Weigel, Arnold D.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 26Issue 2 Apocalyptic Article 2411-1-2000Leading change in the congregation: spiritual andorganizational tools for leadersArnold D. WeigelFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationWeigel, Arnold D. (2000) "Leading change in the congregation: spiritual and organizational tools for leaders," Consensus: Vol. 26 : Iss. 2, Article 24.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol26/iss2/24140 ConsensusThe final two chapters, “Challenges” and “Responses” represent the bulk ofthe additions to this edition over the 1988 version. Westermeyer discusses thecurrent attack on “traditional” church music and liturgical worship by the “seeker-friendly” advocates. He acknowledges that church musicians are often part ofthe problem, but concludes that these current attacks are frequentlyunwarranted and mean-spirited.Finally, he deals with youth and children in worship, the term “post-christian”, pipe organs (he is in favour), microphones (he is against), and thephrase, “why should the devil have all the good tunes?” (attributed variously toAugustine, Wesley, Luther, and General William Booth). There is a valuablerefutation of the misguided idea that Luther borrowed popular barroom tunes forhis hymns. Finally, he gives three criteria for good church music: “Durability,honesty, and treating people well” (136).This is a well-written, practical, carefully thought-out book. Westermeyerdeals sensitively with liturgically-oriented churches of all sizes. Pastors, buy acopy to read yourselves. Then get another copy for your cantor!Don NevileHighwood Lutheran ChurchCalgary, AlbertaLeading Change in the Congregation: Spiritual and OrganizationalTools for LeadersGilbert R. RendleBethesda, MD: The Alban Institute, 1998184 pages, $22.95 Softcover“This volume”, says Speed Leas, “is a goldmine of ideas for helpingcongregational leaders face or initiate change. The book synthesizes the bestand most recent thinking about change and churches, presenting it in useful bite-sized increments that can be used by a group planning to help their congregationbe more adaptive to the world changing around it.” 1 heartily agree with thisassessment!Like Leas, Rendle is a senior consultant with the Alban Institute. He is anordained United Methodist clergyperson with fifteen years of congregationalexperience. For the past ten years he has been consulting with congregationsand judicatories helping them with leadership and change dynamics andrealities. Rendle notes: “This is not a book about where your congregation isgoing. It is a book about how leaders can help your congregation get there.”Book Reviews 141Whether clergy or laity, leaders in today’s congregations should not regardthemselves primarily as “answer” or “solution” or “position” or “fix-it” or “it-all-depends-on-me” persons. “Leaders of congregations today need to develop the.calmness of spirit and the skills and tools that address the needs of thecongregation in the midst of change...What we often need from our God, andwhat our congregations often need from their leaders, is not a quick map to thefinal destination, the promised land, but ‘bread for the wilderness’ - sustenanceand strategies to help us find our ways” (2).“What, then, is the role of congregational leaders? It is to be faithful to thejourney - to the challenge, the experimentation, the trial and error of ministry ina culture of change...We do not live in a time of clear answers; we live in a timewhen leaders will need to use discernment and experimentation to guide theircongregations through changes” (9). “In fact, leaders are not the ones withirrefutable answers but the ones who can support others and help them ask theright questions” (13). These questions, notes Rendle, are not primarily structuralor organizational questions; they are what he calls “spiritual questions”. Thecritical question is: “Where is the hand of God in this challenging environment?...Are the difficulties and dilemmas congregations have been facing in recentdecades bad news and an ‘affront’ to God? Or is the hand of God creatingsomething new out of the old?” (39).Rendle’s passion for a listening, interactive, discerning, caring leadership inthe midst of changing circumstances is rooted not only in his personal andpastoral experiences, but also in what he regards as God’s call to empowerleaders of Spirit-based faith communities and organizations to find “the Way”through change - often chaotic change - and the inextricably bound characterof conflict. “If the questions facing our congregations are not just problems, thenperhaps they are transforming moments. And transforming moments call forquite different leadership roles and understandings” (41). “To be a leader in asituation of deep change is to hold the people in the chaos or the wilderness longenough for transformation to take place. To be a leader in a situation of deepchange does not require the ability to produce an answer. It requires the patienceand the courage to help people without an answer close to the pain and possibilitythat can transform” (99).Rendle is an engaging, effective, reflective and provocative writer. Eachchapter begins with a story from experience. This serves a dual purpose ofproviding an experiential grounding and of pointing the direction for what follows.At the end of each chapter, Rendle has “Exercises for Leaders”. 1 found these tobe extremely helpful - good resources for personal reflection and for groupprocessing. The author has also provided endnote bibliographical resources forthose who would wish to do further reading.Simply another book on leadership and change? Not at all! This is a timely142 Consensusbook for the times - times of rapid and often uncontrollable change. The authornotes: “Two fears face our congregations: the fear of too much change, and thefear of too little change” (9) - and times of confusion and uncertainty for leaders.It is well worth reading and using by clergy and laity in congregational,educational or judicatory leadership contexts. Rendle’s book is not only “agoldmine of ideas” but a key resource of practical and creative helps!Arnold WeigelWaterloo Lutheran SeminaryTending the Flock: Congregations and Family MinistryK. Brynolf Lyon and Archie Smith, Jr., eds.Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998219 pages, $26.00 SoftcoverThis volume is one in a series of ten books which address “The Family,Religion, and Culture”. The editors of this book, Lyon (associate professor ofpractical theology and pastoral care at Christian Theological Seminary inIndianapolis) and Smith (James and Clarice Foster Professor of PastoralPsychology and Counseling at the Pacific School of Religion and GraduateTheological Gnion Berkeley), have both done extensive research on the family,religion, and culture. They have engaged the various contributors to Tending theFlock to answer the question: What is happening to Western families in generaland American families in particular? They use case studies from various religioussettings. For example, a wide variety of church communities are explored, suchas the CME Church, a Catholic parish, a Jewish synagogue, a Pentecostalchurch, a community church committed to reconciliation, an urban Presbyterianchurch, a Baptist church’s family ministry to gay men, and a multiethnic church’sministry to families of many languages. Some settings are simple, thougheffective for the families present. Some settings reflect a more radical responseto extraordinary families in our culture. All the settings presented illustrate for thereader the importance of different forms of family for engaged communities offaith. One can pick and choose, depending upon the reader’s situation, modelsof family ministry. The only drawback is whether or not one model can truly betransferred from the particular setting mentioned in the book to another setting- even if the two settings seem on the surface to be quite similar. The editorscould possibly be forgetting that individuals who make up the above-mentionedinteresting communities, actually enable these ministries to flourish. Peoplemake ministry happen, not only the particular model of ministry. Other than this

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