Alban members receive a subscription to Congregations, our award-winning magazine. Our mission is to provide clergy and lay leaders with practical, research-based information and ideas for effective ministry as they grapple with an ever-changing environment. Congregations is sent quarterly to…
Read MoreSeparation Anxiety
Pastors say good-bye to congregations. Sometimes our good-byes are timely and sweet; sometimes they are jarring and painful. But as we hear the click of the front door of God’s house and stand on the sidewalk, we face a unique…
Read MoreThe Power to Make Promises
Bondage is the opposite of liberty: what could be more obvious than that? When a prisoner is released, we say, “he’s free!” But bondage can be voluntary. In fact, the power to make binding promises is part of being legally…
Read MoreThe Small Church
Quite often I drive by the Peaks Presbyterian Church on my way to hike through the Blue Ridge Mountains. The little white clapboard church sits in a beautiful setting, looking up to Sharp Top and Flat Top Mountains of the…
Read MoreEmbracing Conflict
Q: Ever since our congregation was divided over a conflict some years ago, I have this sense that we now avoid conflict at all costs. I’m sure that this impacts our own vitality as a congregation, but I’m not sure how…
Read MoreDiscernment as Worshipful Work
I have found that the many little steps in Discerning God’s Will Together, the corporate discernment process that I know best, mirror the order of worship. So we are literally doing worshipful work: turning our work into worship and our…
Read MoreThe Top 10 Articles of 2012
Which Alban Weekly articles were the most read during 2012? The combination of a good title, compelling content, and, frequently, sharing on social media helped make these 10 articles the most popular among our readers. Thanks to all who shared…
Read MoreNew & Noteworthy
Hopes and Fears: Everyday Theology for New Parents and Other Tired, Anxious People Bromleigh McCleneghan and Lee Hull Moses AL431 | $17.00 McCleneghan and Moses have written a book about being not-perfect parents in a not-perfect world. The result is a…
Read MoreReading Recommendations, Congregations 2012 Issue 4
Albers, Robert H., William H. Meller, and Steven D. Thurber, Editors.Ministry with Persons with Mental Illness and Their Families (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012). Eighteen psychiatrists and pastoral theologians collaborate to provide recent information about mental illness, to interpret mental illness…
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