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Fall 2008: 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 ask you to consider these top pics. (Click on the book's title to access the publisher's website and ordering information. Or if you prefer, click on "Amazon" at the end of each annotation to order the book from Amazon.)
We at the Alban Institute and the Indianapolis Center for Congregations wish you and yours a vital and transformational season.
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America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity
Robert Wuthnow, Author. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Sociologist Robert Wuthnow draws on the results of a three-year study, spanning fourteen metropolitan areas, to portray the rich religious diversity of 21st-century America and its accompanying cultural challenges. Chief among these challenges is Wuthnow's observation that America's tradition both respects religious diversity and honors a distinctively Christian heritage. He asks how Americans can maintain that Christianity is uniquely true, given their encounters with adherents of other faiths. He also asks if we are "taking advantage of the opportunities that diversity provides and moving toward a more mature pluralism." Chapters on "religion shopping," on religiously mixed marriages, and on how congregations are managing diversity make Wuthnow's portrait even more comprehensive.
Amazon
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Community: The Structure of Belonging
Peter Block, Author. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008.
Peter Block calls for us to learn how to create and sustain authentic community. He discusses the nature of community, purpose of building community, dynamics of transformation, and approaches to restoring and nurturing community. He emphasizes that friendship, hospitality, and conviviality are essential pieces of community-building efforts—while blaming, retelling the same story, doing studies, and seeking quick action only scratch the surface of community issues. Real change, Block says, happens when there is communication. With summary information at the beginning of each chapter, a detailed outline at the end, and stories of successful authentic communities, this book offers an entry point for building a new community full of purpose.
Amazon
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Creating the Future Together: Methods to Inspire Your Whole Faith Community
Loren B. Mead, Billie T. Alban, Authors. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2008.
Creating the Future Together is true to its subtitle: it offers methods that inspire whole faith communities. More than that, it offers methods that engage faith communities. Loren Mead and Billie Alban explain how large-group methods can facilitate fruitful change by breaking through cliques, leveling hierarchies, giving everyone a voice, and implementing vital conversation processes. Each of the four large-group processes explored include a clear purpose statement, stakeholder inclusion, interactive processes around concrete tasks, an investigation of context, a focus on a preferred future and common goals, and participant responsibility. With stories that illustrate the authors' points, here is a concise and meaningful guide to change.
Amazon
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Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!: Ten Principles for Leading Meetings
Marvin Weisbord, Sandra Janoff, Authors. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007.
The authors of this book believe that even the most difficult meetings can be led well if you as the leader "work with people as they are, not as you wish them to be." How is this done? By managing structure (the conditions under which people interact) rather than behavior. Ten core principles are explained: get the whole system in the room; let go of what you can't control; explore the "whole elephant"; let people be responsible; find common ground; master the art of "subgrouping"; make friends with anxiety; get used to projections; be dependable; and learn to say "no" if you want "yes" to mean something.
Amazon
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Exploring Religious Community Online: We are One in the Network
Heidi Campbell, Author. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005.
Heidi Campbell, who teaches communication at Texas A&M University, conducted a seven-year study to assess the impact of the Internet on communication habits and relationships within religious communities—both online and offline. This book reports the results of her research. Its aim is to "highlight the characteristics of online community" as well as to "consider what implications this might have for individuals in offline religious communities." Campbell found that the religious community online is a supplement, not a substitute, for offline church and offline relationships. At the same time, religious community online fosters relationship, mutual caring, experiences of being valued, interpersonal connection, intimate communication, and faith sharing.
Amazon
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Four Seasons of Ministry: Gathering a Harvest of Righteousness
Bruce G. Epperly, Katherine Gould Epperly, Authors. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2008.
Bruce Epperly is joined by his wife and fellow Disciples of Christ pastor Katherine Epperly in this book on the factors that create transformational ordained ministry. For the authors, the imagery of the four seasons corresponds with the stages of pastoral life: spring (discerning the call to ordained ministry and pursuing a seminary education); summer (engaging in the "firsts" of pastoral leadership and developing authority and integrity); autumn (anticipating change and initiating novelty in congregational life); and winter (letting go and embracing a new identity as retirement approaches). Each season brings opportunities and challenges—but if approached faithfully and mindfully, the result will be a "harvest of righteousness."
