Since the Spring of 2000, the Alban Institute has been creating new resources for churches struggling with the transition between pastoral and program size. We are clearer than ever that life in the zone between 150 and 250 (average Sunday…
Read MoreWalking toward Easter
Over the course of its 2,500 mile trek, CrossWalk America has met with over 11,000 Christians, been hosted by nearly 150 churches, and stayed in over 200 homes. We have listened to literally thousands of faith stories. What we’ve discovered…
Read MoreA Fierce Presence
In the first week of my first call, I received a letter from a beloved seminary professor and friend. He wrote, “You will be good news to the people in those two churches.” It was the first time that I…
Read MoreEnduring All Things, Even Each Other
Not long ago I was invited to preach at a denominational conference whose purpose was to encourage “civil discourse” in the church. The brochure for the event described its aims: While our times call for passion and conviction, they also…
Read MoreFaith and Health
Health-care practitioners have just “discovered” the impact of spirituality on health. Healers have always known the power of belief and the mystery of the human body. As medicine has become a field of scientific study and health care has become…
Read MoreA Ministry of All
In working with groups around the issue of lay ministry—or what I’ve come to call the “ministry of all”—I’ve developed a guided meditation based on Paul’s struggles to be accepted as a minister. The meditation invites participants to imagine the…
Read MoreThe Truth Shall Make You…Odd: Seizing the Authentic Moment in Congregations
by Lawrence Peers In my work as a consultant I have discovered that members of a congregation often are afraid to express their true thoughts and feelings at times and in places where truth is most needed. This lack of truth-telling…
Read MoreChanging Emotional Systems
by Peter L. Steinke I doubt Sir Isaac Newton ever expected his theories to be used to explain human behavior, but in my experience working with more than a hundred conflicted congregations, two Newtonian principles do indeed seem to apply. When…
Read MoreChoosing Life over Death: The Story of a Congregation’s Rebirth
I arrived in Boston in 1995 with a heart and a history for urban ministry. I soon discovered that there were many fewer Presbyterian congregations in New England than in my old New Jersey stomping grounds where I served congregations…
Read MoreBenedictine Spirituality and Congregational Life: Living Out St. Benedict’s Rule in the Parish
My acquaintance with St. Benedict began in seminary courses in which the contemplative monk was introduced in the context of Scripture. But Benedict seemed to keep popping up in my life. He showed up in pastoral theology courses, in contemplative…
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