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Summary: Congregational Narratives of Family History and Change
Review: This book describes how a number of Christian and Jewish congregations have experienced and responded to the changes that have taken place in the contemporary American family. In particular, it addresses a number of questions concerned with the possibilities and limits of congregational response to rapid social change. Each essay involves a practical theological case study of a congregation and seeks to articulate the congregation's "family theology" and how those theological convictions are manifest in congregational strategies, programs, and family culture. Beyond merely describing the congregations, each essay also provides a evaluative perspective on the prophetic appropriateness, moral fruitfulness, and basic adequacy of the congregation's response to a number of contexts and issues surrounding the family. Attention is given to four "markers," or sets of issues throughout the essays. These markers are the congregations' location of families within a broader moral and religious community, provision of emotional skills and symbolic resources to sustain intimate relationships and support the self, socialization of children and adolescents, and relation of historical tradition to issues of contemporary life. The essays uncover a variety of views on these issues both between and within congregations. The selection of congregations is as diverse as the issues addressed. The essays cover one Jewish congregation, three African-American churches, a Pentecostal megachurch, and a church ministering to a large gay population, in addition to more traditional Baptist, Catholic, and Presbyterian congregations. Many are urban churches facing a host of pressing social issues. The histories and narratives of these congregations are fascinating reading and will provoke much thought as to the meaning of family ministry.
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