Winter 2003 Reading Recommendations


Winter 2003: Reading Recommendations

	"What shall I read?" Wondering what books would most inspire and inform you—and other congregational leaders—as you enter the coming year? 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 the best of the season and peace in the new year*

	Adiel Shlomo DuNour, Author. New Milford, CT: Toby Press, 2001. A Polish native born in 1921, Shlomo DuNour immigrated to Palestine in 1938. None of his extensive family survived the Holocaust. In this extraordinary book, he retells the Hebrew Scripture stories from "Adam and Eve" through "Noah and the Flood." The book is narrated by Adiel, an angel appointed by God and mentored by the archangel Michael. As an "angel of history," Adiel is responsible for recording human events. Very much in the traditional Jewish form of Midrash, DuNour's story reflects upon humanity's place in the universe and the human capacity for good and evil.

	Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing Dennis A. Jacobsen, Author. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001. Doing Justice presents a theological rationale for the urban ministry of congregation–based community organizing. Drawing on years of community organizing experience to illustrate his points, Lutheran pastor Dennis Jacobsen discusses how to build and sustain ministries that promote justice. At the same time, he acknowledges the realities of power, money, and self–interest in community organizing. The book includes a study guide for small groups and an index of organizations involved in congregation–based community organizing. Doing Justice will help congregations that want to explore community organizing ministries or develop their current ministries in this area.

	Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at What You Do Gary Klein, Author. New York: Doubleday, 2002. What do you do with "gut feelings" that you know are right? How do you develop a sense that you are doing the best thing for the organization or congregation you lead? What kind of decision–making patterns make sense in particular situations? Having researched high–stakes decision making for over 20 years, Gary Klein asserts that 90 percent of the critical decisions we make are based on intuition, or our cognitive ability to recognize patterns and interpret cues. Like other organizations, faith communities can learn to trust their intuition—a way of reasoning not based on indiscriminate hunches, but on shared, communal experience.

	Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation Parker J. Palmer, Author. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999. This exploration of vocation encourages readers to seek enlightenment through self–understanding rather than aptitude testing. Parker Palmer advocates finding our true vocations from within ourselves rather than from without. At the same time, he stresses the roles our communities can play in developing inner work. The author also offers practical guidance on responding to certain warning signs—such as burnout and depression—that indicate we are not pursuing our vocations. Let Your Life Speak is an ideal resource for groups supporting prospective clergy, groups discerning their lay ministries, and groups or individuals seeking an authentic fulfillment of their calling.

	Old Turtle Douglas Wood, Author. Cheng-Khee Chee, Illustrator. Duluth, MN: Pfeifer-Hamilton Publishers, 1992. Old Turtle and the Broken Truth Douglas Wood, Author. John J. Muth, Illustrator. New York: Scholastic Press, 1993. Douglas Wood's fables of peace, love, acceptance, and the nature of truth offer insights and inspiration that are sure to capture the imagination of children of all ages. In Old Turtle, as Wood explores the attempts of all creation to relate to God, he offers a rich array of images for—and attributes of—God. In Old Turtle and the Broken Truth, Wood turns his focus to the brokenness of human divisions, the possibility of change, and the promise of embracing diversity. Stunning watercolor illustrations accompany Wood's richly beautiful prose in each volume.

	A Serious Way of Wondering: The Ethics of Jesus Imagined Reynolds Price, Author. New York: Scribner, 2003. A Serious Way of Wondering contains an abundance of imaginative thinking about the life and message of Jesus. Novelist and essayist Reynolds Price describes an ethical approach to life shaped by the Gospels’ depiction of Jesus. Those familiar with Price know that he pictures a Jesus beyond the Gospels—a figure imagined by readers’ responses to the written testimonies. Here Price extends the witness of Jesus past the four Gospels by picturing Jesus’ response to homosexuality, suicide, and the dilemmas women face in a male dominated culture. While provocative, the book also reflects Price's abiding respect and love for Jesus.

	A Simpler Way Margaret J. Wheatley, Myron Kellner-Rogers, Authors. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996. The "simpler way" advocated here approaches organizational change as something that evolves from within rather than something that is imposed externally. Using a poetic, evocative style of writing, the authors seek to shape fundamental attitudes rather than prescribe a specific approach to human organizations. Drawing on analogies with the adaptive capacities of nature, they stress the inherent tendency of life to "move towards wholeness." The authors suggest that people can respect the natural development of their organizations by allowing an atmosphere of freedom, discovery, change, openness, and what they call "messiness." This book would be valuable for any group that is open to organizational change.

	The Systems Thinking Playbook: Exercises to Stretch and Build Learning and Systems Thinking Capabilities Linda Booth Sweeney, Author. Durham, NH: The Institute for Policy and Social Science Research, 1995. The Systems Thinking Playbook contains over 30 group and individual exercises to illustrate the five disciplines outlined by Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline: Mental Models, Team Learning, Systems Thinking, Shared Vision, and Personal Mastery. The activities illustrate one or more of the five disciplines by translating otherwise complex theories into understandable, applicable learning modules. Each exercise contains easy-to-follow directions for the trainer—specifying the purpose, outcomes, context, resources, time, space, equipment, set-up, and ideal number of participants. In addition to presenting the exercises, the book highlights facilitation techniques. Any facilitator will benefit from the insights, tips, and ideas colorfully illustrated in this resource.

	A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997 Wendell Berry, Author. Washington, DC: Counterpoint Press, 1998. For more than two decades, Wendell Berry has filled his Sunday mornings with a type of meditation—observing the world and writing poems. This volume gathers many of those poems. Berry explains that his sabbath poems were "written in silence, in solitude, mainly out of doors" and encourages that they be read as they were written: "slowly, and with more patience than effort." Berry’s quiet and meditative poetry offers an invitation to slow down and pay attention to the beauty of the commonplace and the complexity of human life.

	Transforming Congregational Culture Anthony B. Robinson, Author. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003. Drawing on 25 years of experience as a Congregational pastor, Tony Robinson discusses the challenges faced by modern Protestant denominations attempting to minister to a postmodern world—a religiously pluralistic world that distrusts established civic authority but longs for spiritual transformation and renewal. He offers both theological insights and practical suggestions for responding to these challenges in such areas as worship, faith formation, hospitality, and community ministry. Asserting that "no single factor is more important to congregational vitality than leadership," Robinson outlines the skills and strategies required of congregational leaders who seek to foster transformation in their own faith communities.

	Walking a Literary Labyrinth: A Spirituality of Reading Nancy M. Malone, Author. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003. The labyrinth is a meditative path that "symbolizes our journey through life," writes Nancy Malone, an Ursuline nun with a Harvard Divinity School degree and an omnivorous reading habit. She reads not solely for enlightenment but for the sheer labyrinthine pleasure of it, and confesses she is "more likely to miss my night prayers on occasion than my reading." This delightful rumination draws on an astonishingly wide range of books—from St. Augustine to Sue Grafton. Quoting Harold Brodkey, Malone reminds us that "reading is an intimate act." If you have a passion for books and reading, you'll enjoy this intimacy with this wise, insightful writer.

	Interested in checking out the books from earlier seasonal recommended reading lists? Click on the any of the captions below to see the corresponding list! Fall 2003 Reading Recommendations Summer 2003 Reading Recommendations Spring 2003 Reading Recommendations Winter 2002 Reading Recommendations