Organizations Books

The "Cell-Driven Church" is full of practical insights into the "nuts and bolts" of the cell model. It is easy to read and moves along quickly. I found great illustrations and testimonies of people on the front-lines of cell leadership. Also, the "Cajun" jokes are really funny and effectively placed!! I highly reccommend this book to anyone interested in the cell church concept.

For three years, I was a vestryperson of Christ Episcopal Church in Overland Park, Kansas. (1997-2000) The last two years of this service was spent as the senior member of the vestry, known in the Episcopal Church as Senior Warden. The Senior Warden's responsibility is to lead the twelve person vestry as well as work closely with the clergy on all church matters , both secular and spiritual.

For the past decade, our church has witnessed phenominal growth, due primarily to the increased spiritual vitality of the church and strong leadership of our senior pastor,Ron McCrary. In the past few years, we have prayed about and researched ways to serve our growing church community. We had become basically a program based church. Although small groups were a part of our church family, programs, which catered to the masses and which the staff implemented were thought to be the foundation for meeting the congregation's needs. I believed strong progams was the answer to meeting the spiritual needs of a growing church. I had my doubts about the effectiveness of small groups and was not a proponent of cell based ministry.

Several months ago, Ron McCrary gave me a copy of the Cell Based Church and asked me to read it and tell him what I thought. Reluctantly I began the book, not initially expecting anything that would change my mind about cell ministry.

After the first chapter, I discovered that I was underlining, highlighting and making notes in the margins. The reason was that so much of what I was reading seemed to have relevance to our church and had specific relevance to many of the people that I knew personally in our parish.

By the time I finished the book, I had become a cell based ministry convert. Not only did many of Billy Hornsby's ideas seem to have great potential and benefit for our church, the "proof of the pudding" evidence, from other churches doing cell base ministry, convinced me that we had to change our church's ministerial philosophy from program based to cell based.

Our clergy and vestry agreed recently to convert our ministry philosophy and stategy to a cell based approach. We are now in the embryonic stages of that conversion.

We have known for some time that God is truly blessing our church. We also know that He has now sent us Billy Hornsby with his exciting ideas and proven stategies in order that we may really take our responsibility in doing God's work to the next level.

The Cell Driven Church is a "Must Read" for any church leader.

Roy Jackson

This is a fascinating and erudite book that spans centuries of Hebrew printing. It would be worthwhile for the end-notes alone. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of Jewish printing as well as anyone interested in the development and dynamic of censorship, both internal and self imposed.

This book is indeed first of its kind in its treatment of the history of books and book-culture in early modern Italy and Europe. Jewish-Christian dialogs and negotiations over questions of print and publishing are reviewed in a new and fresh light. The final outcome of what is otherwise simply viewed as a tool of coercion and persecution is surprising.

I had to read this re my masters course. It relates to actual situations and was very relevant to the field of educational leadership across the board. Great user friendly resource.

Centering Educational Administration is a veritable tour de force. Erudite, thought-provoking, and compelling, it effectively marshals the many strands of social, pedagogical, and organizational theory to weave its main message: in the noble service of the next generation, educational administration can uphold education's humanistic value by cultivating meaning, community, and responsibility. For Starratt, one of education's most encyclopedic and articulate public intellectuals, this entails moving beyond simply considering the "discrete functions of administration" and towards engaging "the essentials of administering." Much as the overtones of Starratt's argument may have W. B. Yeats turning in his grave (i.e., there is a center to educational administration... that can hold), it should be heeded for its critically normative orientation and purpose: to move educators and institutions from what is to what ought to be.

The book does so by centering educational leadership on the cultivating and monitoring of a learning agenda that begins with the self and students and extends to teachers and the community. Our ecological interdependence means that "School communities do not exist in isolation from their surrounding communities. What and how they learn needs to be in dialogue with their surroundings" (233). To this end, Starratt explores the separate and intersective synergy of theory and practice, teaching and learning, of individual and community, to organically develop a vision of school as "a humane and socially nurturing environment in which the pursuit of academic learning would go hand in hand with social learning" (96). He extends the conceptual foundations for ethical education first developed in Building an ethical school (1994) and engages substantive aspects of moral leadership, keeping students at the centre of the educational enterprise and offering perspectives to help educators through this late-modern era of high-stakes accountability, diversity, and uncertainty.

