albanroundtable

Comments in response to “Welcome to Religious Polarization”

Richard Bass — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 06:01:45 +0000

Reginald Bibby is a leading expert on religion in Canada. Those who are interested in religious trends in the world today should know his work.

A while ago I became aware of A New Day, an analysis of the state of religious practice in Canada that he was making available as a free download. I offered to help spread the word through Alban Weekly. The result is this week’s article, “Welcome to Religious Polarization,” and the inclusion of the print version of A New Day in our product line. It can be difficult and expensive to ship books across the Canadian-U.S. border, so we are hoping to make the book more accessible to U.S. customers who may be interested.

I find the framework of “polarization” a helpful one in looking at current trends. I’m grateful that Bibby doesn’t focus on the usual objects of polarization, such as the liberal and conservative arguments. Polarization is not an either/or choice; it is a rich continuum between two plausible and existent alternatives. For more information on polarities, see “Mapping the Virtuous Circle” by Roy Oswald and Barry Johnson, from their book, Managing Polarities in Congregations.

Resources and Comments in Response to “The Challenge to Change”

Richard Bass — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:15:22 +0000

In “The Challenge to Change” (the September 24, 2012 Alban Weekly, adapted from Shame-Less Lives, Grace-Full Congregations), Karen McClintock explains the decline in church membership by first describing the experiences of a young woman she calls “Amanda.” After her first visit to a worship service, Amanda concludes that people seemed to “be suspicious of me.”

What caused the behavior that resulted in Amanda’s experiences? In McClintock’s view, it’s largely shame. Seeing Amanda evoked uncomfortable reminders of the church’s inadequacy on any number of issues—rote and boring worship, unresolved incidents of misconduct, the loss of young people from regular church participation. Shame, in the author’s words, “blocks our ability to grow and thrive.” And it’s only by openly reviewing past mistakes, accepting “our own congregational climates,” and acting on clear goals that something new and vital can emerge.

What resources can support you and your congregation in facing and resolving shame? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider The Faces of Forgiveness: Searching for Wholeness and Salvation and The Way of Forgiveness.

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “Healthy Practices for Practicing Balance”

Richard Bass — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 04:15:30 +0000

David Edman Gray’s article, “Healthy Practices for Practicing Balance” (the September 17, 2012 Alban Weekly, excerpted from Practicing Balance: How Congregations Can Support Harmony in Work and Life) emphasizes that congregational leaders can avoid burnout by establishing healthy practices, such as these: begin each day with a centering phrase; pray daily; care for your body; simplify your wants and needs; budget your money to live within your means; designate a quiet at-home space for rest; welcome the Holy Spirit into each part of your life; take vacations and go on retreats; spend time regularly with family and friends; and “don’t go to bed right after work.”

Gray notes that these practices have helped him and reminds readers of Annie Dillard’s statement that “How you spend your days is how you spend your life.”

What resources can help you to establish healthy practices? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, consider Addicted to Hurry: Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down and Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “Covenants of Leadership Behavior”

Richard Bass — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:15:01 +0000

Gil Rendle’s “Covenants of Leadership Behavior” (the September 10, 2012 Alban Weekly, adapted from Leading Change in the Congregation: Spiritual and Organizational Tools for Leaders) explains why developing a “covenant of leadership” is essential to helping leaders develop and maintain behaviors that keep the values of their faith. The need for such a covenant is particularly pressing when attempts at change are sabotaged by “inappropriate, unhelpful, or indirect behaviors.”

Rendle offers an example of a governing board’s leadership covenant. It includes promises to God, to the church family, and to each other. Noteworthy among the promises are these: to “respect and care for each other,” to “listen with an open, nonjudgmental mind,” and to “discuss, debate, and disagree openly.”

The author also emphasizes that a covenant is not meant to enforce behaviors, but rather to raise behaviors to a level of awareness from which helpful conversations can ensue.

What resources might support you and your congregation in developing a leadership covenant? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider Behavioral Covenants in Congregations: A Handbook for Honoring Differences.

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “Is E-mail the New Parking Lot?”

Richard Bass — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 04:15:21 +0000

Susan Nienaber’s article, “Is E-mail the New Parking Lot?” (the September 3, 2012 Alban Weekly), narrates a few situations in which reliance on e-mail can backfire—particularly when e-mail is used to handle contentious situations.

Her article also explains five characteristics of e-mail that make it a poor choice for conflict resolution: (1) it’s impossible to read or respond to other people’s non-verbal body language; (2) uncertainty surrounding the time when others receive a message contributes to confusion and anxiety; (3) e-mail messages are more one-sided than spoken ones, making miscommunication more likely; (4) e-mail is not confidential; and (5) important conversations require “richer and fuller” interaction than is available through e-mail.

What resources can help open up fuller communication, especially in the face of conflict? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider the following: Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Second Edition); The Four Conversations: Daily Communication That Gets Results; and Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Tenth Anniversary Edition).

