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Summer 2007: Reading Recommendations
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"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.
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Aloft: A Novel
Chang-Rae Lee, Author. New York, NY: Riverhead Trade Reprint, 2005.
Jerry Battle, an early-retiree and patriarch of an affluent Long Island family, escapes life's challenges regularly in his airplane (although he flies only in fair weather when he can see the white X painted on his roof). While aloft, Jerry copes with family, aging, and his own lingering ennui. Characters such as Jerry's cantankerous father Hank, secretive daughter Theresa, ambitious son Jack, and disgruntled girlfriend Rita add color and complexity to Jerry's life. Especially touching is the way the diverse members of Jerry's family grow closer as the story progresses. This novel is a funny, profound, and surprisingly real look at commitment and less-than-perfect love.
Amazon.
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Eat This Book: A Conversation on the Art of Spiritual Reading
Eugene Peterson, Author. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2006.
Eugene Peterson uses the metaphor of "eating" to discuss how Scripture is intended for not only our study, but also our lives. Drawing on the memory of his dog gnawing a favorite bone, Peterson invites readers to "chew upon" biblical passages in the spirit of the psalmist who chews upon God's word "when I think of thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night." He explores lectio divina as an approach to Scripture—focusing on what it means to read, meditate, pray, and live the text. Through this practice, we are urged to encounter God in God’s terms, not ours.
Amazon.
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The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew—Three Women Search for Understanding
Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, Priscilla Warner, Authors. New York, NY: Free Press, 2006.
These women first met to collaborate on a children's book based on the Abrahamic religions. Instead, they abandoned the project and explored their personal faith journeys. Each author shares her experience in her own words, weaving a rich tapestry that reveals the similarities and differences between their faiths. Faith-related stereotypes, "The Promised Land," prayer, rituals, mortality, atonement, and religious holidays are some of the topics explored. An extensive bibliography, reading group guide, and suggestions for beginning a faith club are included. The "Faith Club" link (www.thefaithclub.com) includes additional information, a scrapbook, and online resources for people interested in starting and nurturing a faith club.
Amazon.
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Faith and Doubt: An Anthology of Poems
Patrice Vecchione, Author. New York, NY: Henry Holt, 2007.
In what do you have faith? What makes you doubt? Patrice Vecchione's anthology is a thought-provoking exploration of belief, spiritual affirmation, and the nature of God. An award-winning poet and collage artist, Vecchione gathers poems from around the world to help readers clarify their own faith and sources of strength. Included are poems from writers spanning many generations, continents, and contexts: we hear from William Shakespeare, Helen Hunt Jackson, Yehuda Amachai, and others. And while some poems focus specifically on religion, others explore politics, war, love, relationships, and further arenas where faith and doubt influence our experience. This collection is well-suited for personal meditation or group discussion.
Amazon.
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Heaven
Roger Ferlo, Editor. New York, NY: Seabury Books, 2007.
Phyllis Tickle suggests that "Heaven is a lot like home." Kathleen Henderson Staudt associates heaven with the "communion of saints." And for Alan Jones, heaven is about God's Presence, here and now. These and other writers— including Barbara Brown Taylor, Martin Smith, and Malcolm Boyd—offer their reflections on the nature, purpose, and mystery of heaven. Edited by theologian Roger Ferlo, this collection of essays humbly explores the "place that is not-place, time that is not-time." This book helps us to think of heaven as a "holy paradox": that heaven is remains a deep conviction for the book's contributors—but what heaven is, "not even the mystics can tell us."
Amazon.
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Humble Leadership: Being Radically Open to God’s Guidance and Grace
N. Graham Standish, Author. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2007.
This book discusses humble leadership and compares it with other leadership approaches. While not dismissing the styles employed in corporations, Graham Standish explains how and why a pastor or other congregational leader should lead differently. For Standish, humble leadership is self-aware, prayerful, unifying, and Spirit-led; he devotes a chapter to each of these qualities. The final chapter examines ways to put theory into practice. Five essential skills are named: (1) lifting up other good leaders; (2) eliciting ideas, seeking God's guidance, and setting a direction; (3) giving guidance and then letting go; (4) accepting criticism, resisting offense, and providing support; and (5) becoming thankful.
