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Once restricted in congregational life to children's ministry and sermon illustration, story and narrative are finding a broadening role in congregational leadership, pastoral care, embracing diversity, and other arenas. Discover ways to engage narrative in your congregation.
LEADERSHIP : Narrative Leadership
  Congregation: Stories and Structures (Book)
James F. Hopewell, Author.
Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1987.
Believing that each congregation has a narrative, James Hopewell asserts that good narratives combine setting, character, and plot to define congregational mission.
 Constructing Your Congregation's Story (Web Resource)
James Wind offers a complete and concise guide to constructing and telling your congregation's story, from assembling the raw materials and developing the basic skills to collecting the inner and public profiles of a church's life.
Finding Our Story: Narrative Leadership and Congregational Change (Book)
Larry A. Golemon, Editor.
Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2010.
In this book, congregational consultants explore the power of narrative and illustrate the ways that story can be used to help congregations heal their troubled pasts, recognize their strengths, and reshape their identities and futures.
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership (Book)
Howard Gardner, Emma Laskin, Authors.
New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1996.
Addressing the questions of how we define leadership and how leadership in one sphere translates into others, Howard Gardner considers the life and work of eleven leaders in education, science, business, the military, politics, and faith.
Living Our Story: Narrative Leadership and Congregational Culture (Book)
Larry A. Golemon, Editor.
Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2010.
Living Our Story explores, from various perspectives, how Christian and Jewish religious leaders can sustain narratives of religious meaning and community in an environment of rapid change, religious pluralism, and media saturation.
Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals: Weaving Together the Human and the Divine (Book)
Herbert Anderson, Edward Foley, Authors.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley examine the importance of connecting stories and ritual in worship and in pastoral care—showing how baptisms, weddings, funerals, and times of crisis or transition can thus be enriched.
On Jordan's Stormy Banks: Leading your Congregation through the Wilderness of Change (Book)
H. Beecher Hicks, Author.
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2004.
Drawing upon the image of the Old Testament tabernacle—by which the Israelites were led through the wilderness—H. Beecher Hicks shows how to face the tensions involved in defining a vision, confronting change, and dealing with obstacles.
 The Problem Trap: Escaping Our Limiting Stories (Article)
Larry Peers, Author.
Larry Peers examines the energy-draining "problem-saturated stories" that keep congregations stuck in seemingly intractable situations. He applies the tools of narrative therapy for re-framing such stories and developing positive alternatives.
The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative (Book)
Stephen Denning, Author.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
After outlining the qualities of transformational leaders, Stephen Denning explains the importance and relevance of effective communication to leadership. He also discusses how to communicate compellingly and develop narrative intelligence.
Teaching Our Story: Narrative Leadership and Pastoral Formation (Book)
Larry A. Golemon, Editor.
Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2010.
This essay collection from religious educators explores narrative practices that can help both seminary professors and pastors integrate theological learning with the day-to-day practices of ministry.
 American Congregations, Volumes I & II (Book)
James P. Wind, James W. Lewis, Editors.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
The twelve unique congregations reviewed in this collection illustrate the diversity of American congregational traditions and their impact on American culture.
Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx (Book)
Heidi B. Neumark, Author.
Warwick, RI: Beacon Press, 2003.
Heidi Neumark began pastoring the South Bronx’s Transfiguration Lutheran Church in 1984. Breathing Space chronicles the renewal of this church and neighborhood through God’s grace and those who found hope in the midst of despair.
Corporate Legends and Lore: The Power of Storytelling as a Management Tool (Book)
Peg Neuhauser, Author.
Austin, TX: PCN Associates, 1993.
Peg Neuhauser explores how narrative can enhance a leader's effectiveness, connect people to an organization, help manage change, and create adaptive organizations. She shares six types of stories that can promote positive change.
