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Fall 2004: Reading Recommendations
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"What shall I read?"
Wondering what books would most inspire and inform you—and other leaders—as you and your congregation engage in new opportunities to learn, grow, and serve? Congregational Resource Guide staff offer you our "top pics" of the season. (Click on the book's title or image to access the publisher's Web site and ordering information.)
We at the Alban Institute and the Indianapolis Center for Congregations
wish you and yours a vital and transformational season.
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The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring
Parker J. Palmer, Author. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Parker Palmer argues that we can embrace the monastic virtues of silence, solitude, and contemplation without becoming full-time contemplatives. Writing of his own spiritual journey, Palmer dispels myths about contemplation and action. For example, he points out that while serenity may result from contemplative prayer practices, pain and emptiness may also be experienced along the way. He further argues that solitude and community are not mutually exclusive. The author encourages us to examine biblical examples of contemplation (Jesus’ temptation in the desert) and action (the feeding of the five thousand). This resource offers a powerful approach to help volunteers turn contemplation into action.
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Completing the Circle: Reviewing Ministries in the Congregation
David R. McMahill, Author. Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2003.
Seeking to improve their ministries, churches often apply some kind of evaluation process to their ministers. Unfortunately, the processes that churches typically use do not always generate the information needed for positive change. David McMahill proposes a system—completing the circle— to help church leaders ask for, receive, and use reliable feedback. McMahill's system uses small groups and applies descriptive (rather than evaluative) feedback for ministries in the church. His goals are (1) to make the material accessible to the average congregant; (2) to promote healthy communication in the local church; and (3) to provide an alternative to the typical evaluation process.
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Congregations in America
Mark Chaves, Author. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Based on the National Congregations Study and other evidence, Congregations in America draws challenging conclusions in three areas: social ministry, public policy, and congregational worship. Sociologist Mark Chaves dismisses the notions that (1) congregations largely engage in social ministries as their primary vocations and (2) faith-based initiatives are rewriting public policy. He emphasizes, instead, the centrality of the visual, musical, and dramatic arts in religious expression. Urging congregational leaders to recognize the art forms they are already using and to build on these as a natural expression of their faith, Chaves explains how the arts can provide a re-creational foundation for the core mission of the church.
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Healing the Heart of Conflict: Eight Crucial Steps to Making Peace with Yourself and Others
Marc Gopin, Author. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 2004.
Healing the Heart of Conflict is based on rabbi and mediator Marc Gopin's experience in international conflict resolution. His observations can be applied to many spheres, including congregational life. In previous publications, Gobin has advocated that religion can bring peace to even the most divided areas of the world, such as the Middle East. His succinct comments portray a compassionate realism that is not based exclusively on one world view but on the integration of peace ethics from a variety of fields. The book would work well as a resource for an adult education program, a retreat for congregational leaders, or a training instrument in a conflict resolution course.
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In God's Name
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Author. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994.
In this richly illustrated children's book, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso explores the many names that have been given to God: Creator of Light, Shepherd, Healer, Redeemer, and others. She shows how each name has reflected the situation and hope of the person giving the name: the grandmother "bent with age and sorrow" called God Comforter, while the child who was lonely called God Friend. Trouble arose when people tried to assert that only their names were right and all others were wrong. But something happened, enabling everyone to recognize that "all the names for God were good." Readers young and old will be moved by the wisdom in these pages.
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The Jewish Approach to God:
A Brief Introduction for Christians
Neil Gillman, Author. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003.
Rabbi Neil Gillman shows his humility in the title. Although this book is small, it is more than a brief introduction to Jewish theology. As a Conservative rabbi and theology professor, Gillman clearly and concisely addresses issues of divergence between Christian and Jewish theology. He explains the Jewish understanding of God based on the Shema: "The Lord our God alone is God." He also explores God's uniqueness, power, love, and revelation—as well as God's capacity to create and redeem. And he examines the different views of creation expressed in Genesis. The book concludes with an excellent bibliography. People of all faiths will find this guide informative and enlightening.
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The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini, Author. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2004.
Khaled Hosseini's first novel, The Kite Runner explores the relationship between a wealthy young boy (Amir, the narrator) and his father's servant's son (Hassan). A childhood incident haunts Amir's adult life, and he seeks to make amends for cowardly actions that hurt his friend. Set in early 1970s Afghanistan, and extending through the final days of the monarchy into Taliban rule and the present, the novel is a story of brotherly love, betrayal, and redemption. Readers will find the characters, plot, and narrative style compelling. Hosseini provides a fascinating look into a culture many of us know little or nothing about—but which affects us every day.
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Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change
Mark Lau Branson, Author. Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2004.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a powerful tool for strengthening congregations. Mark Lau Branson offers an account of how one Presbyterian church used AI to understand its history, encourage its members to discover and pursue their dreams, and call a new pastor who could help make those dreams reality. He makes clear that AI—an attitude as well as a process—broadly applies in many settings. Branson outlines a five step sequence: (1) focus on the positive; (2) inquire into stories of life-giving forces; (3) locate themes and topics for further inquiry; (4) create shared images for a preferred future; and (5) find innovative ways to create that future.
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Now, Discover Your Strengths
Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton, Authors. Free Press, 2001.
Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton claim that the most efficient personal growth comes through leveraging individual strengths rather than shoring up weaknesses. Like Paul (in his first letter to the Corinthians), the authors encourage us to see others as they are and celebrate and strengthen their gifts, rather than focus on what they are not. Now, Discover Your Strengths—used with an exploration of spiritual gifts—has the potential to produce a substantial contribution to the ministry of the congregation and its members. Readers will especially enjoy the "Strength Finder" test, which allows people to understand why they are drawn to certain tasks and activities.
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Polarity Management:
Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems
Barry Johnson, Author. Amherst, MA: Human Resource Development Press, 1997.
Have you ever had an organizational problem that could never seem to be resolved and somehow shouldn’t be? That’s the intriguing premise raised in Polarity Management. Presenting relevant case studies, the book analyzes dynamic polarities that are an ongoing part of community life. Polarity management includes developing five skills to help address such tensions: identifying the poles, understanding the positive and negative aspects of each pole, recognizing how people experience the polarities, maximizing the upside and minimizing the downside, and coaching leaders in language that mediates—rather than exacerbates—problems. Polarity management is an essential tool for congregations in conflict, especially congregations that get stuck on some issues.
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Spirit and Flesh:
Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church
James M. Ault, Jr., Author. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
While studying neo-conservatism in America, sociologist and documentary filmmaker James Ault spent three years as an observer and sometime-participant in the life of a fundamentalist church. Drawing from the daily lives of church members—their worship, Bible studies, youth events, and service projects—Ault shows how faith and biblical absolutes apply to everyday life and extraordinary events (such as family relationships, marriage, divorce, alcoholism, and teen pregnancy). Although Ault is certainly not a fundamentalist himself, he offers a sensitive, in-depth exploration of fundamentalism and its roots and influence in today's culture. He also reveals how his experience inspired the renewal of his own faith.
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Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
Mem Fox, Author. La Jolla, CA: Kane Miller Publishers, 1989.
This is a touching story about a little boy who lives next to a nursing home. He meets a resident one day—Miss Nancy—who has lost her memory. But Wilfrid doesn't exactly know what that means. He decides to visit the residents of the nursing home to ask them what a memory is. Eventually, he gets several objects to show Miss Nancy. These objects help her begin to remember. (This book was recommended by one of Alban's senior consultants, whose young son received it as a gift from his 94-year-old great aunt.)
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