Of the several negative communication patterns congregations practice, three habits are particularly problematic: triangulation, pass-through communication, and anonymous feedback. While these three may be strategies for getting needs met, they all block rather than help healthy communication. Even if well…
Read MoreTechnologies for Learning: Find Out What’s In It for You!
At Alban we take seriously our educational mission to provide an independent center of learning that creates spaces where people from different denominations and faith traditions can work toward their goals and learn from one another in an atmosphere of…
Read MoreTechnologies for Learning: Find Out What's In It for You!
At Alban we take seriously our educational mission to provide an independent center of learning that creates spaces where people from different denominations and faith traditions can work toward their goals and learn from one another in an atmosphere of…
Read MoreCalled to Purpose and Meaning
Many of us come to a point where we decide to examine seriously our strengths, personality, values, and passions; a point where we carefully examine our uniqueness and how God has wired us. We begin to contemplate how God is…
Read MoreEucharist as a Way of Life
The four basic gestures—taking, blessing, breaking, and giving—at the center of the eucharistic prayer provide a shape or outline for Christian life. As we consider the pattern of prayer at Table, these gestures provide a basis for Christian action at…
Read MorePastoral Sabbath Keeping
The word holy means set aside for a special purpose or withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God. To set aside a day for a special purpose suggests a break in weekly patterns. To withdraw from common employment means…
Read MoreAsk Alban: Searching without Dividing
Q: Our minister has announced his retirement. During his long ministry, we have avoided most of the conflict about homosexuality raging in our national church. How can we look for a minister without dividing our congregation? A: Right now, several…
Read MoreCENTERview: Analog Thinking in a Digital World
For the past six years, the Center for the Digital Future, housed at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications, has conducted a longitudinal study on the impact of computers, the Internet, and related technologies on families and…
Read MoreThe Leading Edge: Crunching the Numbers
Just as this issue of Congregations went to press, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released the first set of findings from its massive U.S. Religious Landscape Survey 2008 (http://religions.pewforum.org/reports). As I studied the report and tracked its…
Read MoreBeing Made New: Experiencing the Gifts of Conscious Pastoral Transition
In my mid-fifties, with almost 20 years in parish ministry behind me, I began to think forward to the possibilities inherent in retirement. I was eight years into my ministry as rector of a vigorous and challenging program-sized church when…
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