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Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change
This book recounts the experience of a church that used appreciative inquiry to harness their energies, shift their congregational conversations, and renew their sense of hope. Branson first leads readers through the foundations of appreciative inquiry and bracingly explores biblical texts for understanding the practice in a faith context. He then outlines and illustrates...more
Paperback, 174 pages
Published
January 9th 2012
by Alban Institute
(first published July 2004)
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I like the assumptions of this book, especially:
- What we focus on becomes our reality.
- Asking questions influences the group.
- If we carry parts of the past into the future, they should be what is best about the past.
The framing story of Mark Lau Branson's participation in a congregation's effort to identify its own value, purpose, and calling in God's kingdom intrigued me. I could see similarities with the issues and cultures in my faith community. I look forward to applying his methods and q...more
- What we focus on becomes our reality.
- Asking questions influences the group.
- If we carry parts of the past into the future, they should be what is best about the past.
The framing story of Mark Lau Branson's participation in a congregation's effort to identify its own value, purpose, and calling in God's kingdom intrigued me. I could see similarities with the issues and cultures in my faith community. I look forward to applying his methods and q...more
In this 2004 book published by the Alban Institute, Mark Lau Branson introduces the reader to the concept of appreciative inquiry in the context of its implementation in one particular congregation. Branson is a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, and shortly after his family moved to Pasadena for him to teach there, they had begun attending First Presbyterian Church of Altadena. The majority of the congregation is Japanese, two or three generations removed from the original immigrants. Th...more
Great introduction to Appreciative Inquiry.
Written from a Protestant perspective, this is a useful presentation of the method of appreciative inquiry with concrete illustrations of its application. Biblical support for the method (which speaks for itself) is helpfully confined to one chapter, which can be skipped without consequence.
Church leadership is seldom so practical and universally applicable. Branson's understanding of how to implement appreciative inquiry for sake of positive change is outstanding! Read this book and begin to apply some of the techniques he is sugesting.
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