The first edition of How Your Church Family Works was written nearly thirty years ago, and the reach and velocity of change in the last three decades poses a new challenge for churches. Thirty years ago, churches functioned in a fairly stable environment and focused on growth an expansion. The tide has turned now, though, and supplanted increase with decline. Bowen family systems theory—on which How Your Church Family Works is based—has not changed, but its application ha...

If “these are the times that test men’s souls,” never more than for the leader’s ability to think clearly, to be present calmly, and to challenge effectively. It’s a time when leaders cannot be as anxious as those they serve; otherwise, the system is leaderless. Anxiety flows down like water from a leaky pipe. To lead effectively we must understand the impact of powerful emotional forces on people’s behavior, especially in anxious times.Uproar: Calm Leadership in Anxious Times help...

Anxious times call for steady leadership. When tensions emerge in a congregation, its leaders cannot be as anxious as the people they serve. To remain effective, congregational leaders must control their own uneasiness. This takes self-awareness and confidence to manage relationships and influence behaviors. Knowing how to deal with anxiety and how to work throug complex challenges can lead a congregation to new insights, growth, and vitality. Anxious times hold not only the potential for ...

Drawing on the work of Bowen, Friedman, and his own many years' counseling experience, Peter Steinke shows how to recognize and deal with the emotional roots of such issues as church conflict, leadership roles, congregational change, irresponsible behavior, and the effect of family of origin on current relationships. Discover why working relationships may be "stuck" in certain behaviors. Psychologically sound, theologically grounded, and practically illustrated with case studies, How Your ...

In this sequel to How Your Church Family Works, Peter Steinke takes readers into a deeper exploration of the congregation as an emotional system. He outlines the factors that put congregations at risk for anxiety and conflict. Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, as well as how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system. Featuring a new preface and a fresh redesign, this book is a classic wo...

We resist change less when we associate it with mission and fortify it with hope. So argues longtime congregational consultant Peter Steinke in his fourth book, A Door Set Open, as he explores the relationship between the challenges of change and our own responses to new ideas and experiences. Steinke builds on a seldom-explored principle posited by the late Rabbi Edwin Friedman: the 'hostility of the environment' is proportionate to the 'response of the organism.' The key, Steinke says, i...

Bloomsbury presents Uproar by Peter L. Steinke, read by Ed Phillips.If “these are the times that test men’s souls,” never more than for the leader’s ability to think clearly, to be present calmly, and to challenge effectively. It’s a time when leaders cannot be as anxious as those they serve; otherwise, the system is leaderless. Anxiety flows down like water from a leaky pipe. To lead effectively we must understand the impact of powerful emotional forces on people’s behavior, espec...

Emotions such as anger or sadness or desire arise within us, often without our directly willing them. But we are still free to choose how we respond to them. How can we better understand our God-given emotions and manage them so that we gain the emotional equilibrium and healthy balance we need to take charge of our lives, grow closer to Christ, and share in the joy of his love? In this insightful and easy-to-read book, Catholic therapist Art Bennett and his wife Laraine explain how our em...

So... Many... Choices... Can't... Make... The... Wrong... One...Where should I go to college? Whom should I marry? Where should I look for work? What will my friends think?In our journey of faith there are particular moments that produce a certain amount of anxiety. Often anxiety and/or worry has been looked upon as an "un-Christian" feeling to have. But The Anxious Christian conveys the message that anxiety can actually be helpful in our spiritual formati...

Dr. Worthington provides a path to freedom, from self-condemnation to self-acceptance, and to the life that Christ promises in Moving Forward.The partial truth about us is hard to accept: We hurt those we love. We fail to step in when others need us most. We do wrong—and we need forgiveness. From others and from God, but also from ourselves.But the full truth about us is liberating and freeing: while we are more deeply flawed than we can i...

God. Whether one loves him, hates him, denies or defies him, it is hard to deny the worldwide fascination with God. This book explores why and suggests a personal response to the God Attachment in all of us.Why has the human race, the world over, been so fascinated with . . . some might say obsessed with . . . God? This built-in attachment to God crosses religious, political, ethnic, cultural, and generational barriers.Drs. Clinton and Straub reveal fascina...

Based on the incredible success of the book What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do, Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend offer a line of books that address specific crises and some of the most prevalent problems facing our culture today. These books give readers a starting point to deal with their problems. Beautifully designed in a full-color small format, these books are perfect for giving to a friend in distress.