Starratt achieves this ambitious purpose through thoughtful organization of material, clear, vivid prose, and rich illustrative examples. The eight chapters of Part I, Elements of the Leader's Vision, take readers through the conceptual foundation of his argument about what school renewal looks like, why it's needed, and how it can be achieved. As the book's sub-title suggests, Starratt's vision for a new centre of educational administration comprises three main themes: cultivating meaning, community, and moral responsibility. For Starratt, school renewal is fundamentally about enriching and enhancing the learning of the schoolhouse's many selves - student and staff - in relation to their physical, social, and human worlds. It is about nurturing "moral excellence" in all learners, a sense of being responsible to, and for, what one learns. To this end, educational administration's core is therefore about cultivating personal, public, applied, and academic meaning-making by initiating "conversations among teachers about the basic meaning behind what and how they teach, and the meanings that are implied and assumed in the curriculum" (224).

Part II, Bringing the Vision to Reality, builds on the opening section's conceptual foreground to demonstrate how the active learning of all students, and the facilitating of this work by teachers, can take place in classroom, school, and district practices. Its six chapters apply Part I's lenses of moral philosophy, critical sociology, and cognitive science to refract and cohesively connect theory, policy, and practice. With carefully selected examples, each chapter helps illustrate the interdependency of Starratt's main themes in practical and workable situations. The site-based activities that conclude each of the book's fourteen chapters are especially useful in Part II. Clearly rooted in Starratt's vast experience as a scholar-practitioner-leader, they encourage readers to deepen their understanding of the many learnings through action research that is situated in the dynamics and structures of schools. Through this gestaltian marriage of theory and practice, readers are encouraged to reflect and operationalize the book's many rich concepts. The book's 57 site-based activities would make it a valuable addition to any graduate program in educational administration that seeks to integrate the scholarly with the practical.

As a former teacher and administrator turned doctoral student, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Centering Educational Administration. It challenged my thinking, forcing me to iteratively revisit eight years of professional experiences through Starratt's tripartite conceptualization of centered educational leadership; and it extended my scholarly experiences, developed over many graduate courses in educational administration. Most helpfully, it enabled me to connect meaningfully many scholar, practitioner, and leadership learnings of the last decade, honed as I moved in and out of schools as an educational administrator and the academy as a graduate student. Consequently, Starratt's latest will definitely find a place close at hand on my bookshelf of important educational administration texts and readily used, particularly given its clear, two-part structure, 21 explicatory diagrams and figures, and helpful author and subject indices.

This is an excellent book of guidelines for the various ceremonies of the liturgical year. Monsignor Elliott explains the special ceremonies (such as those of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter) in a very plain and understandable fashion. A priest can find the information he needs quite readily in these pages. Monsignor Elliott also does an excellent job of explaining how the liturgical year sanctifies all time.

If you want to know how Midnight Mass, the Easter Vigil, or other such special ceremonies are supposed to be celebrated with reverence and dignity, then this is the book for you!

Few priests, deacons or others responsible for preparing the celebration of the Liturgy have time to study in detail the rubrics and instructions found in the liturgical books and interpretative documents issued by the Holy See. This, the second book of ceremonial from the pen of Msgr Peter Elliott (his first, Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite: The Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours appeared in 1995), seeks to bring together such directives for the feasts and seasons of the Liturgical Year in one handy volume.

In doing so, Msgr Elliott has performed a great service. What cleric will not reach for this book with gratitude as Holy Week approaches? What liturgical preparation group will not fail to find in it treasures of the Church's liturgical tradition, both old and new, that cannot but enrich the celebration of the Church's feasts and seasons throughout the year? Homilists, too, will find helpful suggestions for the exercise of their ministry.

Helpful tables are given, covering the precedence of liturgical days, movable feasts and cycles of readings, and appendices give suggestions for further enrichment of the liturgical year. The paragraphs of the book are numbered throughout. This undoubtedly makes referencing easier, but can also confuse. The bibliography is somewhat sparse, lacking some of the official sources of the Modern Roman Rite. A small but useful glossary is included.

