No Congregation Is an Island

Book excerpt: In difficult times, relationships provide tangible help, advice, resources, and emotional support. This is true not only for individuals but also for religious congregations. U.S. congregations are experiencing many opportunities and challenges because of dramatic shifts in the American religious landscape as well as the lingering effects of the pandemic. For ministers and leaders at congregations, these changes may have sparked feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, and disorientation. Fortunately, relationships with other congregations and religious groups can have a positive impact on how congregations are responding to the opportunities and challenges they face in an uncertain future. In this book, Jennifer McClure draws on conversations with congregational ministers and leaders from central Alabama to share stories about the various kinds of relationships they have and what difference those relationships make, using this case study to make larger points about the broader congregational landscape in the United States. McClure focuses on several kinds of relationships: relationships primarily within religious groups, relationships exclusively within distinctive religious groups, relationships between religious groups, relationships within racial groups, and relationships between racial groups. For ministers and congregational leaders who are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and perhaps bewildered by all the changes that have taken place in their congregations and communities, this book is a timely and important resource to find support, ideas, and collaborations through relationships with other clergy members and congregations.