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “Delighted and Disillusioned with Discernment”

Richard Bass — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 04:15:20 +0000

n “Delighted and Disillusioned with Discernment” (the August 27, 2012 Alban Weekly, adapted from the recently revised and updated edition of Discerning God’s Will Together: A Spiritual Practice for the Church), Charles Olsen comments on the growing interest in discernment as a spiritual practice. At the same time, he acknowledges the frustrations people have experienced when they’ve made a sincere effort to discern and follow God’s will, only to find that the outcome wasn’t as they had hoped. Olsen’s response to these frustrations is to stay with the process of discernment.

In particular, advises Olsen, stay with the discernment process in the face of multiple world views, diverse personality styles, and even divergent biblical and doctrinal sources. Patient and prayerful discernment “may seem at times messy” as the “Spirit will often turn us on our heads.” But practice is always worth it.

What resources might help you and your congregation to engage fruitfully in a spiritual discernment process? In addition to items listed at the end of the book, please consider Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations and Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups.

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward o hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “Discovering Work-Life Balance”

Richard Bass — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 04:15:44 +0000

David Edman Gray’s “Discovering Work-Life Balance” (the August 20, 2012 Alban Weekly, adapted from the upcoming book, Practicing Balance: How Congregations Can Support Harmony in Work and Life) cites statistics which bolster Gray’s assertion that families are increasingly suffering from an imbalance between work demands and spiritual needs. Chief among these needs are to develop a deeper connection with God and to enjoy life more.

Part of the imbalance stems from the increasing need to have both spouses working longer hours in a precarious economy, as well as from technological advances that enable our work to follow us wherever we go. As a Presbyterian pastor, Gray has found through pastoral experience that “work-life imbalance is at the heart of many of the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual problems people face.”

Gray advocates greater workplace flexibility, as well as enriched spiritual practices, to support fuller attention to family lives and to “keep people emotionally, spiritually, and physically healthy.”

What resources can support work-life balance? Please consider these items: Addicted to Hurry: Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down; Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives; and Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life.

And please check out the End of Summer Sale from Alban Publishing!

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “What’s the Problem?”

Richard Bass — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:15:53 +0000

“What’s the Problem?” (the August 13, 2012 Alban Weekly) discusses approaches to meeting the issues congregations face. Author Susan Beaumont holds that congregations can best address these issues not by prematurely favoring one answer over another, nor by confusing the symptoms with the problem itself, nor by formulating the problem so that it assumes an implied cause and implied solution. Rather, the best approaches include stating the problem objectively, keeping the statement limited in scope, and making certain that the problem statement answers the “so what?” test (that is, it addresses why a particular event would be viewed as a real problem).

Beaumont illustrates her points by offering the example of First Church, which wrestles with problems surrounding its traditional Sunday morning worship service. How First Church defines the problem, and how its leadership names the underlying causes, create the conditions that enable leaders to brainstorm solutions and decide upon action steps.

What resources can enable congregations to better define and approach their problems? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action through Narrative, The Competent Pastor: Skills and Self-Knowledge for Serving Well, and The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems.

What are your stories and ideas on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “Matching the Message with the Moment”

Richard Bass — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 04:15:16 +0000

In “Matching the Message with the Moment” (the August 6, 2012 Alban Weekly, based on Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today: Creating Vibrant Centers of Jewish Life) Rabbi Hayim Herring offers a scenario in which members of a congregation are invited to “use their unique gifts to make our community and our world more perfect.” This invitation entails four specific areas of focus around which the congregation will be reorganized: (1) healthy living; (2) rich interpersonal relationships; (3) relating to the local community; and (4) relating to the global community. Each area will align with “what is both meaningful for people and still authentic to the Jewish tradition.”

Practices and principles guiding how re-organizational work will be done include action-oriented work groups, collaboration, and transparency.

What resources might support congregational reorganization and revitalization? In addition to the items listed at the end of the book, please consider The Self-Renewing Congregation: Organizational Strategies for Revitalizing Congregational Life; The Turnaround Church: Inspiration and Tools for Life-Sustaining Change; and Healthy Church DNA: Transforming the Church for Effective Ministry.

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you suggest? We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources and Comments in Response to “Initiating the Conversation”

Richard Bass — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:15:35 +0000

In “Initiating the Conversation” (the July 30, 2012 Alban Weekly, excerpted and adapted from Encounters with the Holy: A Conversational Model for Worship Planning) Barbara Day Miller extends her discussion of the POWR model for worship planning by explaining the purpose and basis for planning. She also explores how this model, conversational in nature, “is based on the belief that the Spirit works in and through our speaking and attentive listening.” By participating fully in the POWR processes, and by permitting the Spirit to do its work, worship planners can realize significant benefits.

Chief among these benefits are the following: the enrichment of preaching; greater accountability for leading worship; more time for worship preparation; greater support and effectiveness; and a more fulfilling experience of participating as a co-worshiper.

What resources can support readers in worship planning? In addition to the items listed at the end of the article, please consider these items: Designing Worship Together: Models and Strategies for Worship Planning; The Roundtable Pulpit: Where Leadership and Preaching Meet; and The Season of Creation: A Preaching Commentary.

What are your stories and thoughts on this topic? And what resources do you recommend? We look forward to hearing from you.