Although the question the search committee asked was, “What is your church growth plan?” what they were after was something much deeper. Something was amiss, and they knew it. You didn’t need to tell them that their community was different;…
Read MoreCongregations Magazine, 2013 Issue 2
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 MoreBook Reviews
The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster Jonathon M. Katz Palgrave MacMillan, 2013 When disaster strikes, individuals and congregations can be generous with their time and money as they…
Read MoreNew and Noteworthy
Discovering the Other: Asset-Based Approaches for Building Community Together Cameron Harder AL429 | $18.00 Discovering the Other is an introduction to two tools that community builders have found helpful: appreciative inquiry and asset mapping. These tools help congregations see that all of life…
Read MoreAsk Alban by Susan Beaumont
Q: Our congregation recently called an energetic and talented young clergy leader. The congregation loves and respects her leadership. However, there are some problems brewing around work style. She continually disregards her scheduled office hours and doesn’t respond to telephone or…
Read MoreUnconventional Wisdom: Two Ways to Vote
by Dan Hotchkiss We vote a lot in congregations. Sometimes we do it with our hands—and sometimes with our feet. By “voting with our hands,” I am referring to the politics of congregational decision-making: conversation, group discernment, and consensus-seeking, in which…
Read MoreCenterView: Congregations as Learning Communities
by Tim Shapiro Almost every congregation in the United States is dealing with a problem just beyond its capacity. Let’s make this less abstract. What challenge is your congregation facing? I’m not asking about just any challenge, but a challenge that…
Read MoreThe Leading Edge: The Conversations We Fail to Have
by James P. Wind Sometimes the most important conversations are the ones we fail to have. Take one from the complex world of modern medicine reported in the May 2013 issue of The Atlantic. The magazine’s contributing editor, Jonathan Rauch, recounts…
Read MoreForced Clergy Transitions
by Daniel Schultz Nobody wants to talk about the details. They’re too painful, too lurid, too subject to dispute and quibbling. Half the time the details wouldn’t make sense if you weren’t there, and the other half you wouldn’t believe. Yet…
Read MoreField and Forest
by Mary C. Lindberg Memphis, 412 miles. The mileage sign crushed my spirit, as disheartening as the humid air which would hit me when I opened the door of my air-conditioned car. I began my road trip from central Illinois to…
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