|
|
Winter 2005: 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 to access the publisher's or retailer's Web site.)
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Aluminum Christmas Tree: A Novel
Thomas J. Davis, Author. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 2005.
Mildred Jackson, now a widow who must leave her home behind, discovers in her attic a box on which is written the note: "Do not open! Do not throw away! Always remember! Don't ever forget! All that glitters ain't gold; Important things can't be bought and sold." The box contains an aluminum Christmas tree, purchased from a Sears Roebuck catalog by her husband Jimmy in 1958. For Jimmy, the tree was a treasured symbol of the prosperity he looked forward to after his promotion. But the novel reveals the contradictions and reversals in these aspirations, leading readers to a deeper understanding of Jimmy's message scribbled on the box.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Be Not Afraid!: Building Your Church on Faith and Knowledge
Fredric M. Roberts, Author. Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2005.
Drawing on a study of eight mainline Protestant congregations, Fredric Roberts addresses the fears of failure that commonly beset church leaders. He also shows that the values of "success" in our culture often ring false in mainline churches. Misplaced anxieties based on wrong diagnoses of church problems can cause leaders to overlook real challenges. Roberts recommends that congregations work to discover their uniqueness and build upon the strengths that already exist. At their core, congregations have a radically different "bottom line" than other institutions and need to organize around their unique purpose. Be Not Afraid! will help churches rediscover their calling to be nurturing faith communities, committed to discipleship.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Blessed are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings about Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness
Wendell Berry, Editor. Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker and Hoard, 2005.
Responding to those who proclaim themselves Christians in one breath and advocates of state-sponsored violence in the next, essayist and poet Wendell Berry offers this collection of Jesus' sayings from the four Gospels. Included also are two essays from Berry, who asserts that "one cannot be aware both of the history of Christian war and of the contents of the Gospels without feeling that something is amiss." He challenges us to look at Jesus' words afresh, and to ask ourselves if we would have followed a man who told us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us. Yet this instruction may be our last and best hope.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
Parker J. Palmer, Author. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
The Courage to Teach affirms that a good teacher guides students toward "more truthful ways of seeing and being in the world." But such guidance is only possible when a strong sense of personal identity infuses a teacher's work and when teachers act with integrity—choosing life-giving ways of relating to the complex connections among their subjects, their students, and themselves. Parker Palmer points to cultural forces (such as "objectivism" and "either/or" thinking) that work against good teaching. Congregational leaders will find striking parallels between the forces that thwart good teaching and the forces that thwart transformation in their faith communities. They will also find constructive ways to respond.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Embracing the World: Praying for Justice and Peace
Jane Vennard, Author. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
Embracing the World helps us both to deepen our relationships with God through prayer and to understand the role of prayer in healing our local and global communities. Jane Vennard shows how we can use spiritual gifts in serving God and in promoting peace and justice. She also explores the twofold nature of prayer: as contemplation and as action. Prayer, for Vennard, leads to service, which leads to reflection, which leads back to God and to prayer. Drawing on biblical stories and theological reflections to explain various forms of outward-reaching prayer, Vennard has created a valuable handbook for groups committed to prayer ministry, public ministry, or both.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations
Suzanne G. Farnham, Stephanie A. Hull, R. Taylor McLean, Authors. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1999.
Is prayer usually an "item" on your committee meeting agendas? Is the rest of the meeting then devoted to placing "tasks" in the foreground and God in the background? Grounded in God guides readers in making prayer the foundation of a meeting and the force that moves a meeting forward. When prayer involves listening for the voice of God—while quieting other voices that compete for our attention—the Holy Spirit has the chance to serve as an active presence in group deliberations. Exploring the principles and practices of group discernment, this slender volume provides leaders with tools for transforming the spirit of all group meetings.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Help: The Original Human Dilemma
Garret Keizer, Author. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
Drawing on the parable of the Good Samaritan—as well as other examples from religion, history, and literature—former Episcopal priest Garret Keizer explores the philosophical and anthropological underpinnings of altruism. Keizer notes that our desires to help one another can be complex, and at times neither as selfless nor as effective as one might hope. In today's world—where the public safety net for those without money, food, or health insurance is becoming less secure—altruism is a significant moral mandate. Yet it may be more difficult to achieve. This book will help us understand how altruism develops, and perhaps change our own behaviors in the process.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
In God's Hands
Lawrence Kushner, Gary D. Schmidt, Authors; Matthew J. Baek, Illustrator. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2005.
