| New Acquisitions
This month, we highlight new titles on our shelves from the Alban Institute:
The Spirit-Led Leader: Nine Leadership Practices and Soul Principles
In our postmodern, experience-oriented culture, people are longing for greater authenticity, integrity, and depth in their pastors and leaders. Board directors, church members, and staff alike are all eagerly seeking leaders who effectively integrate their spirituality and leadership. Pastors and executives, however, often struggle with knowing how to integrate their spiritual values and practices into their leadership and management roles.
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| Designed for pastors, executives, administrators, managers, coordinators, and all who see themselves as leaders and who want to fulfill their God-given purpose, The Spirit-Led Leader addresses the critical fusion of spiritual life and leadership for those who not only want to see “results,” but who also desire to care just as deeply about who they are and how they lead as they do about what they produce and accomplish. Geoffrion creates a new vision for spiritual leadership as partly an art, partly a result of careful planning, and always a working of the grace of God.
A Praying Congregation: The Art of Teaching Spiritual Practice by Jane E. Vennard
“I believe that God is calling all of us into deeper prayer and is longing for our congregations to become places of prayer,” writes Jane E. Vennard. Pastors and others who want to develop their skills as teachers of prayer and spiritual practices will find in this book not only wisdom for themselves but easily accessible lesson plans, so that they can share Vennard’s insights with others while infusing the activities with their own spirit and creative ideas. Readers are invited to gently explore questions such as, Who taught you to pray and how? What do you believe about prayer? What is your image of the God to whom you pray? And, What is prayer anyway? Through this book, readers’ hearts are made ready to explore the wonder of strengthening their relationship with God through prayer.
Designing Worship Together: Models and Strategies for Worship Planning by Norma de Waal Malefyt and Howard Vanderwell
This book draws on more than two decades of collaborative worship planning by pastor Howard Vanderwell and musician Norma deWaal Malefyt of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, offering thoughtful, field-tested processes and tools for planning, implementing, and evaluating life-enriching weekly worship.
The authors enter into the trenches of weekly congregational life with this book, offering helpful insights into the process of how worship services are planned and led. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell’s approach to worship arises from the biblical narrative, using the language of the Christian tradition and emphasizing that worship tells the story of God’s efforts through history to show us the path to union with God. Designing Worship Together is also deeply connected to the experience of local congregations. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell understand that the way in which God’s saving deeds are proclaimed will differ from church to church, from place to place, and from culture to culture and they present a process for designing worship services that is equally applicable in a wide diversity of congregations.
Foreword writer Robert Webber writes of Designing Worship Together, “In a day when worship, born out of an antihistorical attitude focuses on the self—what I need, what I want, what I do—it is refreshing to find a book that focuses on God yet is deeply concerned about the people engaged in worship.” While many books are available about the theology of worship, worship styles, and issues of music, there are few resources on the value of careful worship planning. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell offer the practical nuts-and-bolts that worship planners need, but this book is far more than a how-to for worship planners. In addition to describing best practices for worship planners, they clarify the role of vital worship in the life of a healthy congregation; identify the biblical assumptions underlying Christian worship; highlight the importance of team work in worship planning; name the issues and barriers worship planners must overcome; and suggest a variety of models for worship planning and evaluation.This invaluable resource also features more than a dozen field-tested tools and a selected bibliography for worship planners to use as they continue to develop their ministries.
40 Days and 40 Bytes: Making Computers Work for Your Congregation by Aaron Spiegel, Nancy Armstrong and Brent Bill
“Today we are awash in computerized Bible games, pastoral care software, and church management systems with members’ personal information and giving records,” observe authors Spiegel, Armstrong, and Bill, but “too often we blindly accept and use technology without asking the big questions. Questions like, is it appropriate to our mission and ministry?” 40 Days and 40 Bytes will help your congregation explore technology so you can decide, from a ministry and culture standpoint, what you need to do.
The goal: godly service—not technological glitz.The authors are uniquely qualified to help you think about the role of technology in your congregation. All three are staff members with the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, which launched the innovative Computers and Ministry Grants Initiative in 1998 to help congregations address the challenges they face when using computer technology in their ministries. In this book, they share what they have learned in their work with 102 congregations.There’s no question your congregation is going to use computer technology. The only question is, “How?” 40 Days and 40 Bytes will help you design technology that fits your ministry and mission.“40 Days and 40 Bytes is the most comprehensive overview available on technology in congregations.
If you are thinking about your congregation's technology needs, make the journey with these veteran travelers.”—J. Phillip Martin, National Association of Church Business Administration, Aaron Spiegel, Nancy Armstrong, and Brent Bill are staff members at the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, a gift to the greater Indianapolis area from Lilly Endowment Inc. Together they developed and led the Center’s Computers and Ministry program. | |