Of course, writing a ceremonial manual is a precarious task, as there are so many sources to synthesise and practical judgements that need to be made. The Holy See's Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy was published too late to be incorporated in the present volume. Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year also contains one or two errors (the most glaring being the failure to use the new National Calendar for England, published in 2000), and some points regarding which one may disagree with the author. (In a book such as this it is important to distinguish between what the liturgical books require and what legitimate diversity they tolerate.)

On the whole, though, the approach taken is sound and practical. Indeed, this book is a valuable aid for all who seek to celebrate the Liturgy, to borrow the words of Cardinal Hume, "in a manner that is prayerful, dignified and worthy of so great an action."

Last June, while shopping for things in a religious book store, a book caught my eye. I don't know if it was the two eyes peeking over the stained glass windows, or the brilliant title "Challenging the Church Monster" with the word monster in green letters, but the book just seemed to call to me. I took it from the shelf and leafed to the Table of Contents where I was then led to the Foreword where is says:
This book is especially for you if you ever have left a church meeting wondering if anything was accomplished; had two weeks to go before the Sunday -school year began and needed six more teachers; wondered why a certain, apathetic church member agreed to serve on the church council ;assumed that it is the pastors job to make sure that everything in the church gets done; awakened in the middle of the night worrying about your committee being prepared for its next big project ; spent two months getting a new-church initiative ready only to have it voted down; thought that you church was putting the cart before the horse; or tried to inspire others at church but ended up just as discouraged as they were. This book is especially for you if any of the above scenarios describe something that has happened to you.
I was sold, hook, line and sinker. I purchased the book, rushed home, and could not put it down. The more I read the more it made sense to me that this book, this "Church Monster" is not only speaking about the author's church, but also many other churches that are still living under the same stagnant structures of the mid 1900's. The ideas found in this book are a wonderful fresh look at the church of today and how we can find ways to grow in the ministry of all people together while spending less time in the meeting rut of the past.

Brian McLaren, a prolific author and a senior fellow in Emergent, wrote an endorsement for Challenging the Church Monster: From Conflict to Community. McLaren wrote, "If Douglas Bixby is right, when people complain about `organized religion,' they're really complaining about `overorganized' or `poorly organized' religion. If that diagnosis rings true, savor the wise and practical insights offered in this helpful, needed, concise, and well-written book."

I found this book to be both clearly written and insightful. It helped me significantly on a practical level. The case studies were provided both vivid and interesting illustrations of the different pacts made within an organization.

This book offers helpful insight into creating corporate change that is supported by the work force. It is a must for every manager, employee and people interested in the dynamics making change in the business world. This book contains many enlightening, even humourous case studies which accompany the theory. Strebel's book is a refreshing change from traditional, dull management books. If there is one book this year that will make you a more effective manager, this is the it. Buy it or get left behind.

This book give 2 in depth studies from HP factory and R&D environments. I found the insights and information invaluable in my work as a consultant. As a consult to HP I found that the atmosphere rang true. I have recommended it to HP top managers and they have ordered it too!

This book gives organizations a vision of positive and effective change. It confirms that it is possible with the correct ingrediences...

Patricia Shaw wrote a great book because it gives a completely different view on the contribution of the "change" consultant to organizational change. Don't introduce models and schemas but initiate and fuel conversations in the organization not as a planned event but as a way of working. The strong point of this book is that Shaw lets the reader look into her consultant kitchen and takes you along with her "discoveries". It is a must read for every consultant with an urge to initiate all kind of change initiatives in organizations. And it is the most concrete example of the where the complexity 'school' from Ralph Stacey stands for I could find.
I have only one objection to this otherwise fantastic book. Shaw finds it necessary to set herself aside from all the other alternative change approaches in her last chapter. I would have liked this book even more if she just had skipped that chapter.

I really enjoyed this book. It is very readable and very practical. I have a Masters Degree in Complexity Theory and this book beautifully complimented my understanding of the power of conversations to get to the deeper complexity of issues and the limitations of our traditional workplace meetings. I have been pushing for a conversational structure to my meetings at work (I work in organisational development), discussion and development groups that I run outside work and in my interpersonal relationships.