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and children’s author Gary Schmidt retell a traditional folktale: Wealthy Jacob thinks that God is telling him, through a Torah verse, to bake twelve loaves of challah. Jacob places the loaves in the Holy Ark. David, a poor caretaker, finds the challah, and believes it is God’s answer to his prayer for food for his family. When Jacob returns to the Holy Ark, he discovers that the challah is gone. Both men think a miracle has taken place. This pattern of giving and receiving continues until the two men learn the truth. The rabbi helps them understand that God’s miracles often come through people such as themselves.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace
John Paul Lederach, Author. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005.
How can we transform the cycles of violence in our communities? John Paul Lederach examines this and other questions to help us better understand the moral imagination as a tool for building peace. He defines the moral imagination as "the capacity to imagine something rooted in the challenges of the real world yet capable of giving birth to that which does not yet exist." This capacity involves four key elements: centrality of relationships, practice of paradoxical curiosity, providing space for creative acts, and the willingness to risk. Within these elements are the tools to understand the challenges of change and to explore the creative processes that transform conflict.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
Jimmy Carter, Author. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
In Our Endangered Values, Jimmy Carter points to the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor, to our disregard for human rights, to our tolerance for cruelty towards prisoners, to a ravaged environment, and to risky foreign policies as true indications of how far we have fallen morally. He points out that, as President of the United States, he prayed often—not for God to bless the actions he was about to take, but because any action he took would have unforeseen consequences. Carter shows us that religion in the public arena should be tied to humility and that public leaders must search their souls and consciences.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Preaching to Every Pew: Cross-Cultural Strategies
James R. Nieman, Thomas G. Rogers, Authors. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001.
Homiletics professors James Nieman and Thomas Rogers weave the voices of preachers with insights from the social sciences to present a practical theology for preaching in multicultural contexts. Having interviewed pastors who serve in multicultural congregations, the authors discuss what it means for preachers to be neighbors to the rest of the community. They present a case for exploring culture through four frames: ethnicity, class, displacement, and beliefs. Using illustrative narratives, Nieman and Rogers organize their learnings into practical preaching strategies. Most of what they share can enable preachers in every pulpit to touch the hearts of all God’s people.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Soul Shaper: Exploring Spirituality and Contemplative Practices in Youth Ministry
Tony Jones, Author. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.
Postmodern spirituality has recently sparked renewed interest in ancient forms of spirituality and their expression. This interest can be seen in many forms of worship now being incorporated with postmoderns, as well as in the study and practice of ancient spiritual disciplines. In the context of youth ministry, Soul Shaper introduces a variety of disciplines and practices. Practices examined include centering prayer, the Ignatian Examen, silence and solitude, the labyrinth, fasting, Sabbath-keeping, and others. Each chapter focuses on a particular discipline—discussing its history, directions for practice, and thoughts on how it can be incorporated into ministry with youth. Additional resources are suggested.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, Authors. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005.
The World Cafe presents a unique process for fostering communication, collaboration, community, and commitment—even in large forums and especially when difficult issues are being discussed. Core principles of a World Cafe process include setting the context, creating hospitable space, exploring questions that matter, encouraging participation, connecting diverse perspectives, listening together for deeper patterns, and sharing collective insights in the larger group. Each chapter presents stories of places where the World Cafe process has been successfully used, as well as perspectives and observations on a principle of the process. Questions for further reflection are listed throughout. An annotated set of Web-based resources concludes the book.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion, Author. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 2004.
Joan Didion's memoir of the year following the sudden death of husband John Gregory Dunne—shortly after the hospitalization and near-death of their daughter—details her response to the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness...about marriage and children and memory…about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself." The author and her husband had been close partners for forty years, and he was the one she would have turned to for comfort and conversation in the wake of these tragedies. Readers struggling with grief—particularly in the face of sudden loss—will appreciate Didion's courage and candor.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
