Pastoral Issues

When a community experiences a fracture in its communal life, what tools can be used to foster reconciliation? How can right relationship be restored when there is conflict in the Body of Christ? In Beyond Accompaniment, William Nordenbrock proposes the use of a process that is based in the theory of Appreciative Inquiry as a ministerial method to guide a community from brokenness to communion. His practical application of this process in his work with St. Agatha Catholic Church in Chicago? A community whose pastor had been accused and convicted of sexually abusing minors in the parish? Will be beneficial for communities experiencing conflict of any kind.

Nordenbrock helps us focus on the positive aspects of our communities in order to discover that our redemption and reconciliation with God, won for us by Christ, is inseparable from the reconciliation and communion that Christians are to live with one another.

William A. Nordenbrock, CPPS, is an ordained member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. He is on staff at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago (pbmr.org). Nordenbrock has served his congregation in a number of administrative roles and is currently a member of their General Council.

Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction

Named on Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2015--Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar (Politico) Favorite Book of the Year--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics (Bloomberg/WSJ) Best Books of 2015--Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky (WSJ) Books of the Year--Slate.com's 10 Best Books of 2015--Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Books of 2015 --Buzzfeed's 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015--The Daily Beast's Best Big Idea Books of 2015--Seattle Times' Best Books of 2015--Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015--St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Best Books of 2015--The Guardian's The Best Book We Read All Year--Audible's Best Books of 2015--Texas Observer's Five Books We Loved in 2015--Chicago Public Library's Best Nonfiction Books of 2015

From a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of Big Pharma to main streets nationwide, an explosive and shocking account of addiction in the heartland of America.

In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland.

With a great reporter's narrative skill and the storytelling ability of a novelist, acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of capitalism run amok whose unintentional collision has been catastrophic. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive--extremely addictive--miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel--assaulted small town and mid-sized cities across the country, driven by a brilliant, almost unbeatable marketing and distribution system. Together these phenomena continue to lay waste to communities from Tennessee to Oregon, Indiana to New Mexico.

Introducing a memorable cast of characters--pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents--Quinones shows how these tales fit together. Dreamland is a revelatory account of the corrosive threat facing America and its heartland.

For almost thirty years, conflict resolution practitioners, faculty, and students have depended on The Mediation Process as the all-inclusive guide to the discipline. The most comprehensive book written on mediation, this text is perfect for new and experienced conflict managers working in any area of dispute resolution--family, community, employment, business, environmental, public policy multicultural, or international. This is the expert's guide, and the Fourth Edition has been expanded and revised to keep pace with developments in the field. It includes new resources that will promote excellence in mediation and help disputants reach durable agreements and enhance their working relationships.

Pastoral ministry today is often ruled by an emphasis on short-sighted goals, pragmatic results, and shallow thinking. Unfortunately, those in the academy tend to have the opposite problem, failing to connect theological study to the pressing issues facing the church today. Contemporary evangelicalism has lost sight of the inherent connection between pastoral leadership and theology. This results in theologically anemic churches, and ecclesial anemic theologies.

Todd Wilson and Gerald Hiestand contend that among a younger generation of evangelical pastors and theologians, there is a growing appreciation for the native connection between theology and pastoral ministry. At the heart of this recovery of a theological vision for ministry is the re-emergence of the role of the "pastor theologian."

The Pastor Theologian presents a taxonomy of the pastor-theologian and shows how individual pastors--given their unique calling and gift-set--can best embody this age-old vocation in the 21st century. They present three models that combine theological study and practical ministry to the church:

The Local Theologian--a pastor theologian who ably services the theological needs of a local congregation.

The Popular Theologian--a pastor theologian who writes theology to a wider lay audience.

The Ecclesial Theologian--a pastor theologian who writes theology to other theologians and scholars.

Raising the banner for the pastor as theologian, this book invites the emerging generation of theologians and pastors to reimagine the pastoral vocation along theological lines, and to identify with one of the above models of the pastor theologian.