"Changing Habits" A Memoir of the Society of the Sacred Heart" was written in 1988 by V V Harrison. In this vivid memoir and compelling history, the author takes us into the exclusive world of the Society of the Sacred Heart with both the humor and the understanding of one who has been there. Through the recollections of her own days at Eden Hall, she paints a picture of life behind the iron gates; of graceful "penguin-like" nuns on ice skates ~~ fluted white bonnets bobbing in unison; of stony rules of silence; and of young women's fervent prayers that had nothing to do with being holy! She also reveals the rich, intellectually demanding and fascinating traditions that have carried the Society through its unique history from 1800 to the present. Founded in the midst of the violent French Revolution, the Society of the Sacred Heart spread to six continents by 1908 and became one of the most prestigious religious congregations of nuns in the Catholic Church. Superbly educating daughters of both the wealthy and the poor to go into the world with "a man's mind and a woman's heart", the Sacred Heart has graduated such disparate women as Vivien Leigh, Maureen O'Sullivan, Yoko Ono, Susan Saint James, Michiko Shoda (Crown Princess of Japan) and the Kennedy women. But when the edicts of Vatican II threw open the doors of the Catholic Church to the 20th century, they sowed seeds of disorder throughout the Society. The call for renewal, to become attuned to the world of today, turned the congregation upside down. Lives that had been restrained by the rule of cloister and the monastic traditions of the past were not easily adaptable to the freedom of the new edicts. The nuns suffered an unplanned- for defection from their ranks and many of their well-known and exclusive academies were forced to close. In 1988, more than 20 years after having shed their traditional habits and adjusting to the new ways of the Church, the modern Sisters have re-evaluated and rebuilt the very foundations of their lives. "Changing Habits" is an interesting journey from the traditional "Convent of the Sacred Heart School" that the author attended,to the modern experience of both students and nuns today. Gone are the nuns in their beautiful traditional religious habits ~~ long gone are the days when they were known as "Mothers" in those beautiful mansion schools that educated the wealthy elite. There are several great photos from the author's days at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, and of the Madames of the Sacred Heart in their elegant Traditional habits to the modified habits of the 60's to no habits at all today. Also included are pictures of other Mansions used as Convent schools around the world. "Changing Habits" is the story of how the absolute strictures of one religious congregation of nuns dissolved and dramatically affected a worldwide community of 7,000 nuns on five continents ~~ as well as the many generations of women whose lives these nuns had touched deeply. "Changing Habits" recreates the mysterious world inside an exclusive convent school ~ a world gone forever. If you have ever been curious about life behind the convent walls, this book will answer that curiosity.

It was a way of seeing thru the eyes of a Child of the Sacred Heart. Being a male I would never be able to experience what it would be like to attend a Convent of the Sacred Heart School. Beautiful mansions around the world that serve as boarding schools. V.V. brings life to the Society of the Sacred Heart, the nuns who educated the elite women in society to become leaders of justice and human rights. Its an interesting journey she takes you on from the traditional "Convent of the Sacred Heart school" that she attended,to the modern experience of both students and Sisters today, which has updated it self to the point of no traditons, as in the early days. Gone are the nuns in the beautiful habit, now you dont know if your talking to a nun or a lay person. They seldom use their honored title of Sister, and long gone are the days when they were known as "Mothers" in these beautiful mansion schools that educated the wealthy elite. Very interesting journey for any former Catholic school child or those interested in what a bording school experience- run by nuns was like. Great pictures from her days at Torresdale, Pa Convent of the Sacred Heart, and of the Mothers of the Sacred Heart in the elegant Traditional habit to the modified habit of the 60's to no habits. Pictures of other Mansions used as Convent schools around the world like the famous New York City school. The book takes the reader from the origins of the order by foundress St. Madeline Sophie Barat to the coming of America.

I enjoyed the format of this book. Each chapter was written by a different person on an experiential basis. Very well written and useful for all educators. I'll keep it close by for reference.

this book offers the hope that educational leaders who engage in lifelong learning have the potential to create opportunities for increased student success in their schools. Such leaders, by undertaking to change themselves, can change the world as well.