Mentors in My Life: Beginning with Lyle Schaller
The First Mentor to Whom I Have Dedicated My Book—Soaring with Faith
Soaring with Faith: The Difference Maker for Congregations is just a few weeks away from publication. Multiple books will be published in the ForthTelling Innovation series. The current plan is to publish one every five months.
If you would like to be on the notification list when this book and others in the series are published, simply send me a message with your name and email address.
No one is self-made. Countless people have shaped who I am—my family, colleagues, friends, and people befriended in school, work, and community groups have all influenced me.
Apart from those who influenced my early years, Lyle Schaller was the first outsider to mentor me—though he was unaware of it for a decade.
From the time I entered college in 1967, I began reading his books. Here are the ones I read between 1967 and 1976 including the year they were published:
Planning for Protestantism in Urban America (1965)
Community Organization: Conflict and Reconciliation (1966)
The Churches’ War on Poverty (1967)
The Local Church Looks to the Future (1968)
The Impact of the Future (1969)
Parish Planning (1971)
The Change Agent: The Strategy of Innovative Leadership (1972)
The Pastor and the People: Building a New Partnership for Effective Ministry (1973)
The Decision-Makers: How to Improve the Quality of Decision-Making in the Churches (1974)
Creative Church Administration (1975)
Understanding Tomorrow (1976)
In 1976, I first contacted Lyle by sending him a survey for my Doctor of Ministry degree research. My project aimed to develop a consultation process for congregations adapting to changes in race, ethnicity, socio-economics, lifestyle, and population density in their ministry context.
It was my foundational research which launched my 50 years in congregational and denominational consulting.
Lyle quickly responded to my survey with helpful answers.
I first met Lyle in person at the Yokefellow Institute, Richmond, IN, in 1978. A week with Lyle taught me more than reading his books ever could.
On the third day, I told Lyle at lunch, “This is a valuable experience and I’m learning a lot to help congregations. But I’m confused about one thing.”
“Just one?”, said Lyle.
“Much of what you are teaching us,” I responded, “is antithetical to what you said in your 1968 book The Local Church Looks to the Future.”
Lyle looked straight at me and said, “I know. I don’t believe what I said in that book anymore.”
“But Lyle,” I protested, “I saw if for sale in a bookstore just a couple of weeks ago!”
Then he laughed. “Yes, I am sure. I believe in eating. So, I have not asked my publisher to withdraw the books. I have moved on beyond that understanding of how to effectively engage congregations to look to their future.”
I got it!
For over forty years, I regularly encountered Lyle across the country and twice hosted him at my home. He has always taught me something new—and continues to do so.
I was honored to be one of the three people to whom he dedicated his 1995 book—The New Reformation: Tomorrow Arrived Yesterday. I was humbled by that honor.
I thank God for every remembrance of Lyle Schaller!
My newest book, Soaring with Faith: The Difference Maker for Congregations, is expected to be available on www.Amazon.com during November. Further updates regarding its release will be provided on this blog.
REMEMBER! If you would like to be on the notification list when this book and others in the series are published, simply send me a message with your name and email address.
Final Note: When Soaring with Faith is released, the purpose and focus of this blog will shift. It will be a place where I post about my books, and share what I am calling Outtakes and Bonus Stories that did not fit in the books, but add value to the reader. More about this later.