|
|
Summer 2006: Reading Recommendations
|
|
|
|
“What shall I read?”
Wondering what books would most inspire and inform you—and other leaders—as you enjoy the summer while planning initiatives for the fall? Congregational Resource Guide staff offer you our "top pics" of the season. (Click on the book's title to access the publisher's Web site 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 summer of rest and renewal.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Abide with Me: A Novel
Elizabeth Stout, Author. New York, NY: Random House, 2006.
In the small town of West Annett, Maine, we encounter Reverend Tyler Caskey, a man who loves his congregation as much as the New England seasons. But he and his congregation suffer in the 1959 wake of his wife's death and his struggle to overcome depression while parenting his daughters and pastoring his flock. The local Ladies' Aide Society begins harping on Tyler's shortcomings and gossiping about a possible affair. Meanwhile, Tyler laments that he appears in the pulpit "like a big tractor being driven by a teenage kid, slipping in and out of gear." Ultimately, however, this is a story about enduring faith and the goodness of people.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us
Margaret Guenther, Author. New York, NY: Church Publishing, 2006.
This book is for ordinary people who want to live God-centered lives in our frenetic culture. Drawing on the monastic rules of Saints Benedict and Augustine, Margaret Guenther emphasizes the importance of structure to living life fulfilled and connected to God. Such structure involves developing voluntary rules informed by ancient traditions. Essential disciplines that make up a rule of life include nurturing community, offering hospitality, honoring the body, and engaging in prayer, lifelong learning, work, and generosity. Each chapter briefly describes a discipline and often includes both Scriptural references and personal reflections. Also featured are "questions for prayer and pondering," making this book ideal for individual or group study.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us
Rabbi James Rudin, Author. New York, NY: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006.
Rabbi James Rudin—currently a senior interreligious advisor to the American Jewish Committee—examines the threat to democracy posed by Christian right-wing extremists who would develop a theocratic state by altering our understandings of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. He discusses the groups and movements involved, particularly the Virginia Beach-based "Christian Coalition." Rudin also devotes a chapter to each of the "rooms" in which the Religious Right is seeking to exercise dominion: the bedroom, the schoolroom, the hospital room and medical laboratory, the courtroom, the newsroom, the library room, the public room, and the workroom. Readers of all faiths who cherish religious freedoms will find Rudin's analyses sobering.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans
Dieter T. Hessel, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Editors. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
This volume of essays—from Sallie McFague, Wendell Berry, John Cobb, and others—offers spiritual, theological, and ethical perspectives on environmental justice, ecological sustainability, virtue ethics, and related topics. At its core is the conviction that, in the words of editor Rosemary Radford Ruether, "the Church's mission of redemption of the world cannot be divorced from justice in society or from the healing of the wounds of nature wrought by an exploitative human industrial system." Written in a dialogue format, and with a select bibliography, Christianity and Ecology provides a solid theoretical framework from which religious leaders can help congregations think about their relationship with—and responsibility for—God's creation.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
The Competent Pastor: Skills and Self-Knowledge for Serving Well
Ronald D. Sisk, Author. Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2005.
Competence in ministry is a moving target. A ministry technique that works in one congregation may not work in another, and what works now may not work in five years. But a competent pastor will be able to adapt to a variety of changes. When the competent pastor gets stuck, he or she knows what steps to take to get unstuck. Competence, defined by author Ronald Sisk as "the ability to do what needs to be done," requires ministers to understand themselves and others, to keep a realistic perspective on their lives, and to remain responsive to God's grace. This book will help pastors develop that understanding, perspective, and responsiveness.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Dwelling Places: A Novel
Vinita Hampton Wright, Author. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
Mack and Jodie Barnes, a contemporary couple who have lost their Iowa farm, do their best to survive in the face of some painful challenges: Mack's hospitalization for depression, Jodie's attraction to another man, daughter Kenzie's conversion to a cult-like Christian group, and son Taylor's immersion in bizarre Goth clothes and behavior. Mack's mother attempts to care for Mack and his family, and finds herself being annoying when she means to be helpful. And Mack himself cannot let go of the land he loves. Yet the family learns to accept God's consolation. Avoiding sentimentality, this novel nevertheless reveals the resilience of love and possibilities for hope.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
Barbara Brown Taylor, Author. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
Episcopal priest and writer Barbara Brown Taylor narrates her faith journey, focusing on the experiences and struggles that led to her transition from work as a parish rector to work as a religion professor at an undergraduate college. While Taylor's profound love for God drew her into the ordained life, the "compassion fatigue" she experienced as a priest attempting to minister to her congregation's needs compelled her to re-examine her vocation. In the process, she recognized that "the call to serve God is first and last the call to be fully human." Taylor's story implicitly invites us, also, to examine the ways God calls us to be "fully human."