Amazon
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Home: A Novel
Marilynne Robinson, Author. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
At 38, Glory Boughton returns to the town of Gilead to care for her aged and dying father, Presbyterian minister Robert Boughton. Soon her wayward brother Jack appears, reminding readers of the biblical Prodigal Son. Jack, unable to keep a job or avoid alcohol, continues to be loved by his father, who sadly concludes that "You see something beautiful in a child, and you almost live for it, you feel as though you would die for it, but it isn't yours to keep or protect." This book explores the bonds and tensions in familial relationships, as well as our capacities to forgive each other—again and again.
Amazon
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Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America
Thomas L. Friedman, Author. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Author and journalist Thomas Friedman urges Americans to face two major challenges: the "loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11"; and the global environmental crisis. He holds that these challenges are related, and only a re-ignited sense of purpose will give us the will and resources to respond to a world that is becoming ever more "hot" (through global warming), "flat" (through globalization), and "crowded" (through population growth). Lamenting the bunker mentality that has arisen since 9/11 and the "dumb as we wanna be" outlook of some political leaders, Friedman nevertheless has hope for the future. This book outlines the systemic and leadership changes needed for a sustainable world.
Amazon
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Love & Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow
Forrest Church, Author. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2008.
Forrest Church, long-time minister at All Souls in New York, offers his reflections on the themes of love and death. Religion, says Church, arises from the "dual reality of being alive and having to die," a reality that causes us to question life's meaning. And religion at its best responds to that question by pointing us to the power of love. Church's faith is grounded in "the saving gift of Jesus's love, transcending the power of death." This book, made all the more moving because of the author's own terminal cancer diagnosis, reminds readers that the love we have given to others is "the one thing death can't kill."
Amazon
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The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Barry Schwartz, Author. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2005.
We value having choices in our personal and professional lives. But Barry Schwartz asserts that too many choices can be harmful. With so many options, we can develop chronic anxiety, unrealistic expectations, and what he calls "decision-making paralysis." We also tend to castigate ourselves if our choices lead to less-than-perfect outcomes. Schwartz discusses eleven approaches to freeing ourselves from the distress of excessive choices: choose when to choose; be a chooser, not a picker; satisfice more and maximize less; think about the opportunity costs of opportunity costs; make your decisions nonreversible; practice an attitude of gratitude; regret less; anticipate adaptation; control expectations; curtail social comparison; and learn to love constraints.
Amazon
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The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative
Stephen Denning, Author. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
Drawing on his own experience as a change-agent, Stephen Denning shows that transformational leaders need not be dazzling or charismatic. They do, however, need to adopt the "language" of leadership. This language involves abandoning the usual approach of defining problems, analyzing them, and then proposing solutions. Instead, we need to get our listeners' attention, elicit the desire for change, and reinforce our message with compelling reasons. We can support such an approach by articulating a clear, inspiring change idea; committing to the story of change; understanding the listeners' stories; cultivating narrative intelligence; being authentic; and effectively using body language. Specific ideas for developing these capacities are presented throughout the book.
Amazon
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The Used World: A Novel
Haven Kimmel, Author. New York, NY: Free Press, 2008.
In fictional Jonah, Indiana, three people run an antique store called "Used World Emporium." Hazel Hunnicutt, the 65-year-old proprietor, has an affinity for astrology, cats, and employees Claudia and Rebekah. Claudia Modjeski—forty-something and over six feet tall—struggles with loneliness and faith as she attempts to cope with the loss of her mother. Rebekah Shook—approaching thirty and the birth of her child—tries to find peace and hope after her boyfriend abandons her and her Pentecostal father condemns her. The relationships that develop among these women demonstrate that God really is love and that "What feels like the end of the world never is."
Amazon
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