The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (Book)
Stephen Denning, Author.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Stephen Denning discusses storytelling as a crucial discipline for leadership, showing how the use of narrative can motivate, build trust, transmit values, facilitate teamwork, neutralize gossip and rumor, and create and share a vision.
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith (Book)
Barbara Brown Taylor, Author.
San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
This artfully written memoir chronicles Barbara Brown Taylor's decision to leave pastoral ministry. It provides an insightful take on pastors who leave local church ministry and taps into questions that many have about Christian faith.
Living Stories: Pastoral Counseling in Congregational Context (Book)
Donald Capps, Author.
Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
Donald Capps advocates using a narrative model for counseling. The role of the pastor is to hear the story of a person's past and then help that person re-tell or re-story it for a different future.
Narrative Mediation: A New Approach to Conflict Resolution (Book)
John Winslade, Gerald Monk, Authors.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
John Winslade and Gerald Monk explain narrative mediation as a relational, story-based approach to conflict resolution. Their approach will especially help those in ongoing relationships and communities.
The Power of Stories: A Guide for Leading Multi-Racial and Multi-Cultural Congregations (Book)
Jacqueline J. Lewis, Author.
Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2008.
Through the inspiring stories of five pastors who have successfully created and led unified multicultural congregations, this book presents a complex psycho-spiritual analysis of what it takes to be such a leader.
Recalling Our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers (Book)
Edward P. Wimberly, Author.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Author Edward Wimberly believes that by "reauthoring" the "mythology" (unresolved personal problems or uncompleted developmental tasks) from their personal, familial, and ministerial lives, ministers can become more effective.
The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (Book)
Dan P. McAdams, Author.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Defining "generative" as being committed to the growth and well-being of oneself and others, McAdams holds that generative adults tell life stories that are redemptive. Such stories convey hope and bring good out of evil.
Soul Stories: African American Christian Education, Revised Edition (Book)
Anne E Streaty Wimberly, Author.
Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2005.
This book provides a culturally sensitive model of Christian education that is based on narrative and designed to support African Americans in their search for wholeness, liberation, and vocation.
The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling (Book)
Annette Simmons, Author.
New York, NY: Basic Books, 2001.
Through exploring six types of stories, this book shows how leaders can use stories to authentically communicate themsevles and their goals in ways that move others to share and support those goals.
Storytelling in Organizations: Why Storytelling Is Transforming 21st Century Organizations and Management (Book)
John Seely Brown, Stephen Denning, Katalina Groh, Laurence Prusak, Authors.
Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005.
Four executives share their discoveries regarding the importance of storytelling for management and organizations. They explore how narrative can transfer knowledge and effect change, and predict the future of storytelling in organizations.
Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony (Book)
Lillian Daniel, Author.
Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2005.
Lillian Daniel, a United Church of Christ pastor, promotes an unlikely means of mainline church renewal: the recovery of giving and receiving testimonies. She shows convincingly that this practice renewed her church.
Telling the Story: Evangelism in Black Churches (Book)
James Stallings, Author.
Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1998.
James O. Stallings’ main is to help African-Americans recover their “unique” Christian story, and in that recovery, he hopes the community will be encouraged to tell its story into the future.
Upon this Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church (Book)
Samuel G. Freedman, Author.
New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1993.
Author Samuel Freedman profiles the life-transforming ministry of the Reverend Johnny Ray Youngblood and takes us inside the church he leads, providing an “up close” view of how urban ministry and transformation work at their best.
Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results (Book)
Lori Silverman, Author.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006.
This book offers extensive examples of how story is being used globally in a variety of business disciplines, as well as to how organizations are using story to bring about organizational change, build teams, and deal with difficult issues.
The Wisdom of the Seasons: How the Church Year Helps Us Understand Our Congregational Stories (Book)
Charles M. Olsen, Author.
Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2009.
The Wisdom of the Seasons demonstrates how linking individual and congregational stories to the grander stories of the church year can be a way to tap the wisdom inherent in biblical traditions and integrate it with everyday life.
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