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Winter 2007: Reading Recommendations
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"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 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 the best of the season and peace in the new year.
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Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening (Book)
Cynthia Bourgeault, Author. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.
Recent attention has been given to the method and practice of centering prayer. Here is a book that addresses not only the method of this prayer form, but also its grounding in the Christian contemplative tradition and its significance for our lives. Cynthia Bourgeault holds that—while other forms of meditation emphasize concentration or awareness—centering prayer emphasizes a willingness to surrender to God's presence and action within. What is most important is one's intention to remain open and available to God, and to release (again and again) those "mental murmurings" that block our openness. Also featured are chapters on "welcoming prayer" and on connecting prayer to the Christian life.
Amazon
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Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior (Book)
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Authors. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
When bad behavior and lack of accountability happen in the workplace, how do you respond? All too often, many people try to avoid difficult—but necessary—conversations. As a result, relationships deteriorate further. This book teaches the skills to conduct difficult conversations in a productive way. In addition to addressing behavioral problems, such conversations can lead to stronger and more productive relationships. Once new relationships are fostered, future problems are avoided or more easily corrected. Examples from work, home, and family life are included. The advice given is drawn from over 10,000 research hours and has been tested by more than 300,000 people.
Amazon
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The Emerging Christian Way (Book)
Michael Schwartzentruber, Editor. Kelowna, BC: Northstone Publishing, 2006.
This collection of thirteen essays explores Christianity as a transformational faith. Two views of Christianity are identified: (1) the old view, which focuses on traditional belief and practice; and (2) the "emerging Christian paradigm," which emphasizes the life of Jesus as an example of living in faithful relationship with God to transform churches, communities, and society. Key aspects of this emerging paradigm are discussed—including creeds and beliefs, social justice, stewardship of the environment, embracing the postmodern and pluralistic world, and serving as a priest. Traditional practices of faith—worship, Christian education, pastoral care, spiritual discernment, and inclusion—are also considered.
Amazon
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Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite
D. Michael Lindsay, Author. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.
At the heart of this highly-acclaimed book are interviews with 360 Evangelicals who hold positions of power, including former Presidents, CEOs of major corporations, academics, entrepreneurs, and Hollywood moguls. According to Lindsay (himself an Evangelical) as late as the 1990s, Evangelicals were stereotyped as poor, uneducated, and on the fringes of society—essentially powerless. Now Evangelicals are an influential force in politics, government, academia, the arts, and business. Lindsay focuses on the new elite, describing their rise to power and the influence they have in those arenas. This engaging book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how Evangelical power is shaping America today.
Amazon
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Finding Jesus, Discovering Self: Passages to Healing And Wholeness (Book)
Caren Goldman, William Dols, Authors. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2006.
Caren Goldman (a Jewish author) and William Dols (an Episcopal priest) collaborate to present Jesus' life and teachings from a fresh perspective—a perspective that encourages us to raise questions rather than confirm pat answers, and that challenges us to examine our stories in light of Jesus' story. Gospel narratives are complemented with narratives from the authors' lives as well as with poetry, quotes, film scenes, and questions for reflection. Themes explored include "leaving home," "speaking one's truth," "weathering storms," "binding wounds," and "discovering God's kingdom." While it can be used for individual study, this book will be most fruitful when read and explored in community with others.
Amazon
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Fireweed Evangelism: Christian Hospitality in a Multi-Faith World (Book)
Elizabeth R. Geitz, Author. New York, NY: Church Publishing, 2006.
Applying the metaphor of the "fireweed" (a flower that blooms quickly in seemingly inhospitable places), Episcopal priest Elizabeth Geitz explores authentic, heart-based evangelism as an ingredient often missing in Christian hospitality. The first section of Fireweed Evangelism examines the constraints to practicing evangelism, such as the fear of causing offense to those of other faiths. In the second section, contextual factors (the "when," "where," and "who") surrounding evangelism are discussed. The final section explains why Christian evangelism is unique and offers basic advice on establishing a ministry of welcome. Group process materials for a congregational workshop on hospitality and evangelism are included.