Amazon.
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The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Francis S. Collins, Author. New York, NY: Free Press, 2006.
Francis Collins—geneticist and former leader of the Human Genome Project—examines what science says about the origins of the universe and life. He then critiques philosophical stances that have been offered in response—including atheism, creationism, "intelligent design," and "biologos." ("Biologos" is Collins' proposed term for theistic evolution—which understands God as the source of all life, accepts the principles and processes of evolution, and holds that humans are not only evolved creatures but also spiritual beings governed by Moral Law.) Collins concludes that "principles of faith are, in fact, complementary with the principles of science." An appendix explores bioethical dilemmas arising from knowledge of the human genome.
Amazon.
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The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World
Bob Abernethy, William Bole, Authors. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press, 2007.
Bob Abernethy and William Bole have collected and edited commentaries from people who have appeared on the television program, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. Thoughts from Madeleine L'Engle, Desmond Tutu, Diana Eck, Martin Marty, William Sloane Coffin, Harold Kushner, and others focus on prayer, suffering, spiritual paths, the nature of reality, and "lives well lived." A noteworthy example is Martin Marty's musings on prayer: "I have never believed that prayer has to be something you are uttering all the time. I think it's a way of life, it's a conversation with God, it's a conversation with reality around you, and this is one of the modes in which you surrender."
Amazon.
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The Meandering Way: Leading by Following the Spirit
Gary Shockley, Author. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2007.
"In the end, meandering isn't just about wandering with God; it is about the relationship we form with God when we are willing to trust God." This book is for congregational leaders whose leadership styles compel them to achieve more and more for the sake of "success." Such styles often result in resentment, burnout, and illness. Gary Shockley helps leaders learn to slow down, say "no," and discern where God may be leading them. He explains how to form a Circle of Trust, seek spiritual direction, and care for oneself. Reflection questions at the end of each chapter encourage readers to find and follow a Spirit-centered, "meandering way."
Amazon.
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Practicing Reconciliation in a Violent World
Michael Battle, Author. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2005.
Michael Battle holds that we practice reconciliation by affirming and acting on the belief that God is always and everywhere present, even when the world's situations—and our own—suggest otherwise. This book offers an assessment tool that will help individuals and communities understand various approaches to peacemaking. For example, those who focus on "communal justice" seek immediate justice for all of creation, while those who focus on "communal peace" seek full communion with God. Those who lean toward "individual justice" emphasize personal holiness, while those who lean toward "individual peace" emphasize contemplation. Understanding these different approaches can support our intention to work together for the kingdom of God.
Amazon.
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Welcoming Children: A Practical Theology of Childhood
Joyce Ann Mercer, Author. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2005.
Drawing on her experience as a scholar, parent, and director of the Children in Congregations Project, Joyce Ann Mercer writes of her search for a theology that affirms children and a church that welcomes, nurtures, and advocates for them. Such a church enables children to fully participate in its missional activities and honors children's ideas and initiatives. And such a church affirms Jesus' words that those who welcome children also welcome him. The "messy, playful, noisy, active, spontaneous, restless, and unpredictable" qualities in children, believes Mercer, may reveal "God's restlessness as an aspect of God's being that I might otherwise not recognize or care to encounter."
Amazon.
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A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism
Rabbi Mike Comins, Author. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2007.
Rabbi Mike Comins—founder of TorahTrek Spiritual Wilderness Adventures—calls forth ancient and contemporary Jewish wisdom to address the connections between Torah and nature. For Comins, these connections run both ways: nature provides the ideal setting to develop a transformed awareness of—and relationship with—the Divine; Torah provides a language and set of principles that enable us to translate our love of God into meaningful lives. Wild Faith features more than forty exercises that deepen our spiritual awareness of the natural world. Such exercises include journaling, practicing solitude, walking contemplatively, and creating wilderness "blessings." A study guide for adult education is available on the accompanying Web site, www.awildfaith.com.
Amazon.
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