Recent Books Recommended by Dr. Dick Hardel

Wellness

Journey Toward Wholeness: Reclaiming the Healing Ministry of Jesus with Dr. Kenneth Bakken

This is a new video series on congregations developing ministries of health and healing. Videotape has six parts and comes with a Leader'' Guide. This package also includes a copy of the book Healing and Transformation by Kenneth L. Baaken and Kathleen H. Hofeller. It is produced by and can be purchased from Seraphim Communications, 1568 Eustis Street, St. Paul, MN 55108, phone (651) 645-9173.

Redeeming MarketPlace Medicine: A Theology of Health Care, by Abigail Rian Evans, Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 1999.

A Spirituality of Wholeness, A New Look at Grace by Bill Huebsch. Mystic, Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications. 1991.

Youth and Family

Dangerous Wonder by Michael Yaconelli, Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1998.

Anyone who has worked in youth ministry over the past 25 years is well acquainted with the work of Youth Specialties and Mike Yaconelli. One of the things I have always admired about Mike is his seriousness about ministry, commitment to Jesus Christ, and his willingness to laugh at the foolish things we in the church have done and still do in the name of Jesus. Mike is always refreshingly honest.

In this book Mike has a high level of a theology of the child. He invites the reader to find the child within and to grow deeply in a relationship with God through Christ. With chapter headings like Dangerous Wonder, Wild Abandon, Irresponsible Passion, he shows the power of a childlike faith.

The book takes the reader outside the worries of possible consequences to the freedom of wonder. It is refreshing and easy to read.

Youth Ministry in Modern America 1930 to the Present, by Jon Pahl. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000.

Jon Pahl begins to redress the invisibility of youth in books about American Christianity. In the first four chapters he uses themes in specific youth ministries lie Christian Knowledge, Christian Service from the Walther League of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. From the Young Christian Workers movement of the Roman Catholic Church he tells of the education and training of "lay apostles." From Youth For Christ Pahl shows the journey from revivalism beyond patriotism and moral purity to include social and political reform. He shows a balance of freedom of salvation and freedom to judge the relative justice of the world in the ministry of African-American congregations.

As he compares and contrasts the four groups he analyzes the reasons for the gradual shift from purity to practices of faith in American youth ministry.

He recommends that Christian youth ministry focus on creating meaningful rites of passage for young people. The movement in Christian youth ministry must be from childlike purity to adult practices of compassion.

Christian youth ministry should not nostalgically seek to shield youth from adult problems, but prepare young people to cope with adult problems by incarnating God"s presence with youth as they come of age.

Family

Right from the Start: A Parent"s Guide to the Young Child"s Faith Development, by Shirley K. Morgenthaler. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2001.

This is a revision of Shirley"s earlier book on parenting infants and toddlers. She has written new chapters on brain development, infants in worship, traditions, and the need for moms and dads to grow in their own faith.

Shirley Morgenthaler, Distinguished Professor of Education at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois, has been a major presenter at Youth & Family Institute"s summer leadership conference. Her research and insights fit well with the Child In Our Hands conceptual model. Both Dr. Morgenthaler and Dr. Hardel agree that it is more important for children to be in worship with their parents than to be in Sunday school without the parents.

Although the book is written for parents of very young children, it should be read by pastors and lay leaders who work in the area of faith formation.

Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin H. Friedman. New York: Guilford Press. 1985.

The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding our Families by Mary Pipher, Ph.D. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

Mid-Life Spirituality and Jungian Archetypes by Janice Brewi and Anne Brennan. York Beach, Maine: Nicholas-Hays. 1999.

Faith Traditions & the Family, edited by Phyllis D. Airhart and Margaret Lamberts Bendroth. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. 1996.

Faith and Youth

The Ongoing Journey: Awakening Spiritual Life in At-Risk Youth, featuring Dr. Robert Coles, Dr. David Elkind, Dr. Lorraine Monroe, Rev. Charles Shelton, Rev. Buster Soaries, and others. Boys Town, NE: Boy's Town Press. 1995.

Organizational Development

The Complete Ministry Audit by William M. Easum. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1996

The Innovative Church by Merton Strommen. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press. 1997.

Moving Off the Map by Thomas G. Bandy. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1998.

Spiritual Disciplines

Let Your Life Speak, by Parker J. Palmer. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000.

Parker Palmer is a wonderful writer and teacher. From his Quaker background he brings us wonderful phrases like "unanxious presence" and "listen for the voice of vocation."

In 109 small pages Parker Palmer challenges the reader with the question, "Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?"

Vocation comes not from reading job ads or even dreaming. It comes from listening to God and accepting the limits and the potential of oneself. Vocation is not a goal to be achieved, but a gift to be received.

Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. San Francisco: Harper and Row. 1978.

Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. San Francisco: Harper and Row. 1954.

Spiritual Care by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. 1985.

Thirsty for God, A Brief History of Christian Spirituality by Bradley P. Holt. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg. 1993.

Theology

The Child In Christian Thought, edited by Marcia Bunge. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2001.

There is very little writing on the theology of the child from the past or present theologians. Marcia Bunge has gathered individual experts on key theologians from church fathers to feminist to share their views of a theology of a child. Her timing could not have been better for our Institute. We are deeply concerned with a theology of the child, the care of a child, and the education of the child. It is about faith formation. For pastors and lay theologians working in the area of faith formation, this book is a must.

Judith M. Gundry-Volf does the New Testament exegetical look at the child in Christian thought. Vigen Gurion shares the insights of John Chrysostom, Martha Ellen Stortz, Augustine. Cristina L. H. Traina, Thomas Aquinas, Jane Strohl, Luther, Barbara Pitkin, John Calvin, Keith Graber Miller, Menno Simons, Clarissa W. Atkinson, 17^th Century Missionaries, Marcia J. Bunge, 18^th Century German Pietism (Franke), Richard P. Heitzenrater, John Wesley, Catherine Brekus, Jonathan Edwards and the Puritans, Dawn DeVries, Schliermacher, Margaret Bentroth, Horace Bushnell, Marcia Y. Riggs, Black Women"s Club Movement, William Werpehowski, Karl Barth, Mary Ann Hinsdale, Karl Rahner, and Bonnie L. Miller-McLemore, Contemporary Feminist Theologians.

This book saves countless hours of research for anyone interested in a theology of the child.

 Faithquakes by Leonard Sweet. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1994.

Paul, A Novel by Walter Wangerin Jr. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 2000.

Quantum Spirituality, A Postmodern Apologetic by Leonard Sweet. Dayton, OH: SpiritVenture Ministries. 1994.

The Book of God by Walter Wangerin Jr. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 1996.