For congregations—particularly congregations of the mainline Protestant tradition—the way forward has everything to do with changing the conversation. Is a third way possible—a way beyond the polarized alternatives of either liberal or conservative, left or right, red or blue, traditional…
Read MoreToward Transformative Continuing Education
How many times have you come home from continuing education events, laid your folders and notes on your desk, become consumed in the demands of everyday ministry, and—six months later—found those notes and thought, “Oh, I remember that event. What…
Read MoreReading Recommendations from the Congregational Resource Guide
Blanchard, Ken. Leading at a Higher Level (Revised and Expanded Edition) (Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press, 2010). “Leading at a higher level,” claims Ken Blanchard, is “the process of achieving worthwhile results while acting with respect, care, and fairness for the…
Read MoreNew & Noteworthy, Congregations, Volume 1 2011
Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be: Four Practices for Improving Ministry AL411 $17.00 Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be unapologetically urges clergy readers to develop practices that will help them become more excellent ministers. A long-time field educator, now…
Read MoreReviews, Congregations, Volume 1 2011
The Heartbeat of God: Finding the Sacred in the Middle of Everything By Katharine Jefferts Schori Recently, a congregation’s leadership team expressed frustration at their inability to connect contemplation and action in the mission of their church. On one hand,…
Read MoreFrom the Editor
by Richard Bass In the days before his death Archbishop Oscar Romero reminded us that, “The Church is all of us.” In his context it was a call for the Church to recognize it is not an enclave of a privileged…
Read MoreAsk Alban: The Right Board Size
by Susan Beaumont Q: I’ve always heard that the governing board of a congregation should grow smaller as the church becomes larger. Why is that? Is there an ideal size? A: Effective boards in every size congregation must tend to three types…
Read MoreCENTERview: Selecting a Leader for Your Congregation’s Planning Team
by Nancy L. DeMott The church council president at First Church asked the pastor during a meeting, “When is the last time we did strategic planning?” “It has been awhile,” the pastor mused. There ensued a conversation about the value of…
Read MoreThe Leading Edge: From Experiments to Movements
by James P. Wind As many readers of Congregations will recall, in 2008, the Alban Institute published a Special Report called Becoming a Pastor: Reflections on the Transition into Ministry. It was the first public report on a decade long initiative, funded…
Read MoreLeading Through Personal Tragedy
by Jean Alexander What should we do as clergy when difficult or tragic things happen to us? This is a question I’ve grappled with through almost 40 years of ministry as a local church pastor and for seven of those years…
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