The synagogue remains a central institution in Jewish life as a place of study, worship, and assembly, but each day brings word of a new challenging development within each of the larger movements to which synagogues belong-Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.
Congregations cannot exist without finances, priorities, leadership, worship, and decision making, yet these five aspects breed the most conflict between church members and clergy.
Field education is an opportunity for students to develop ministry skills, practice ministerial reflection, discern their call, experience professional collegiality, and undergo personal transformation.
Discover inspiring, practical ways your board can make its meetings become opportunities for deepening faith, developing leadership, and church renewal.
The church year is often seen as a framework for church programs, but well-known Alban author Charles Olsen shows readers how it can be a prism through which congregations more deeply understand their own stories.
A large and growing number of congregations are setting up church-based nonprofit organizations in order to operate community development or educational programs.
Mead explores what church growth and evangelism really mean in a time when it is mathematically impossible for every congregation to achieve significant numerical growth.
Not only do new church starts in significant numbers bring systemic change and renewal to mainline denominations, but new church development brings similar change to individual aging congregations in their vicinity.
Congregations cannot exist without finances, priorities, leadership, worship, and decision making, yet these five aspects breed the most conflict between church members and clergy.
Projects That Matter introduces project leaders and teams to the five basic elements of project design and describes in detail a six-step process for designing and implementing a project evaluation and disseminating evaluation findings.
"e;Today we are awash in computerized Bible games, pastoral care software, and church management systems with members' personal information and giving records,"e; observe authors Spiegel, Armstrong, and Bill, but "e;too often we blindly accept and use technology without asking the big questions.
In this profound yet practical book, Mary Sellon and Daniel Smith make the case that the health of churches and synagogues depends on congregations learning how to live out love in "e;right relationships.
Roy Oswald, who ministers to pastors with great compassion, perceptiveness, and skill, now brings eight more years of field experience to an updated edition of "e;New Beginnings.
Clergy, worship or music committees, organists, and choir or music directors will find this a practical and invaluable guide to the role and power of music to express and form faith.
High quality publications and public relations will enhance a congregation's overall ministry by promoting strong stewardship, effective evangelism, and exciting parish education.
Planning can be challenging in the contemporary congregation, where people share a common faith and values but may have very different preferences and needs.
Today the Christian faith is moving through one of the greatest sea changes in its two thousand year history, and we can no longer assume we know exactly what kind of animal preaching is or ought to be.
In our rapidly evolving religious scene, congregations that are open to continuous learning and willing to respond to external and internal change, will be the ones that achieve new vitality and health.
For five years, Alban Institute senior consultant Susan Beaumont has been giving voice to the organizational and leadership demands of large congregations.
Beginning Ministry Together is about the transition period between the announcement that one pastor is leaving and the time when another pastor is well settled.
Even as so-called megachurches capture the attention of many church watchers, small congregations continue to dominate America's religious landscape in both rural and urban settings.
Field education is an opportunity for students to develop ministry skills, practice ministerial reflection, discern their call, experience professional collegiality, and undergo personal transformation.
Dean Smith won 879 games during his legendary career as the basketball coach at University of North Carolinamaking him among the winningest coaches ever.
Elfie Hinterkopf describes the Experiential Focusing Method, a model to help clients work through religious and spiritual problems, deepen existing spiritual experiences, and bring about new, life-giving connections to spirituality.
Elfie Hinterkopf describes the Experiential Focusing Method, a model to help clients work through religious and spiritual problems, deepen existing spiritual experiences, and bring about new, life-giving connections to spirituality.
Exploring both principles and best practice of the spiritual care of sick children and young people, this remarkable and inspiring book equips the reader to think critically and creatively about how to provide care in hospitals, hospices and other care contexts for ill and disabled children.
Exploring both principles and best practice of the spiritual care of sick children and young people, this remarkable and inspiring book equips the reader to think critically and creatively about how to provide care in hospitals, hospices and other care contexts for ill and disabled children.
Maps and Meaning is rooted in the authors’ experience as clergy and chaplains and is relevant to those looking for a fresh perspective on biblical narratives related to the role of the priest, patients, soldiers, and others who spend time “outside the camp.
Modern interpreters typically attach revolutionary significance to Luthers Christology on account of its unprecedented endorsement of Gods ontological vulnerability.
Between Apocalypse and Eschaton examines the systematic theology of Henri de Lubac, SJ, one of the most significant Catholic theologians of the twentieth century.
