Energizing your church

Vital congregations know who they are. They understand their identity. On the other hand, churches wallowing aimlessly along --or those stuck in debilitating conflict--just might revitalize themselves by reclaiming the symbols that best express their identity.

Those conclusions are central in Carl S. Dudley's book, Energizing the Congregation: Images That Shape Your Church's Ministry (Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1993). Dudley, professor of church and community at the non-denominational Hartford [Conn.] Seminary, co-authored the book with Sally A. Johnson, his colleague at the Center for Church and Community Ministries, Chicago.