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Fall 2009: 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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The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel (Book)
Garth Stein, Author. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2008.
"Gestures are all I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature." With these words we are introduced to the world of Enzo, a lab terrier who clues us in to the life of a dog—and narrates the sometimes dramatic saga of his owner, Denny Swift. From a dog's-eye view, we enter into Denny's relationships with wife Eve, daughter Zoe, and often difficult in-laws. We also witness the world of race car driving, an obsession that Enzo seems to share with his owner. Most of all, we're reminded of how steadfast and supportive a four-legged friend can be when unexpected pitfalls and unnecessary complications befall a hapless mechanic.
Amazon
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Building a Successful Volunteer Culture: Finding Meaning in Service in the Jewish Community (Book)
Rabbi Charles Simon, Author. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2009.
Drawing on his work as executive director of the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs,
Rabbi Charles Simon explains the importance of understanding both organizational cultures and motivational incentives if you want to build successful volunteer projects and foster rewarding volunteer experiences. Key elements in understanding an organization's culture include grasping its "core myth" (or master story), knowing its common language, and comprehending the values which drive its mission. Simon examines each of these elements in detail. He also addresses frequent issues surrounding staff-volunteer relationships, the connections between structure and culture, and the ways leaders model themselves. "Talking points" at the end of each chapter offer opportunities for reflection and discussion.
Amazon
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Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World (Book)
David A. Livermore, Author. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.
Ministry leaders often seek out multicultural information and behavioral tips when they want to communicate across cultures. But David Livermore asserts that truly following God's call to love others as ourselves requires inner transformation. The cultural intelligence quotient (CQ) measures the ability to effectively bridge cultural divides. It encompasses four factors: knowledge CQ (understanding cross-cultural issues); interpretive CQ (being mindful when communicating cross-culturally); perseverance CQ (remaining motivated to adapt cross-culturally); and behavioral CQ (appropriately changing actions when interacting cross-culturally). Assessment tools and exercises help readers discern and develop their CQ levels. The book concludes with 24 specific ways to strengthen CQ—including remembering the image of God in each person.
Amazon
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Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices (Book)
Julie Clawson, Author. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009.
Grounded in a theology that defines justice as "the practical outworking of loving God and others," Everyday Justice helps us understand the ethical implications of our choices. More than that, it offers concrete resources and practical guidance for acting justly. Each chapter begins with stories illustrating how we encounter justice issues—when we purchase coffee, food, and clothes; when we run our cars and deposit our garbage; when we use our credit cards. It connects these stories with human faces from around the world and explains how our choices affect others. It then examines the things we can do to make a difference and suggests relevant websites, books, and organizations.
Amazon
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The Evolution of God (Book)
Robert Wright, Author. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2009.
If evolution has roiled some in America's faith communities, it has propelled others forward by returning them to questions concerning the nature of God, revelation, and sacred texts. Robert Wright seeks to reconcile science and faith, as well as to explain how the world's faith traditions are evolving toward a higher moral plane. Wright asserts, among other things, that just as physicists can't see electrons, but properties of electrons, faith communities can't see God, but properties of God—particularly the properties of love and truth. For those struggling to understand how God fits into a Darwinian worldview, Wright opens a window through which scientists and people of faith can talk.
Amazon
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The Four Conversations: Daily Communication That Gets Results (Book)
Jeffrey Ford, Laurie Ford, Authors. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009.
Are leaders in your congregation or organization stymied in their attempts to start, continue, and complete a project? "Poor communication" is often the apparent culprit, but people often fail to realize that effective communication depends on having the best type of conversation at the appropriate time. Jeffrey and Laurie Ford explain four types of conversations: initiative (introducing a new idea); understanding (explaining the idea and exploring its meaning); performance (requesting specific actions and results); and closure (summarizing and appreciating completed results). The authors illustrate these conversation types with real-life examples to demonstrate how employing the right type at the right time can result in greater accomplishments and more satisfying relationships.