Amazon
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Managing Differences: How to Build Better Relationships at Work and Home (Book)
Daniel Dana, Author. Prairie Mission, KS: Dana Mediation Institute, 2005.
Managing Differences applies mediation tools to the challenges of everyday life. It explores "self mediation" (when there is no third party), "managerial mediation" (when there is no mediator), and "real time mediation" (when it's called something other than "mediation"). Author Daniel Dana illuminates our propensities to either stop communicating or start fighting when conflict arises. He then provides a specific process for resolving conflicted relationships. Key steps in the process include finding a time to talk, planning the context, talking things out, and coming to a resolution. Appendices explore stories that illustrate how Dana's concepts apply in marriage, family life, and the workplace.
Amazon
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The One Thing You Need to Know: About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success (Book)
Marcus Buckingham, Author. New York, NY: Free Press, 2005.
Business consultant Marcus Buckingham discusses the factors that are important—indeed imperative—for great managing, great leading, and sustained individual success. He maintains that there is one "controlling insight" that is essential for great managing ("Discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it"), for great leading ("Discover what is universal and capitalize on it"), and for individual success ("Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it"). These insights were developed from years of studying management and leadership issues. Although the author advises for businesses, leaders of faith communities will find that Buckingham's wisdom can be translated into congregational contexts.
Amazon
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Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect (Book)
Joseph R. Myers, Author. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.
Challenging the notion that community can be manufactured through master plans and programs, Joseph Myers suggests that healthy communities arise organically—by fostering environments that allow community to emerge naturally. He offers nine tools for fostering such environments: understanding interpersonal patterns; encouraging decentralized participation; focusing on story; developing sustainable growth; rotating positions of power; emphasizing collaboration; enabling healthy alliances; using verb-focused language; and celebrating abundance. Myers cautions readers not to think of each tool as essential, nor to believe that all tools are necessary. Rather, these tools should themselves be used organically. He concludes that "when places encourage community to emerge spontaneously, they have motion, emotion, and a living spirit."
Amazon
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Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time (Book)
Dorothy C. Bass, Author. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
For busy people who see time as an adversary to be manipulated and controlled, this book provides a fresh vision of time as a gift from God, waiting to be unwrapped and savored with true presence and delight. Drawing wisdom from poets, theologians, and monastics—as well as from her own story—Dorothy Bass shows how the Christian practice of receiving the day invites us to live with boldness and creativity. This book sets forth a vision of ways we can resist the economic and institutional pressures that distort our perception of time and thus experience time differently—as a meeting place with God, creation, and other people.
Amazon
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Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships (Book)
Daniel Goleman, Author. New York, NY: Bantam Dell, 2006.
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, extends the ideas from his earlier work into this exploration of our need and ability to connect socially. According to Goleman, "Neuroscience has discovered that our brain's very design makes it sociable, inexorably drawn into an intimate brain-to-brain linkup whenever we engage with another person. That neural bridge lets us affect the brain—and so the body—of everyone we interact with, just as they do us." We are hard-wired, believes Goleman, for altruism and cooperation—but these qualities require social intelligence to be adequately nurtured and supported. Congregational leaders will be stimulated to consider creative ways of fostering such social intelligence in congregants.
Amazon
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The Word that Redescribes the World: The Bible and Discipleship (Book)
Walter Brueggemann, Author. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006.
Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann asserts that the "Word redescribes the world" because biblical texts enable "second thoughts" about the reality of our society, ourselves, and our God. The first section of this book argues for the authority of biblical re-description in a world whose leaders arrogate power and wealth to themselves. The second section cites biblical evidence that "God makes possible what the world takes to be impossible." The final section offers ways to understand and act upon this evidence. Says Brueggemann, "It is my intention to move as far as a biblical exegete might reasonably move toward practical theology and the daily, bodily act of obedience to God-given possibility."
Amazon
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