Bishop Rickel's Selection for his 2010 "Bishop's Book for Lent"

Missonal Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church
by Reggie McNeal
$24.95 Hardcover

The "missional movement” has been defined as the widespread movement among Protestant churches to be less inwardly focused and more oriented toward the culture and community around them. In Missional Renaissance, Reggie McNeal shows three significant shifts in thinking and behavior that will allow leaders to chart a course toward being missional:

(1) from an internal to an external focus, ending the church as exclusive social club model;
(2) from running programs and ministries to developing people as its core activity; and
(3) from professional leadership to leadership that is shared by everyone in the community.

With in-depth discussions of the "what" and the "how" of transitioning to being a missional church, readers will be equipped to move into what McNeal sees as the most viable future for Christianity.

Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Revitalizing the Faith
by Diana Butler Bass
$13.95 Paperback

For decades the accepted wisdom has been that America's mainline Protestant churches are in decline, eclipsed by evangelical mega-churches. Church and religion expert Diana Butler Bass undertook an extensive, three-year study of centrist and progressive churches across the country and found just the opposite — that many of the churches are flourishing, doing so without resorting to mimicking the mega-church, evangelical style. Christianity for the Rest of Us describes this phenomenon and offers a how-to approach for Protestants eager to remain faithful to their tradition while becoming a vital spiritual community. She shows that certain consistent practices - such as hospitality, contemplation, diversity, justice, discernment, and worship - emerged as core expressions of congregations seeking to rediscover authentic Christian faith and witness today. This book, with a study guide for groups and individuals, reveals the practical steps that leaders and laypeople alike are taking to proclaim an alternative message about an emerging Christianity that strives for greater spiritual depth and proactively engages the needs of the world.

Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What
by Peter L. Steinke
$18.00 Paperback ~Top Ten Books of 2006, Academy of Parish Clergy

Anxious times call for steady leadership. When tensions emerge in a congregation, its leaders cannot be as anxious as the people they serve. To remain effective, congregational leaders must control their own uneasiness. This takes self-awareness and confidence to manage relationships and influence behaviors. Knowing how to deal with anxiety and how to work through complex challenges can lead a congregation to new insights, growth, and vitality. Anxious times hold not only the potential for loss but also for creation, important learnings, and changes that will strengthen the congregation. In this book, Steinke inspires courage in leaders to maintain the course, unearth secrets, resist sabotage, withstand fury, and overcome timidity or doubts. His insights, illustrations, and provocations will carry leaders through rough times, provide clarity during confusing times, and uplift them in joyous times.

Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility
by Duane Elmer
$16.00 Paperback

With careful biblical exposition and keen cross-cultural awareness, author Duane Elmer gives Christians practical guidance for serving internationally with sensitivity and humility. He shows how our actions and attitudes often contradict and offend local cultures and sensibilities while offering principles and guidance for avoiding misunderstandings and building relationships in ways that honor host cultures.

Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix
by Edwin H. Friedman
$28.00 Paperback

Edwin Friedman was the first to tell us that all organizations have personalities, like families, and to apply the insights of family therapy to churches and synagogues, rectors and rabbis, politicians and teachers. His insights about our regressed, "seatbelt society," oriented toward safety rather than adventure, help explain the sabotage that leaders constantly face today. Suspicious of the "quick fixes" and instant solutions that sweep through our culture only to give way to the next fad, he argues for strength and self-differentiation as the marks of true leadership. His formula for success is more maturity, not more data; stamina, not technique; and personal responsibility, not empathy.

This book was unfinished at the time of Friedman's death, and originally published in a limited edition. This new edition makes his life-changing insights and challenges available to a new generation of readers.

From Nomads to Pilgrims: Stories from Practicing Congregations
edited by Diana Butler Bass and Joseph Stewart-Sicking
$17.00 Paperback

From Nomads to Pilgrims reads as a series of first-hand dispatches from pastors on the road to an emerging style of congregational vitality, one centered on the creative and intentional use of traditional Christian practices such as hospitality, discernment, contemplative prayer, and testimony. The highly anticipated follow-up to The Practicing Congregation by Diana Butler Bass, this book should prove helpful to any congregational leader searching for positive models that challenge conventional thinking and inspire creative experimentation. These are stories of congregations that have discovered a renewed sense of identity and mission; these are stories worth sharing.