Amazon
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The Future of Faith (Book)
Harvey Cox, Author. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2009.
Religion scholar Harvey Cox explores three epochs in Christian history: the 350-year Age of Faith (marked by a profound commitment to following Jesus's example of hope, healing, and compassion); the 1600-year Age of Belief (marked by adherence to creeds and doctrines about Jesus and the Church); and the Age of the Spirit (marked by a focus on the life of the Spirit within and among religious followers). His explorations lead to some interesting conclusions about each epoch—such as that early Christianity was multifaceted, that "apostolic authority" was a relatively later Christian development, and that in our time Christianity is "yearning for the realization of God's reign of shalom."
Amazon
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Know Your Story and Lead with It: The Power of Narrative in Clergy Leadership (Book)
Richard L. Hester, Kelli Walker-Jones, Authors. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2009.
"Our aim in this book is to show ministers how to explore their story of reality, how to tell it to other group members, and to consider how it can be used as a resource for leadership." Know Your Story and Lead with It fulfills the authors' aim by offering an approach that can be used in clergy and other leadership groups. Components of this approach include enabling group participants to tell their personal stories; exploring how a narrative, "not-knowing" orientation can facilitate effective leadership; examining participants' ongoing narratives for signs of transformation; guiding ministers who want to organize their own groups; and providing resources for narrative clergy groups.
Amazon
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The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life (Book)
Parker Palmer, Author. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 2008.
The Promise of Paradox reflects upon topics ranging from social action and political responsibility to prayer and solitude. Within these reflections, Parker Palmer examines some perplexing questions: How do we live faithfully in the face of good and evil, scarcity and abundance, individuality and community, death and new life? One approach, Palmer contends, is to view them as paradoxes, apparent opposites or contradictions held in tension. He argues that the promise of paradox rests on an overriding principle: accepting paradox with humility. While contradictions are inevitable, our responses to those contradictions are pivotal to our spiritual lives. When we meet and reckon with contradiction we enter the mystery of God.
Amazon
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Shooting Water: A Memoir of Second Chances, Family, and Filmmaking (Book)
Devyani Saltzman, Author. New York, NY: Newmarket Press, 2006.
The title of photojournalist Devyani Saltzman's memoir refers not so much to a natural image as to an event: the shooting of a film, entitled Water. Saltzman chronicles the production of a movie about Hindu widows in India, who "atone for their husbands' deaths by living as ascetics." (This movie from filmmaker Deepa Mehta—the author's mother—was forbidden in India.) Saltzman also chronicles her own life, reaching back to her parents' divorce and the divisions between herself and her Indian mother that arose when she chose to live with her Jewish Canadian father. A set of reflective questions for reading groups is included at the end of the book.
Amazon
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Strategic Leadership for a Change: Facing Our Losses, Finding Our Future (Book)
Kenneth J. McFayden, Author. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2009.
Strategic Leadership for a Change, written by leadership development professor Kenneth McFayden, holds that the church both seeks and resists transformational leadership. McFayden's goal is "to provide congregational leaders with new insights and tools for exercising strategic leadership." Such leadership entails understanding the relationships between change, attachment, loss, and grief; helping congregations name their losses, attachments, and levels of grief; enabling the grieving process so that losses can be accepted and new attachments may form; appreciating the importance of a compelling vision; reflecting theologically in the midst of change; and helping people to align their vision with God's vision. Book chapters, replete with discussion questions, examine these leadership capacities.
Amazon
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A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future (Book)
Daniel H. Pink, Author. New York, NY: Riverhead Trade, 2006.
Author Daniel Pink asserts, "We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what's rising in its place, the Conceptual Age." Pink explores six aptitudes essential to thriving in the Conceptual Age: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. These aptitudes are "high concept" (involving the capacity to detect patterns, create beauty, craft narratives, and combine ideas) and "high touch" (involving the capacity to empathize, understand human interaction, find joy, and pursue meaning). Included are tools, exercises, and resources for developing these aptitudes and capacities.
Amazon
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