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
A Private History of Awe
Scott Russell Sanders, Author. New York, NY: North Point Press, 2006.
Essayist Scott Russell Sanders recounts that, at the age of four, he felt awe as his father held him during a thunderstorm. The experience—which he describes as "the tingle of a power that surges through bone and rain and everything" —led Sanders on a lifetime spiritual quest. A Private History of Awe narrates Sanders' quest—from childhood through adolescence to college life, parenthood, and now grandparenthood. At times, Sanders intuited a "prime reality" that cannot be described and yet "shapes and sustains everything that exists, surges in every heartbeat, fills every breath." He believes that all of us, if we but pay attention, can intuit this prime reality.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Resolving Conflict in Nonprofit Organizations: The Leader’s Guide to Finding Constructive Solutions
Marion Peters Angelica, Author. Saint Paul, MN: Fieldstone Alliance, 1999.
This book explains how to spot conflicts, decide whether to intervene, respond to the real issues involved, and design and carry out a conflict resolution process. Worksheets and conflict resolution forms keep the process on track. Exercises help you learn and practice conflict resolution skills—such as affirming and restating, mirroring body language, asking neutral questions, reframing issues, and breaking deadlocks. This guide also discusses how to handle special conflicts, including discrimination and illegal activities. Also featured is information on finding the right assistance. Resolving Conflict in Nonprofit Organizations presents the tools to handle most types of conflict internally.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Simple Truths: On Values, Civility, and Our Common Good
Stephen Bauman, Author. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006.
Radio commentator Stephen Bauman has been Senior Minister at Christ Church in New York City since 1987. Simple Truths brings together a number of his previously broadcasted messages. These messages are little parables, fashioned "out of the cloth of our current culture that might tweak our minds to awareness of simple truth, making conscious what had been shrouded by slumber or intoxicants of one form or another." Taking time for relationships and relinquishing our attachment to things are just two of the topics Bauman addresses. Preachers, teachers, and others who realize that ideas need not be grandiose to be valuable will appreciate this book.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Spiritual Community: The Power to Restore Hope, Commitment and Joy
Rabbi David Teutsch, Author. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2005.
Spiritual Community explores the value and place of community within our postmodern age. Rabbi David Teutsch affirms the congregation as a locus for community and inspires congregational leaders to create "strong, vibrant communities of shared living and shared passions." He promotes a number of factors that can foster community in congregations—including ritual, caring for one another, developing leaders, attending to conflict, and nurturing community spirituality. Of particular interest is Teutsch's concept of "radiant centers"—people and activities that "beam sufficient light and warmth to attract others." Thriving congregations will have multiple radiant centers that draw upon the gifts and enthusiasm of all members.
Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Traditions in Leadership: How Faith Traditions Shape the Way We Lead
Richard J. Maow and Eric O. Jacobsen, Editors. Pasadena, CA: De Press Leadership Center, 2006.
How does a person's faith tradition influence his or her perspective on and practice of leadership? That is the question explored by this volume's eight contributing editors, who come from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Mennonite, Pentecostal, Quaker, Episcopal, Mormon, and Conservative Jewish faith traditions. Each essay offers an exploration of how leadership is understood within a particular faith tradition, as well as how individuals from that tradition perceive and practice leadership. The volume highlights some of the common themes that unite leaders from all traditions and reveals some interesting differences in understanding and approach. Available only from the Fuller Seminary bookstore; not available through Amazon.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
