During the 17th-century Reformation struggle for religious freedom in Great Britain, Puritan Richard Baxter wrote: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” Numberless struggling churches of every stripe resist encouragement toward unity or cooperation, struggle to hang…
Read MoreContinuing the Call
A colleague, Kim, and I fell into conversation over a cup of coffee. Kim had just retired after decades of hard work and profound growth. It had become clear in the past year that the time had come to retire….
Read MoreA Well-Lived Life
With great sadness, we at the Alban Institute mourn the unexpected death of our friend and colleague Anne Van Dusen. Anne died on Wednesday, June 25, 2008. Given her youth, her energy, and her joy for life, her death stunned…
Read MorePartisan Religion
When people are going over my resume, if I am present, I love to watch their reactions. I see a few of them pause as they read the letters A…C…L…U. They don’t even look up at me, afraid to reveal…
Read MoreOn Living in a Dying Church
My father’s death followed a long, slow decline. We could tell in January that he had changed—he was no longer interested in leaving the assisted living center that had become his home. By early spring, when my brother or I…
Read MoreKite Strings and Clotheslines: Learning to Value Difference
I learned an exercise in 1979 as a member of the Paulist Leadership and Renewal Project that I have used ever since to help people understand some of the dynamics of how individuals make choices in a group, how their…
Read MoreThe Leading Edge: A High-Stakes Church Supper
A new moment in American church history occurred on Sunday, June 10, 2008. That day the business section of the New York Times devoted a full half page to a story about a church supper. Such suppers are hardly breaking…
Read MoreWhen a Pastor Endorses a Candidate: A Personal Confession
Preachers aren’t supposed to engage in partisan politicking, but I must confess that I’ve endorsed a presidential candidate. While I haven’t done any politicking from the pulpit or in front of the church sign, or used any church letterhead either,…
Read MoreAsk Alban: Committee Charters: Helping Us Be Our Best
Q: Right now we just tell our committees what we would like them to do. We don’t put anything in writing. Should we develop a formal job description for our committees? A: Committee charters are definitely worth the time they…
Read MoreFaith and Politics: Finding a Way to Have a Fruitful Conversation
Considerable debate is happening in America today about the role of religion in politics. Of the two parties, the Republican Party seems the most comfortable with religious input, and many candidates go out of their way to court religious voters….
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