around the typical worship service. Its even hard to do in a choir, committee, or ministry group. In Know and […]
This new book in Alban’s Harvesting the Learnings Series gathers the collected wisdom of over 10 years of Alban research and reflection on what it means to be a leader in a congregation, how our perceptions of leadership are changing, and exciting new directions for leadership in the future. With pieces by such diverse church […]
This study guide for Living Till We Die serves as a companion to the book, Practicing Our Faith, A Way of Life for a Searching People, ed. Dorothy C. Bass, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997. Twelve faith practices are presented in the book. The study guide focuses on six of those, exploring them through an end-of-life lens. These time-honored spiritual practices have […]
We all compare ourselves to others. We spend our lives wondering what others think and say about us. Some of us even wish we were someone else. We question why we are the way we are and noth the way we wish we could be. Some of us have let the expectations of others dictate […]