The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why
by Phyllis Tickle
$17.99 Hardcover

"Every 500 years, the church cleans out its attic and has a giant rummage sale."

Rooted in the observation that massive transitions in the church happen about every 500 years, Phyllis Tickle shows readers that we live in such a time right now. She compares the Great Emergence to other "Greats" in the history of Christianity, including the Great Transformation (when God walked among us), the time of Gregory the Great, the Great Schism, and the Great Reformation. The Great Emergence shows readers what the Great Emergence in church and culture is, how it came to be, and where it is going. Anyone who is interested in the future of the church in America, no matter what their personal affiliation, will find this book a fascinating exploration.

Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach
by Peter L. Steinke
$18.00 Paperback

In this sequel to How Your Church Family Works, Steinke takes readers into a deeper exploration of the congregation as an emotional system. Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system, factors that could put your congregation at risk, and more.

Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations
by Gil Rendle and Alice Mann
$25.00 Paperback

Planning can be challenging when people share a common faith and values but may have very different preferences and needs. Authors Gil Rendle and Alice Mann approach planning as a "holy conversation," a congregational discernment process about three critical questions:

Who are we? ~ What has God called us to do or be? ~ Who is our neighbor?

Rendle and Mann equip congregational leaders with a broad and creative range of tools and processes for planning. By choosing resources that best suit their own needs, congregations will shape their unique holy conversation - leading to a path that is faithful to their identity and their relationship with God.

How Your Church Family Works
by Peter L. Steinke
$18.00 Paperback

Drawing on the work of the late Dr. Murray Bowen and Rabbi Edwin H. Friedman, and his own years of counseling experience, Steinke shows how to recognize and deal with the emotional roots of such issues as church conflict, leadership roles, congregational change, irresponsible behavior, and the effects of family of origin on current relationships. Discover why working relationships may be "stuck" in certain behaviors. Psychologically sound and theologically grounded, this book is practically illustrated with case studies.

Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change by Mark Lau Branson
$18.00 Paperback

How can faithful and effective congregational change be accomplished without focusing on the negative elements of people, money and influence? In Memories, Hopes, and Conversations, author Mark Lau Branson shows how any congregation can use the collaborative and highly participatory change process called Appreciative Inquiry to generate conversations in a positive way. Branson first steps through the foundations of AI and explores biblical texts for understanding it in a faith context. He then uses a four-step process -- Initiate, Inquire, Imagine, Innovate -- to help congregations recognize their innate strengths and construct "provocative proposals" to help shape their church's future.

Now in Paperback!

A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story
by Diana Butler Bass
$14.99 Paperback

For too long, the history of Christianity has been told as the triumph of orthodox doctrine imposed through power and hierarchy. In A People's History of Christianity, historian and religion expert Diana Butler Bass reveals an alternate history that includes a deep social ethic and far-reaching inclusivity: "the other side of the story" is not a modern phenomenon, but has always been practiced within the church. Butler Bass persuasively argues that corrective - even subversive - beliefs and practices have always been hallmarks of Christianity and are necessary to nourish communities of faith. A People's History of Christianity authenticates the vital, emerging Christian movements of our time, providing the historical evidence that celebrates these movements as thoroughly Christian and faithful to the mission and message of Jesus.

The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church
by Diana Butler Bass
$17.00 Paperback

Conventional wisdom maintains that mainline Protestantism is a dying tradition, irrelevant to a postmodern society, unresponsive to change, and increasingly disconnected from its core faith tenets. Historian and researcher Diana Butler Bass argues that there are signs that mainline Protestant churches are indeed changing, finding a new vitality intentionally grounded in Christian practices and laying the groundwork for a new type of congregation. The Practicing Congregation provides a hopeful and exciting vision of "the once and future church" that Alban founder Loren Mead first named over 10 years ago.

Strength for the Journey: A Pilgrimage of Faith in Community
by Diana Butler Bass
$16.95 Paperback