Contents

Contents

How Firm a Foundation? Churches Face the Future

From the Dean’s Desk 2 Back to the Future: “Retraditioning” in the Church Today 4

– Martin B. Copenhaver

A New Apostolic Moment 8

– Anthony B. Robinson

Finding Our Voices Again 12

– Lillian Daniel

Faith Futures 15

– An Interview with Mark Chaves

The Hospitality Imperative 20

– Peter W. Marty

Reclaiming Godly Wonder 24

– Thomas H. Troeger

Small Churches in the Big Picture 29

– William Imes

Congregational Power and Grace in a Hostile Culture 32

– Dwight Andrews

“Old Forms are Passing Away” 36

– Panelists at the Spring 2009 YDS Conference on the Future of Congregational Life

Sacred Space in Cyberspace 43

– Kimberly Knight

Seven Things Congregations Have Taught Me about Preaching 47

– Leonora Tubbs Tisdale

The Hundred-Year Transition: From Protestant Privilege to Cultural Pluralism 51

– John Lindner

Breaking Through the Screen of Cliché 57

– Nora Gallagher

“What We Sing Goes Deep into Memory”: 60 – An Interview with Siobhán Garrigan and Patrick Evans

Whose Story? What Script? The Dramas of Small-Church Life 65

– Lew Parks

A “Mixed Economy” of Church in a Post-Christian Marketplace 69

– Becky Garrison

From the Editor: Minor-Key Theology 80

Poems
“The Beauty of the Sound of the Bells” – Thomas H. Troeger (p.11) “The Altar,” “The Church-floor” – George Herbert (p.28)
“Water” – Philip Larkin (p.59)
“I Am a Little Church” – E. E. Cummings (p.64)
“The Pastor’s Wife Considers Theology” – Nola Garrett (p.68)