Soul of the Congregregation

Soul of the Congregation An Invitation to Congregational Reflection Thomas Edward FrankAbingdon, 2000ISBN 9780687087174 Softcover, 144 pp.5.51 X 8.58 X 0.52 inches | 0.56 pounds Thomas Edward Frank points out that the dominant paradigm of many contemporary books about church administration reflects an underlying "theology of progress," a distilling of the gospel into self-worth, a conflation of basilea with market growth. According to Frank, good fortune and blessing are confused; praise and good feeling are identified. This paradigm of success and progress, however, fails to account adequately for the vision of the believers' presence in the world as ecclesia. "The soul of the congregation," argues Frank, is a way of being and being-in-the-world, and not didactic or productive. Every congregation is a unique culture comprising the artifacts, practices, values, outlooks, symbols, stories, language, ritual, and collective character that makes it particularly itself. This culture--or so