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Winter 2008: 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 website 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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Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life
Kathleen Norris, Author. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2008.
Kathleen Norris examines the dimensions of an ancient Greek term: acedia, or "absence of care." She also explores her own encounters with acedia—as a teenager, wife, spiritual seeker, and monastic. Noting that many confuse acedia with depression, Norris points out that while the latter is a psychological condition requiring medical intervention, the former is a spiritual condition, a failure of the will. In our day this condition is often evidenced by "restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair." Its antidote, believes Norris, lies in such practices as prayer, scripture reading, and accountability—a willingness to honor our commitments to ourselves, one another, and God.
Amazon
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The Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change
Ann Salerno, Lillie Brock, Authors. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008 .
Consultants Ann Salerno and Lillie Brock shed much-needed light on the question of why change is often so difficult. This book presents the cycle through which people move as they confront, resist, understand, and adapt to change. Six stages of response to change are explained, with a chapter devoted to each stage: loss (letting go of the past); doubt (feeling skeptical about the future); discomfort (facing the difficulties that change will entail); discovery (finding new choices and anticipating positive outcomes); understanding (thinking pragmatically and confidently); and integration (regaining flexibility and appreciating the rewards of change). The authors' insights apply to any community (including a congregation) that is experiencing change.
Amazon
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Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for Congregations
Anthony B. Robinson, Author. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2008.
Anthony Robinson proposes ways to promote congregational renewal by directing conversations away from typical dead-end polarities and toward issues of a broader and deeper perspective. He asserts that debates about worship style or ways to increase membership often (and unfortunately) bypass more fundamental questions about congregational identity and purpose in the midst of a rapidly changing culture. Robinson offers ten subjects for conversation, with a chapter and reflection questions devoted to each subject. Topics range from purpose and vision to governance, leadership, and "church and the public square." Targeted at American mainline Protestant churches, this practical book needs to be read by congregations committed to renewal.
Amazon
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Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey
Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, Author. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2008.
Rabbi Harold Schulweis, founder of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, introduces the concept of conscience, its significance in scripture, and its current relevance. Understanding conscience as the "hidden inner compass that guides our lives and must be searched for and recovered repeatedly," Schulweis pits conscience against blind obedience to authority. In so doing, he asks if religion bears some responsibility for the rise of mindless conformity and challenges religious leaders to instill in their followers "the sanctity of conscience that may balance the culture of obedience with the culture of moral disobedience." A broad range of biblical writers, philosophers, and social observers are featured in this highly readable text.
Amazon
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Gifts of an Uncommon Life: The Practice of Contemplative Activism
Howard E. Friend, Author. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2008.
While contemplative and activist are often seen as disparate terms, Howard Friend shows how they are truly and paradoxically complementary. As Friend notes, the contemplative activist "blends utter determination with unrelenting effort, tapping deeply every ounce of stamina and the fullness of human effort, while, in a dance of delicate balance, is fully dependent on grace, surrender, letting go, and yielding to reliance on God." The essays and stories in this book reveal the gifts of individuals and churches that develop contemplative activism: integrity, presence, paradox, solitude, patience, empowering, letting go, hope, outrage, and partnership. These gifts, taken together, can support a new and life-affirming consciousness in congregations.
Amazon
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The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems
Van Jones, Author. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2008.
Van Jones, founder of Green for All, offers an approach to meeting our current environmental crisis that also meets the crises of economic collapse and social inequality. Documenting the futility of our dependence on fossil fuels, Jones advocates developing and implementing "clean-energy" technologies that draw on such practically infinite resources as the sun and wind. These technologies can create "green-collar" jobs (installing solar panels, building wind farms, maintaining hybrid vehicles) that provide meaningful employment. Such jobs can contribute to what Jones calls a "green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty." An annotated resource list and set of action items round out this practical book.
Amazon
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A Mercy: A Novel
Toni Morrison, Author. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
Set in 1690, this novel from Toni Morrison tells the story of Florens, a girl offered up in slavery by her mother as a payment from their owner. Florens's new master, Jacob Vaark, considers slavery a "wretched business" but nevertheless profits from it. Complications develop as Jacob's illness threatens Florens, fellow servants Lina and Sorrow, and Jacob's wife Rebekka—all of whom wonder how they will survive without him in a harsh world. Morrison's powerful writing drives home her conclusion: "to be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing."
Amazon
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Mission Trips That Matter: Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World
Don C. Richter, Author. Nashville, TN: Upper Room Books, 2008.
Mission Trips That Matter avoids listing the usual "how-tos" of planning mission trips. Instead, it dwells on the significant "why-tos," the meanings, of mission trip experiences. Author and pastor Don Richter believes that mission trips "play a significant role in the Christian formation of young people and adults. Such immersion experiences, typically outside the group's comfort zone, challenge participants to forge Christian community in ministry with others." Beginning with chapters that address why mission trips do matter, the book proceeds to a series of meditations on embodied faith and advice on developing a congregational "mission" culture. Also featured are "Resources for the Road" and "Prayers for the Journey."
Amazon
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One Step at a Time: A Pilgrim's Guide to Spirit-Led Living
Timothy Geoffrion, Author. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2008.
Seeking a fuller connection with God, Timothy Geoffrion joined others in 2006 for a walk to the sacred pilgrimage site in Spain, Santiago de Compostela. While One Step at a Time narrates his experience of this walk, it also recognizes that such an experience may not be an option for many Christians. The book is therefore aimed more broadly at "those who are making shifts in your life but probably can't get away to go on pilgrimage and for you who are devoted to living your whole life in pursuit of a deeper relationship with God." Suggestions for spiritual practice and questions for further reflection are included in each chapter.
Amazon
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The Soul Tells A Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life
Vinita Hampton Wright, Author. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005.
The Soul Tells a Story delivers on its two purposes: (1) to help readers identify— and fully participate with—the creative process; (2) to help readers connect their spiritual lives with their creative work. Author Vinita Hampton Wright notes, "The creative process is a spiritual one, and when we receive it as such, it deepens our gifts and edifies us in general. To write true stories, I must encounter truth, and as Jesus said, the truth makes us free." This book—meant to be used as well as read—concludes with advice for those who wish to explore their creativity in a group context.
Amazon
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Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Seth Godin, Author. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2008.
"A tribe," says business leader and author Seth Godin, "is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea." While yesterday's tribes were limited by geography, today's tribes face no such limits, thanks to Internet technology and instant communication. But Godin emphasizes that technology alone won't guarantee the leadership a tribe needs. What does guarantee such leadership is the faith, courage, and passion of those who truly seek to make a difference. This slender volume offers inspiration and ideas on how to understand leadership, how to lead others, and how to help others grow as leaders themselves.
Amazon
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Unaccustomed Earth: Short Stories
Jhumpa Lahiri, Author. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
Jhumpa Lahiri offers eight short stories that address universal human dilemmas as well as particular issues of personality and culture. The title story examines what happens when Ruma's Bengali father comes to visit her and her young son; "Only Goodness" reveals Sudha's anguish in the face of her brother Rahul's alcoholism; "A Choice of Accommodations" uses a weekend wedding party to explore the dark side of intimate relationships; and "Hema and Kaushik" narrates the lives of young people who share a winter house in Massachusetts. Each story expresses what one reviewer calls Lahiri's "exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind."
Amazon
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