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…
Read MoreUnconventional Wisdom: The Power to Make Promises
by Dan Hotchkiss 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…
Read MoreCenterView: A Method of Helping Congregations
by Tim Shapiro In October 2012, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reported that, based on new data, 19.5% of Americans register no religious affiliation. This is an almost five percent increase over the last five years. Congregations are…
Read MoreThe Leading Edge: Parking Battles, FEMA, and Congregations
by James P. Wind On the weekend before the November elections, two articles appeared side by side on the “On Faith” page (or what old-timers called the Religion page) of The Washington Post. One dealt with new parking regulations in the nation’s…
Read MoreLeaders are Lovers
by Herbert Anderson This article re-examines the attention to boundaries in ministry that has emerged in recent decades partly as a necessary response to the violation of trust in the pastoral bond and partly because differentiated leadership has been promoted as…
Read MorePaging God: Working with Chaplains in Healthcare
by Wendy Cadge Meg, an interfaith chaplain, agreed to let me shadow her to learn about her work in a large academic medical center. By 9:00 a.m. on a Friday morning, we were sitting in a conference room filled with dirty…
Read MoreRethinking Interim Ministry
by Anthony B. Robinson Sometimes heated discussion is underway in various quarters—judicatories, congregations and among clergy—about interim ministry, a model that came into wide use three decades ago. Congregations has recently published two helpful pieces which have advanced the conversation. What’s prompting the…
Read More