Order Adaptive Church

From the publisher: Baylor University Press

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What people are saying

“Adaptive Church is a fascinating exploration of how churches can and should respond to uncertainty and institutional change. The book is a good example of the way that empirical research can be used to help develop deep and important theological insights. As such, it is a significant contribution to practical theology and the emerging field of Theological Ethnography.”

John Swinton, Professor of Practical Theology, University of Aberdeen

“Adaptive Church takes a deep dive into the activities, networks, and cultures of two innovative efforts to rethink and reshape Christian communities and organizations in the Pacific Northwest. By closely examining these efforts and thoughtfully reflecting on what they mean, Dustin Benac has written an informative book that helps us ponder anew how religious life in the twenty-first century might be organized.” 

Mark Chaves, Anne Firor Scott Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Duke University

“We may have just found the newest cartographer for the future church. Bucking the trend of gloom and doom predictions, Adaptive Church points to possibilities where most see only problems. With nuanced scholarship, top-tier research, and a radically collaborative style, Benac invites us on the journey of imagining new paradigms for faithful Christian community. Every now and then a book comes along with the potential to change the conversation for the church. This is just such a book.”

Mark DeVries, author, pastor, founder of Ministry Architects, and co-founder of Ministry Incubators

“In this study of two different experimental church ‘hubs,’ Benac illumines three key clues: the grounding-orienting power of place; the luminous revelatory shift from individualism to the profound connectivity of all life; and the call to pay attention to the ongoing creative-confounding activity of Spirit. Timely and evocative, this study points toward practical wisdom for a new reformation of Church now well underway.”

Sharon Daloz Parks, author of Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World

Order Crsisis and Care

From the publisher: Wipf & Stock

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What people are Saying

“It is a huge leap out of the box of conventional assumptions into new modes of glad missional obedience.”

Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

“The whole project is an exercise in turning our imaginations from the default of scarcity to the glory of abundance. What emerges is the discovery that a crisis isn’t simply a time for adapting strategies: it’s a time for re-educating the soul.”

Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London

“Resist the urge to read this volume of wisdom alone. Instead, consider reading it in community, experiment with its ideas, and then get to work shaping an alternative vision of the church’s philanthropic vocation in service to diverse communities throughout the world!”

Stephen Lewis, president of the Forum for Theological Exploration and co-author of Another Way: Living and Leading Change on Purpose

“As a practical theologian, I have been waiting for a resource that offers theologies of money that shift from transactional to transformational practices, embedding each and every fundraising campaign and charitable donation in a larger network of meaning-making words of faith, love, and justice.”

Mindy McGarrah Sharp, Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, Columbia Theological Seminary

“Crisis and Care shuns narrow, self-centered, and ineffective concepts about faith and giving, and invites us to reimagine philanthropy as a shared calling that expresses Christian love in action.”

Edwin David Aponte, Dean, Drew Theological School