Anthony B. Robinson
Courage to preach
In a recent essay, Marilynne Robinson attributes the struggles of mainline...
Take and read
A retired Fuller Seminary professor, Anderson seeks to infuse the Emergent movement with an Emergent theology, drawing on Paul’s teachi...
Take and read
A Harvard-trained sociologist, Ault immersed himself in the life of a fundamentalist Baptist congregation in northwest M...
Give and take: Leadership as a spiritual practice
Is leadership, specifically pastoral leadership, a spiritual practice?...
Step aside: The 'former pastor' problem
When I speak in churches across the country, I often hear “former pastor” stories, or stories about struggles that involve a former pastor. What is this “former pastor problem”?...
Reconstructing Pastoral Theology
This book is radical in a couple of senses of the word, including the original one of “returning to the roots.” Purv...
Vicious cycles: The anxious congregation
As I travel around the country visiting and consulting with congregations and clergy, I find that many are caught in vicious cycles. The vicious cycles seem more common than the virtuous ones....
Take and Read
This volume collects prayers with which, over 42 years, famed Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann began his cl...
The Unauthorized Guide to Choosing a Church
Part travel guide, part history and theology and part entertainment, Carmen Renee Berry’s book delivers what the title promises: guida...
Singing of sex: Rereading the Song of Songs
Some exegetes and preachers have tried to persuade us that the Song of Songs is an elaborate allegory about the love of God for Israel or of Christ for the church....
Power outage: When leaders don't lead
What happens when power is seen as inherently suspect and even evil? What happens when power in the church is viewed as bad?...
Back to basics: Rx for congregational health
What is a healthy congregation? For some clergy and laity, health is simply the absence of conflict. But we may be confusing a healthy congregation with a placid one....
Renewed life: Seven ways to change congregational culture
Though the past quarter century has been a challenging, sometimes discouraging time for mainline congregations and their leaders, many positive things, often hidden from public view or statistical ...
Leadership that matters: Lessons from and for the parish
A year ago my wife took a leave from teaching middle school to enter a graduate program in school administration....
Lessons in leadership
Among the congregations I know, two challenges loom especially large for leaders: maintaining a clear focus amid competing agendas, and bringing about needed change when people are resistant or at ...
Violence and illness: Treating the mentally ill
When violence breaks out and murder occurs, we want an explanation, a reason, and preferably someone to blame....
The making of a postliberal: Beyond civic faith: Two stories
Seattle's Plymouth Congregational Church could be described as an "old first church." Founded in 1869 when the population of the city was 1,000, the church conceived of its mission as one of civili...